The Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki City is a Catholic church built by the religious population in Urakami that suffered under the oppression of early Japanese Christianity. After the Anti-Christian Edicts were raised, the construction of the cathedral was planned in 1873, funds were raised with great difficulty, and construction finally began over twenty years later in 1895. Thirty years later, in 1925, the greatest red-brick Romanesque-style cathedral in East Asia was completed. In 1945, however, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city, and the Urakami Cathedral, which was located only around 500 meters from the center of the explosion, was almost completely destroyed, only one part of a wall left standing. The cathedral was rebuilt in 1959, and then remodeled with brick tiles in 1980 to resemble its original appearance. The interior of the church is dotted with many stone statues that were in the explosion, and the 50-ton bell tower has been left in the exact place that it fell. Also installed in the church is the head of a statue of the Virgin Mary that was discovered by a priest from Urakami who visited a fire-devastated area after the war.

Photograph provided by Nagasaki Prefecture Convention and Tourism Association