We spent a day in the Japanese city of Nagasaki, a port city on the island of Kyushu. The city, synonomous with the American atomic bombings of 1945, has since rebuilt. There is a museum and a peace park where you can learn about and reflect on the horrors of the atomic bombing.
Nagasaki in 1 Day Itinerary
| Day 1 | Accommodation – Hotel Concerto Nagasaki Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims Atomic Bomb Hypocentre Park Nagasaki Peace Park |
Accommodation – Hotel Concerto Nagasaki
Tonight we are staying at the Hotel Concerto Nagasaki. It’s somewhat more up- market than our past few hotels and conveniently located for the Peace Park.
My favourite thing is the jacuzzi bathtub with TV. I’m not sure why I’m so excited about this – it’s not like I can understand Japanese TV… I think a soak in the jacuzzi will be the ideal antidote to a stressful day, but forget rule No 1 of jacuzzi baths. I throw in the bath gel provided by the hotel and have soon created a foam mountain range in the bathroom.
The bathroom also has a clock. So you can do a time and motion study on your motions?
Once we are settled into our hotel, we go and explore Nagasaki, although the combination of the weather and the fact we arrived much later than anticipated mean we have to curtail our plans.
The port city of Nagasaki has played a prominent role in foreign trade for many centuries. On 9 August 1945, it became famous for another thing as it was the second city to be destroyed by an American atomic bomb.
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
We head first to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum which tells the story of the bomb attack and its aftermath.
It’s not as easy to locate as you might imagine, as it’s in a large multipurpose building which houses the town hall and the library. Entry costs Y200.
The museum is divided into four sections; Section A, entitled August 9 1945, shows the city prior to the bombing, images of the bomb drop and a graphic of the immediate damage it caused. At the entrance is a clock discovered 800 metres from the hypocentre which stopped at 11.02, the time of the blast.
Section B, Damage caused by the Atomic Bomb, displays artefacts destroyed by the blast; for example rosary beads which melted and fused and the warped water tower from a school.
August 9th was a Thursday, so the school would have been full of children.
My favourite items are these sculptures made by a Dutch PoW who was working 1500 metres from the hypocentre when the bomb hit.
Section C, Towards a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, documents the world’s current nuclear arsenal and what has been done to encourage countries to disarm.
Section D consists of Video Rooms where you can watch videos related to the bombing. Although the museum makes for sombre viewing, it is less macabre than its counterpart in Hiroshima. There are photos of corpses and horrifically mutilated people, but they’re mainly on TV screens as part of montages, so you aren’t confronted by the same image for long. I came out feeling more educated than nauseated. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…
National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims
Adjacent to the Atomic Bomb Museum is the Memorial Hall where a water basin symbolises people crying for water as they died. Twelve Pillars of Light hold the names of the victims. You can listen to survivors’ messages and leave your own message for peace. We don’t stay long as an enormous school group descends.
Atomic Bomb Hypocentre Park
We cross the road to a park. This small, paved park contains some statues and a stone column that marks the hypocentre above which the bomb exploded.
Nearby is a section of the wall of the Urakami Cathedral which was destroyed in the attack.
We think that the park we are in is the Peace Park and that it’s a bit naff compared to Hiroshima. It isn’t until later that we realise we haven’t actually been to the Peace Park – oops!
Nagasaki Peace Park
A walk/slide along the icy pavements to Nagasaki Peace Park.
The Peace Park is a little further along the road from the Hypocentre Park, which is opposite the Atomic Bomb Museum. It is on the hillside, but there are escalators to the top. From here, you walk along a pathway to the Peace Fountain.
At the far end is a 10 tonne statue.
Lining the path are statues gifted by other countries as gestures of peace.
By the time we leave the Peace Park, it’s 4 pm and we haven’t eaten since breakfast. None of the nearby restaurants are open so we head for a mall. In a fitting ending to what has been a trying day, we seem to manage to find the only mall in Japan with no food court. So we buy some bits from the supermarket and return to our room for an indoor picnic whilst watching the snow fall outside.
- Trip taken: January 2023
- Updated: May 2026
I hope you found the above information useful. For guides to more destinations in the 50+ countries we have visited, check out my full list of Independent Travel Itineraries here.
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