Nagasaki << `nah` guh SAH kee >> (pop. 409,118) is the Japanese city with which Westerners have had the longest contact. Its harbor was opened to foreign trade in 1571. After 1637, it was the only Japanese port where Westerners were allowed to trade. Dutch traders were permitted to set up a trading post on an island in the harbor, and one Dutch ship each year was allowed to call at the post. In 1857, it was one of the six Japanese ports opened to foreign trade.
Nagasaki is on the west coast of the island of Kyushu. It is important as the Japanese port city closest to the mainland of China. Nearby coal fields provide a source of soft coal for export. Nagasaki is on a landlocked bay, which is deep and large enough to hold many ships.
Because Nagasaki has a large steel rolling mill, it is an important shipbuilding center. Many of its factories were destroyed on Aug. 9, 1945, by the second atomic bomb used in warfare. The blast destroyed 1.8 square miles (4.7 square kilometers) in the heart of the city. It injured 40,000 people, and 40,000 were killed or missing. Since the war, most of Nagasaki has been rebuilt.
Loading the player...Eyewitness account of the bombing of Nagasaki
