Urakami has been a Christian village since the
later half of the 1500's. Although they had been suppressed many
times under the prohibition for Christianity after the year 1613(Keicho
18), they preserved the Christian belief by forming a secret organization.
Even after the Meiji era began, at the year 1868(the first year
of Meiji), the banishment were judged for the whole Urakami's
residents.
They were permitted to return to Urakami at the year 1873, and
then constructed the Romanesque Urakami cathedral over twenty
years.
The cathedral that had been called the firstest one in the East, was also destroyed in a moment by A-bomb explosion at the year 1945. It is said that 8,500persons of about 12,000 Christians were killed by A-bomb.
The scars of the Atomic Bomb Urakami Cathedral's original belfry dome |
