Noon Report:

• Location: N 32° 44.24′, E 129° 52.07′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Sunny
• Temperature: 19º C; 66º F
• Wind: SSE 6 knots; 7 mph
• Sea: Calm

BREAKFAST: Mamsen’s
We had a fairly late excursion this morning so we took advantage of the time to enjoy a waffle.

EXCURSION: Scenic Nagasaki
At 8:55 we headed to the dock to get in line with 928 of our closest friends to clear immigration (our first port in Japan). 45 minutes later we were on board our tour bus and ready to roll.

PEACE PARK
Our first stop was the Peace Park, built on the location directly under the hypocenter of the atomic bomb that the US dropped on August 9, 1945. The central sculpture in the park points upwards to the hypocenter, symbolizing the threat of nuclear war while his left hand symbolized tranquility and peace.
Across the plaza are the foundations of a prison that, in 1945 housed Chinese prisoners of war among others. All were killed instantly, along with guards and families.
At the end of the plaza is a short path to a water fountain in the shape of a crane’s outstretched wings – a memorial recognizing that the first need of survivors was clean water to drink but also to cool the radiation burns.
Also surrounding the plaza and lining the walking paths are sculptures donated from around the world expressing themes of peace.

Following our visit to the peace park we drove thru town, past the (originally Portuguese) Roman Catholic Cathedral (destroyed by the bomb and reconstructed in the 1950s).

We also passed the location of the Portuguese island – an island where the first Portuguese were sequestered during the early days of Japan’s trading with the west. That trading center is no longer an island due to harbor fill reclamation and most of the evidence of the settlement has been swallowed up by development, but there is an effort underway to reconstruct portions of the area for historical purposes. Sadly we were running late and couldn’t stop, but we did drive by.

Following LUNCH
We spent the afternoon blogging, napping, and “supervising” the electricians who were trying to fix our bathroom floor heater.

For DINNER this evening we joined Randy and Kelly in the main restaurant for a very enjoyable couple of hours of good food and conversation. As we were leaving the restaurant we ran into another couple from the World Cruise and there was conversation about all of us getting together for dinner at some point.

RETIREMENT
Back at the stateroom we read for a bit and fought with the internet trying to get today’s photos uploaded.
That being a totally frustrating experience I headed for bed.
Maybe tomorrow.

Till then, R

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Nagasaki is the location of the 2nd atomic bomb that the US dropped in August 1945. The bomb exploded before hitting the ground but since Nagasaki is surrounded on three sides by high mountains, they really helped contain the radiation from spreading. The main part of Nagasaki was totally destroyed so all current buildings are very modern looking. One man who survived the bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier had come to Nagasaki to go back to work – he survived Nagasaki’s atomic bombing also!
• The nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine, on April 26, 1986, happened at ground level and completely irradiated the ground. Chernobyl will not be habitable for 20,000 years. Due to the US nuclear bomb exploding in the air, and being orders of magnitude much less powerful than what happened at Chernobyl, people were building again in Nagasaki within 47 days.
• The Fukushima nuclear power plant that suffered triple meltdowns following the 2011 quake and tsunami mean that a large area around the plant will be uninhabitable for at least 100 years and still has discharges which are expected to continue for decades.