AFTER "TORA TORA TORA" CAME "LITTLE BOY" AND "FAT MAN" DROPPING ON JAPAN

River Ainoura next to Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park in Sasebo, designed to resemble a "Dutch house in the woods". In 1976, I worked in a joint military facility in Sasebo from which the command "Tora Tora Tora" - code in Japanese - was relayed to the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Services based on aircraft carriers in the Pacific to attack the United States Navy facility in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on 7 Dec 1941. This attack brought America into WWII.

Hotel Huis Ten Bosch Amsterdam is a majestic and towering building fronting the theme park.

A church in Huis Ten Bosch

A nicely manicured garden with attractive looking houses in the background.

Looks like a scene in Amsterdam perhaps? These houses have berthing facilities to enable their owners to go to downtown Sasebo by boat.

The playground of the park. Many other facilities like restaurants, cafes and shops abound. 

Half-way house grub for highway stops. Food is ordered from a paying machine. With the print out generated, show it to the kitchen staff and wait for the food to be ready. Palatable stuff, inexpensive too.  

Urakami (Immaculate Conception) Cathedral in Nagasaki, is located about 0.5 km from the hypocentre where the Atom Bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" by the United States Air Force was dropped and exploded about 500 m in the air on 9 Aug 1945 at 11.02 a.m. About forty thousand people died instantly from the effects of the blast. A third of the city was destroyed. The Cathedral was demolished but a portion of the facade stood. The second bomb was originally to be dropped on a city called Kokura but cloud cover prevented its sighting. The B29 Bomber crew then flew to Nagasaki, the secondary target. Initially, it too was covered by clouds but eventually the skies opened up and the crew dropped the bomb in a hurry as the plane was also running low on fuel. Even tough the second bomb had more more explosive power than the first atom bomb, the number of instantaneous deaths was considerably lower than those in Hiroshima bec of the undulating terrain in Nagasaki.  

This statue standing for peace is found in the Nagasaki Peace Park. In the grounds, survivors have shared poems, etc, urging countries not to go to war using nuclear bombs again.

This clock in the War Museum shows the time the bomb exploded over Nagasaki - 11.02 am

The facade of Urakami Cathedral left standing after the blast has been spruced up and displayed as an exhibit. A poignant reminder that many Japanese who died from the bomb blast were Catholics.

Melted and fused Rosaries.

A deformed water tower of a primary school

Effects of the radiation caused these silhouettes from a nearby tower to be etched on the wooden wall of a house.

Fused bottles.

Paintings done by survivors depicting trauma, fear, hallucinations, pain and misery perhaps

St Philip's Basilica in Nagasaki near the grounds where the 26 Martyrs of Japan were executed in the Meiji Era. St Philip was one of those executed for not wanting to renounce their Catholic faith..

The Basilica built to commemorate the 26 Martyrs, the leader of whom was St Paul Miki. They were crucified like Christ for not renouncing their Catholic faith. Catholicism was spread to Japan from Nagasaki in the feudal era.

Entrance to the War Museum from ground level.