Suffering, Hope, and the Atom Bomb

Exactly 80 years ago, on August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki, Japan—a community that had already endured centuries of persecution. Among the survivors was Dr. Takashi Nagai, a radiology professor who cared for the wounded. In his writings, Dr. Nagai documented the people’s surprising reaction to the bombing: rather than responding with rage, protest, or political activism, they advocated for peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

In this lecture, James L. Nolan, Jr. situates that response within Nagasaki’s long history of suffering and the religious outlook that shaped it. He will consider how this vision of hope in the midst of devastation continues to resonate today, including in the recent commemoration of the Urakami Cathedral bell. Nolan is the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology at Williams College and the author of Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Harvard University Press, 2020).