Nagasaki church replaces cathedral bell 80 years after it was destroyed in atomic blast

Catholics in Nagasaki, Japan, have replaced a bell in a cathedral bell tower there almost exactly 80 years to the day after it was destroyed by the atomic blast that leveled most of the city at the end of World War II.

An international effort to fund the construction and installation of the bell at Urakami Cathedral raised $125,000 in just over a year, with the funds coming from over 600 individual donors, according to Williams College Professor James Nolan.

Nagasaki was one of the two Japanese cities, along with Hiroshima, largely destroyed by the U.S. atomic bombings at the close of World War II. The city was bombed on Aug. 9, 1945, marking the second and last time an atomic bomb was used as an act of war.

Nolan told CNA last year that parishioners at Urakami Cathedral managed to dig up one of the original bells after the bombing and save it; the bell was installed in the cathedral’s right bell tower after it was rebuilt in 1959.

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