Nagasaki was the most beautiful port. Instead of stacks of container boxes and cranes, this port was the site of a lovely park. What a nice change. It also meant we were closer to 'town'. Some of these ports are so industrial and so huge it takes a shuttle bus 15 minutes to just clear the port. Nagasaki was one of my favorite places. First, it was beautiful, and it was such a nice sized city - about 500,000. It also plays a big part in the opening of Japan to the Western world.
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| Drake in the port park area at the Port of Nagasaki in front of the Volendam (our ship) |
Truthfully, we avoided the atomic bomb area of Nagasaki. Unlike, Hiroshima, the center of Nagasaki was not devastated. We concentrated on the pre-1945 history. Our ship project for Nagasaki was to make 1000 paper cranes to hang in the Peace Park, part of the bombed area. I did contribute to that.
Nagasaki was the first Japanese port to tolerate Westerners to a restricted extent - specifically, the Portuguese. In 1494, Spain and Portugal entered into a treaty dividing the world beyond Europe into two sectors - one to be explored/colonized/conquered by Portugal and the other sector by Spain. These two, thus, didn't squabble between each other as they grabbed the 'spoils' of the uncivilized world. (Uncivilized being the rationalization for colonizing a non-Christian country.) The Japanese Islands were in the Portuguese sector.
Initially, the Emperor of Japan and his political government tolerated the Portuguese and allowed them to build a trade settlement at the port of Nagasaki - the settlement was called Dejima. Dejima was a series of warehouses with minimal living quarters for non-Japanese engaged in the China/Japan/World trade.
This is a representation of Dejima in the 17th century (1600's). Dejima (which translates as 'exit island') was actually an artificial island which was reached by one bridge walkway. 
Modern bridge to Dejima
Today, Dejima is the Williamsburg of Japan. You can walk a central street which has warehouses, accounting houses, and a few living quarters. There is also an on-going archeological dig which is turning up all types of finds answering questions of what it must have been like for the Europeans in 17th century Dejima. The dig finds are displayed in a museum which is part of today's Dejima.
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| Dejima today |
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| Archeological finds |
Europeans had never encountered a country based on the Bushido code with separate entities for the political and spiritual governing elements. In 1549 the Portuguese Jesuits arrived in Japan seeking permission to build a Catholic mission. Initially, the Shogunate granted permission as a way to counteract the Buddhist influence and open limited trade. Over the next 50 years, conversions to Christianity exploded with over 300,000 converts.
As more Westerners arrived in Japan, the Shogunate began to hear about Catholic Christian missionaries as being an advance force which would be followed by a military takeover of Japan citing instances in the Americas and the Philipines. As a result of obtaining that information, the Shogunate bans Christianity, and to bring home his point, he executes 26 Catholics including Jesuits, Japanese converts, and even a couple of altar boys. They were crucified after being tortured. This method was repeated to discourage Catholicism. Japanese Catholics were driven underground, and 200 years later with the official opening of Japan in 1859, there were still hidden practicing Catholic communities in Japan. Additionally, the Shogunate expels the Portuguese from Dejima - the trading hub - in 1639.
The Dutch, who are NOT Catholic, but Protestant, fill the trade vacuum in 1641 taking up limited residence in Dejima and being the intermediaries of Japanese trade with China and other countries for 200 years. Dejima is not closed until the 1860's.
During the 200 year period before the formal opening of Japan to the world in 1859, there was an exchange of scientific information between Europeans and the Japanese. This was called 'Western Learning' and books began to be translated into Japanese in a variety of fields including medicine, and botany was translated from Japanese to German in part because of the pioneer Philipp Franz Von Siebold, a German scientist.
This was an interesting way to turn back the clock and get a superficial understanding of living and working in isolation on the artificial island of Dejima. Check out my pictures.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DC9qiBuUukPHeJzd6
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