About the Nagasaki, Japan Program
The Nagasaki program is a USAC partnership program. Learn more about on-site program elements and the city itself below.
About Nagasaki
- Distance from Tokyo: 760 miles
- Distance from Kyoto: 480 miles
Nagasaki is situated on the extreme western point of the four main islands of Japan, on the northwestern side of the island Kyushu. The city is built around a natural deep harbor and the rest of the city winds around—and up and down—the more than 100 mountains in the city limits.
Nagasaki has a unique history. It was the first place in Japan to have contact with the West beginning in the late sixteenth century and then was Japan’s only port open to foreign trade for the 250 years of national seclusion during the Tokugawa era, until Japan re-opened in the mid-nineteenth century.
Like Hiroshima, Nagasaki was devastated by the atomic bomb in 1945, but its present prosperity as a once again thriving port city is a testament to its citizens and their perseverance. As memorials, a one-legged torii gate and an arch near ground zero are about all that remain from the bombing, but the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, the Nagasaki International Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, and the Peace Park serve as further reminders to visitors of the price and value of peace.