Takashi Nagai
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Takashi Nagai (永井隆 Nagai Takashi, February 3, 1908 Matsue – May 1, 1951, Nagasaki) was a physician specializing in radiology, a convert to Catholicism, and a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. His subsequent life of prayer and service earned him the affectionate title "saint of Urakami".
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[edit] Life
At the time of the atomic bombing on August 9th, 1945, Dr. Nagai was working in the radiology department of Nagasaki University hospital. He received a serious injury to his right temple, and his wife, who had sent their two children to stay with her mother in the countryside but remained in Nagasaki to support her husband's work, was found in a pile of ashes, her rosary nearby, in the ruins of their house. For fifty-eight days Nagai carried on treating the atomic bomb victims and teaching classes at Nagasaki University. Shortly thereafter, Nagai collapsed as a result of the leukemia he had contracted from all his exposure to radiation. He self-diagnosed his terminal condition in June of 1945, and in collaboration with a fellow radiologist predicted that he had three years to live.
As his leukemia worsened, Nagai became bed-ridden, living in a small hut built by grateful patients and students. He styled it a hermitage, naming it Nyoko-dō after Jesus' words "Love your neighbor as yourself", and spending his remaining years in prayer and contemplation there. By the time of his death in 1951, he had left behind a voluminous output of essays, memoirs, drawings and calligraphy on various themes including God, war, death, medicine, and orphanhood. These enjoyed a large readership during the American Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) as spiritual chronicles of the atomic bomb experience.
[edit] Writings
Nagai's books have been translated into numerous languages, including Chinese, Korean, French, and German. There are only two of his works currently available in English: We of Nagasaki, a compilation of atomic-bomb victim testimonies edited by Nagai, and The Bells of Nagasaki (trans. William Johnston). His works were recently republished in new Japanese editions by Paulist Press, which reveal the breadth and depth of his oeuvre. He was not an un-nuanced pacifist. He says in Leaving These Children Behind, "Whatever people may say, the war compelled me to undertake hardships along with all the rest of the people. ... I gladly bore them for my country's sake." Much of Nagai's writing is, in fact, a spiritual diary: Christian reflections on the experience (or, just as often, imagined future experience) of himself and the people around him, especially his children, in the aftermath of the war. His intensely personal meditations are often addressed to his children or to God, and he works out his own spiritual issues on the page as he writes in a visceral and uncensored prose.
[edit] Partial Bibliography
- The Bells of Nagasaki (長崎の鐘 Nagasaki no Kane), August 1946.
- "Records of the Atomic Wasteland" (原子野録音 "Genshino Rokuon"), a series in the Japanese journal Knights of Mary (聖母の騎士 Seibo no Kishi), 1947–1951.
- For That Which Passeth Not Away (亡びぬものを Horobinu Mono O), 1948.
- The Rosary Chain (ロザリオの鎖 Rozario no Kazari), 1948.
- Leaving These Children Behind (この子を残して Kono Ko o Nokoshite), 1948.
- The River of Life (生命の河 Seimei no Kawa), 1948.
- The Flower-Blooming Hill (花咲く丘 Hana Saku Oka), 1949.
- My Precious Child (いとし子よ Itoshi Ko Yo), 1949.
- Otometōge (乙女峠), 1951.
- Nyokodō Miscellany (如己堂随筆 Nyokodō Zuihitsu), 1957.
- Village Doctor (村医 Son-i), 1978.
- Tower of Peace (平和塔 Heiwa no Tō), 1979.
- "Flowers of Nagasaki" (長崎の花 "Nagasaki no Hana"), a series in the Daily Tokyo Times, 1950.
Dates of publication do not reflect the order in which the works were written; some were published posthumously, and all have been subsequently re-compiled for the Paulist editions.
