Envisioning Nagasaki

Abstract

This chapter opens with the discussion of the title of Nagasaki's reconstruction law. It narrates the concerns of Nagasaki and Hiroshima representatives who met in Tokyo to submit a proposal to reconstruct as a “peace commemoration city” and to seek a reconstruction law that recognized the “special nature” of their city's destruction. The chapter also outlines how the competition between Nagasaki and Hiroshima grew out of the postwar need for national reconstruction funds. The path of reconstruction, in both cities, was not predetermined but rather grew out of the many visions for reconstruction that emerged during the first several years after the bombing. The chapter then argues that the American occupiers and Christians envisioned the revival of Nagasaki in similar ways to municipal officials, creating what the author calls the municipal vision of reconstruction. Finally, the chapter seeks to link the city's international past to its atomic present instead of defining Nagasaki's place in history solely in terms of the bombing.