The Madonna of Nagasaki Returns to the Urakami Cathedral On Tuesday 9 August 2005 at 10:30 a.m., the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki City held a ceremony of enshrining in a newly completed chapel inside the Cathedral the head of a wooden statue of the Madonna destroyed in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. That evening, the NHK held a concert at the Urakami Cathedral which was broadcasted live on ordinary TV and BS over Kyushu and on BS Hi-vision all over Japan. The NHK spent a few minutes during the concert to introduce the story of the Madonna and the statue was then brought onto the stage. [See] http://www1.odn.ne.jp/uracathe/hibakumariachapel.html http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20050810TDY03003.htm http://www.madonnagasaki.org/ja/music_leaflet.html http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050810a7.htm http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/08/08/japan.nagasaki.ap/index.html This special ceremony was deliberately planned to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. On that very day 6 decades ago, the Urakami Cathedral, the then largest catholic cathedral in the Eastern Hemisphere and a religious premise immune under customary international law from armed attacks, was destroyed since it was located some 500 metres northeast of where the atomic bomb exploded at 11:02 a.m. Miraculously, the head of the Madonna in that Cathedral has survived, while the rest of the figurine that was once her body was gone alongside the demise of some 70,000 people of Nagasaki. In August 1998, Mr. Sata first read about how the Madonna of the Urakami Cathedral suffered in the atomic bombing in "The head of the Madonna" from Father Kawazoe's book "Furoshikisanka" and he was deeply touched by the story. Shortly after that, on 31 August 1998, Mr. Sata made a trip to Nagasaki to pay homage to the Madonna at the Urakami Cathedral, which was rebuilt in 1959. Unexpectedly and to his dismay, the Madonna was not atop the altar in the Cathedral as she used to be at the time of the atomic bombing. Instead, the head of the Madonna was being displayed at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum in a glass case along with many other relics of the atomic bombing. Mr. Sata tried to convince the Urakami Church for the Madonna's return to the altar. After campaigning arduously for half a decade for the return of the Madonna to where she rightly belonged, Mr. Sata was overjoyed with her eventual homecoming. Let's now also strive to have the statue of this Madonna duly recognized as a symbol for world peace, like the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) which has been listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1996. Like the approximately 75,000 human survivors of the atomic bombing, or the Hibakusha, on that fateful, tragic day, the Madonna of the Urakami Cathedral deserves to become a powerful symbol against the brutality and indiscriminate nature of armed conflicts; her continued existence condemns human follies and wrongs caused by the abuse of science and silently pleads for world peace and humanitarianism from a victim's perspective. As years go by, bodies of victims fall into decay and memories may also fade away. However, the head of the Madonna of Urakami, the only statue of Holy Mother ever destroyed by an atomic bomb, will continue to immortalize the tragic result of human follies and the wrongs created by science. In this sense, this Madonna is undoubtedly a world heritage. To date, more than 20,000 persons from all over the world have agreed that this statue of the Madonna deserves such international recognition. The Madonna of Nagasaki has also become an inspiration for Mr. Sata to exert his utmost efforts to ensure that science is used for the betterment of human beings, and not as an instrument of warfare. Without war, hard-earned national income would be spent on healthcare, education, and public welfare instead. Mr. Sata has therefore set up the Sata Foundation in Lucerne, Switzerland, as a non-governmental, non-partisan, non-political, non-religious and non-profit organization, with the slogan: "Science is for Peace and Happiness of all Mankind ". The Sata Foundation aims at securing a better and more humane world through the enhancement of understanding of the value of peace among peoples of all cultures, religions and beliefs. It also promotes progress in human rights, focusing on projects to achieve better and affordable healthcare for citizens of the world. Click here to close this window