Advent Day 26: Paul Takashi Nagai
Prophet of Peace
Unless you have suffered and wept, you really don't understand what compassion is, nor can you give comfort to someone who is suffering. If you haven't cried, you can't dry another's eyes. Unless you've walked in darkness, you can't help wanderers find the way. Unless you've looked into the eyes of menacing death and felt its hot breath, you can't help another rise from the dead and taste anew the joy of being alive.
Advent Day 26: Paul Takashi Nagai (1908-1951)
The summer of 1945, Dr. Takashi Nagai had been working overtime at the Nagasaki Medical University, to distract himself from grief over the recent deaths of two of his four children, as well as a leukemia diagnosis he had received in June. On the morning of August 9th, he finished his rounds then went to his office to prepare a lecture for his medical students. He was just sitting down at his desk when a blinding light flashed over nearby Urakami Cathedral. A split second later, Paul was pummeled by an invisible fist as his world, literally, collapsed. Trapped under the rubble of what had been the hospital, barely conscious due to a severed temporal artery, Paul murmured the confession he’d planned to give at the cathedral later that day, then prepared to die.
But Paul didn’t die. Instead he was pulled from the ruins by his staff, one of whom—in a moment of impromptu medical genius—stuffed a tampon into Paul’s gushing wound and stitched his skin over it. Weak from blood loss, nearly deaf from the blast, Paul joined the surviving staff tending to the thousands of bombing victims trudging up the hill from the Urakami Valley, many burned so severely their flesh hung off them in blackened strips.
At first, Paul assumed Nagasaki had been hit by an American air raid. Only when he caught a glimpse through the smoke of his leveled city did he realize something far more horrifying had occurred. It would be two days before Paul finally made it home. When he did, he found his wife’s bones in the ashes of their house. His children who had been with their grandmother in the countryside survived, though he would not be reunited with them for weeks.
Despite severe injuries and the loss of his wife, Paul worked nonstop in the following weeks, tending to an endless stream of bombing victims. He would later recall how he saw:
Each life was precious. For all of these people the body was a precious treasure.
As Paul focused on the particular needs of his patients, he began to search for meaning in the disaster. This quest led him to the foot of the cross.
Nagasaki had long been the center of Japanese Christianity. As such, throughout its history it had suffered many persecutions by the government and the surrounding communities. Because of this, deeply embedded in the Nagasaki psyche was the belief that the world was only redeemed through great love and great suffering, flip sides to the same cosmic coin. This led Paul to conclude that, by the horrific events of August 9th, Nagasaki could carry the sins of World War II—not just those committed by Japan, but all nations—by serving as a witness to, and a symbol of, the destruction brought by hatred.
In a funeral Mass for the victims of the bombing, he said:
We have disobeyed the law of love. Joyfully we have hated one another; joyfully we have killed one another. And now at last we have brought this great and evil war to an end. But in order to restore peace to the world it was not sufficient to repent. We had to obtain God’s pardon through…a great sacrifice.
Hearing this, many mourners walked out in protest. But for many others, Paul’s words gave meaning to the tragedy, placing their suffering in the context of Jesus’s suffering.
…this painful path along which we walk carrying our burden, is it not also the path of hope, which gives to us sinners an opportunity to expiate our sins? “Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted.” We must walk this way…faithfully and sincerely. And as we walk in hunger and thirst…let us remember how Jesus Christ carried His cross to the hill of Calvary. He will give us courage.
Paul would survive six more years before leukemia and radiation sickness claimed his life. In that time, he took up residence at the bombing’s epicenter in a simple hut he christened As-Yourself-Hermitage, after the commandment to love others as yourself. There, he dedicated himself to prayer, meditation and returning life to his dead city.
Though the cathedral had been destroyed in the bombing, the bell survived, and he got it ringing once more. He used the proceeds from his bestselling memoir The Bells Of Nagasaki to plant a thousand cherry trees. He opened a library for children and hand-painted thousands of cards he sent around the world, signing each Peace Forever. Through these efforts he became a powerful witness for resilience, resurrection and hope.
Though eventually confined to bed by illness, his renown brought him a steady stream of visitors, including emissaries from the Pope, the Emperor Hirohito and Helen Keller. The message he sent back out to the world through these visitors was always the same, and is as needed today as it was then:
No more war! Let us follow the commandment of love and work together. The people pray…that Nagasaki may be the last atomic wilderness in the history of the world.
Practice
Paul Takashi Nagai found great comfort in writing after World War II. He used his words to send messages of love and peace to thousands around the globe. Words do not perfectly convey our feelings, but they are the primary tool we humans have to express ourselves. Today, send an email or a handwritten note to someone you know, with an intention to spread love and peace.
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Feedback
This is a first draft of a book that will go to publishers in 2023. If you spot typos or have suggestions, leave them in the comments below or email Greg Durham at greg@lifeinthecityaustin.org.
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Such a powerful story, Greg! Where did you first hear of Paul Takashi Nagai?