Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum — Nagasaki Cruise Port

Round trip

4 hr

From the ship and back

Fits

a 4–6 hour stop ashore

Margin already counted

Getting there

Tram from downtown

¥150 total with IC (the transfer is FREE if you tap and reboard within 30 min); ¥300 in cash

Booking

Just turn up

Nothing to reserve

Why we send people here

The second city asks quieter questions than Hiroshima, and its museum answers with unbearable specifics. The fountain, the statue, the one-legged torii — allow real time.

Why it earns the hours

Our number 1 for Nagasaki, out of ten. It is the first thing we would spend the hours on.
On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "The plan" — museum and park in the morning, dejima and chinatown after.
It is not only a photo stop: the city that was not the target.

Before you count on it

8:30–17:30 (later in summer) — open daily.
4 hr door to door means a 2–3 hour stop ashore cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.

Read the full The Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum guide →

The story

Why Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum is famous

The city that was not the target

The second atomic bomb was dropped here on 9 August 1945, over Urakami, a district that happened to hold the largest Catholic community in Japan. The Peace Statue of 1955 points one hand at the sky and extends the other in peace. The museum below it is unsparing and largely wordless.

The bomb was meant for Kokura. Cloud saved that city and condemned this one — and it detonated over the district where Japan's Christians had finally been allowed to live.

Nagasaki was not the target on 9 August 1945 — Kokura was, and cloud saved it. The bomb detonated instead over the Urakami valley, the district where Japan's hidden Christians had finally been allowed to worship openly seventy years earlier. About 74,000 people were dead by the end of the year.

The memorial here is quieter than Hiroshima's and asks a narrower, harder question. Hiroshima addresses the world. Nagasaki, chosen almost at random and having lost its most persecuted community in a second, tends to address chance and endurance instead.

9 Aug 1945, 11:02

Detonation over Urakami

About 500 m above the valley; Kokura, the primary target, was under cloud

end of 1945

~74,000 dead

With a similar number injured

1949

Nagai publishes The Bells of Nagasaki

Written from a two-metre hut while dying of leukaemia

1955

The Peace Statue is unveiled

One hand to the sky for the threat, one to the horizon for peace

Do this

The museum and Peace Park are a twenty-minute tram ride from the wharf. Go early, allow more time than you planned, and eat afterwards rather than before.

Read the whole story →The full The Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum guide →

Before you go

Things worth knowing

Start at the hypocentre marker — a plain black pillar — before the museum. The scale lands better in that order.
The one-legged torii of Sanno Shrine stands nearby: half a gate left upright by the blast.
Allow longer than you plan. Almost everyone does.
The Peace Statue's raised hand points at the threat from the sky; the outstretched one at peace. Locals will tell you which they think it needs.

On the signs

Words you will see

Hibakusha被爆者: The survivors. A legal category as well as a word, carrying medical support and a long stigma.
Bakushinchi爆心地: The hypocentre — marked here by a plain black pillar.
Ippon-bashira torii一本柱鳥居: The one-legged torii of Sanno Shrine, left half-standing by the blast.
Urakami浦上: The northern valley: Nagasaki's Christian quarter, and where the bomb fell.

Where it is

Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum and your ship

Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.

If you have longer

What fits alongside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare on a 6-hour stop ashore.

Castella at Fukusaya5 hr for bothPortuguese sponge cake perfected over 400 years — Fukusaya’s 1624 original shop still hand-mixes every batch. The five-slice box is carry-on gold.

Asked about Peace Park & Atomic Bomb Museum

Questions people send us

How do you get to the Nagasaki Peace Park from the cruise wharf?

By tram, about twenty minutes with one change — ¥150 flat, and the change costs nothing if you tap an IC card or contactless credit (cash riders pay twice). The museum, the hypocentre marker and the Peace Park sit within a few minutes of each other at the northern end of the line.

How does Nagasaki's memorial differ from Hiroshima's?

It is quieter and less monumental. Hiroshima's park is a designed civic argument addressed to the world; Nagasaki's is smaller and more personal, shaped by the fact that this city was the secondary target and that the bomb fell on its Christian quarter.

The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

The rainy-day NagasakiA wet day · ~4h door to doorWet weather — this city has more indoors than any other port on the loop Two stories of one city4–6 hours · ~5h door to doorThe bomb and the trading island — both told properly The full circle8 hours or more · ~7.5h door to doorLong calls — and Mt. Inasa if you sail after dark

Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →

5 hr for both

Castella at Fukusaya

Portuguese sponge cake perfected over 400 years — Fukusaya’s 1624 original shop still hand-mixes every batch.

See the detail →

The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Nagasaki plan page.