The new bell was blessed at a ceremony in Urakami Cathedral on Thursday. It will be hung inside the cathedral on August 9, on the anniversary of the bombing.
The American atomic bomb dropped on August 9, 1945, fell near the cathedral and killed two priests and 24 congregation members who were there, along with the over 70,000 dead in the city. Japan capitulated a few days later, and World War II ended.
The bombing of Nagasaki destroyed the cathedral building and the smaller of its two bells. The building was later rebuilt, but without the smaller bell.
The project was led by James Nolan Jr, who was inspired after hearing about the destroyed bell during his visit to Nagasaki in 2023. Nolan, a professor of sociology at Williams College in Massachusetts, is the grandson of a doctor who participated in the Manhattan Project – the secret American project to develop the atomic bomb.
