[PAST EVENT] Resurrecting Nagasaki: Reconstruction, Urban Identity, and Commemoration

March 21, 2022
5pm - 6:30pm
Location
James Blair Hall, Room 205
250 James Blair Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
A talk by Chad R. Diehl, Instructional Designer, University of Virginia Corcoran Dept. of History
A talk by Chad R. Diehl, Instructional Designer, University of Virginia Corcoran Dept. of History

The reconstruction of Nagasaki City after the atomic bombing of 1945 was a creative process that involved groups who did not always share the same vision. This talk explores how the dialogue surrounding physical reconstruction and commemoration of the atomic bombing shaped an urban identity of the city that contrasted with its atomic counterpart, Hiroshima. In the 1950s, municipal officials in Nagasaki prioritized rebuilding in light of the city’s history as an “international cultural city,” rather than as exclusively a site of memory about the bombing. By the mid-1950s, Hiroshima became the center of a worldwide anti-nuclear peace movement, while officials in Nagasaki oversaw the removal of important atomic relics, dealing a blow to peace groups and memory-activists there.

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