Nagasaki

Nagasaki is strung together on a long series of hillocks in a scenic valley following the Urakami River down into a harbor. The city was left with no suitably intact reminders of the atomic bombing, and there were apparently no compunctions about rebuilding up to the edges of a tiny ground-zero circle with a monument at its center. Still, relatively new as it all may be, everything here speaks primarily of Nagasaki's international history, from the city's lively and compact Chinatown to the European-style mansions and Catholic churches in the hillsides.

In the mid-16th century Portuguese missionaries—including Saint Francis Xavier, came ashore to preach throughout Kyushu. This new and altruistic religion—coinciding with the arrival of firearms—threatened to spread like an epidemic through impoverished masses of the feudal system, and in 1597, to give bite to a new decree by Shogun Toyotomi to stifle worship, 26 followers were publicly crucified in Nagasaki. This cruel display was followed not long after by Tokugawa's nationwide edict making it a deadly crime to be Christian.

All foreigners were expelled except the Dutch, who were allowed to live on the island known as Dejima. Of the local population, only merchants and prostitutes had direct interactions with them. The Dutch took over the considerable brokerage of trade that the Portuguese had handled between China and Japan, and the whole city prospered with this tiny loophole out in the harbor. This odd situation lasted until 1859, when insular Japan was forced to open up to the outside world.

Once other ports became popular, the city lost much of its special status, but Mitsubishi decided to concentrate its arms manufacturing and shipbuilding capabilities here; this and bad weather over the primarily target of Kokura in northern Kyushu made Nagasaki the default target for the second atomic bomb dropped in 1945.

The city isn't small, but as it lies in a long winding valley you get a small slice at a time. Similarities with San Francisco have been touted, and the comparison is not far off—although the posters in streetcars advertising whale-bacon and racy comics quickly remind you of where you are!