In case you have never seen this
picture, what do you think it is?
It does not offer a pleasant appearance.
Rather, it looks spooky and sad.
It looks like a sculpture of a woman’s
body above her chest, without eye balls, shoulders and arms.
In fact, this is the remain of the
wooden statue of Virgin Mary of Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki, that miraculously
endured the intense fire of a plutonium bomb explosion, 70 years ago, today – 9th August, 1945.
The second atomic bomb, dropped in
Nagasaki, 3 days after the first one incinerated Hiroshima. This second atomic
bomb exploded about 500 meters above Urakami Cathedral, where the wooden Virgin
Mary statue was.
The cathedral was completely destroyed,
and people in and around the cathedral were either evaporated into vapors or
burned without any trace in flash. With such intense heat and fire, there is no
way that a wooden statue would sustain the blow. At least, this makes no sense,
in science. But, it is a reality and mystery.
With the cathedral being hypocenter, the
whole city of Nagasaki had become another man-made hell, following Hiroshima.
As in Hiroshima, while at least 40,000 people were estimated to have died on
the day of the bombing, many more people were in agony for hours, days, and
years, following the bombing, in Nagasaki.
While so many people died and many more
were screaming for life, asking for water to cool and help, the wooden Virgin
Mary statue endured the hell fire, witnessing the sufferings and deaths of many
innocent people in the city.
How does this make sense? Perhaps,
a better question to ask ourselves is – what does this reality mean to us, as
we continue to live with a far greater scale of nuclear weapons today?
To me, the spooky-looking Virgin Mary
statue of Urakami Cathedral is a powerful witness of the many lives that have
been killed, have been suffering in agony and pain, not only the atomic bombing
of Nagasaki but also all the lives that have been killed, suffered, in agony
and pain, in Hiroshima, and beyond. This statue of Virgin Mary is a vivid
witness and reminder of all the lives lost, suffered in agony and pain, due to
Japan’s military actions throughout the Asia-Pacific.
This is not just about the deaths and
suffering in agony and pain in Nagasaki – but all the places devoured by the
war that Japan’s militarism was involved.
Some may still say with anger and hatred
that Japan deserved the nuclear hell of Nagasaki, as well as the nuclear hell
of Hiroshima, given the scale of the atrocities of the Japan’s past militarism.
But, this myopic and vengeful view only feeds a vicious cycle of hatred and
anger to continue into the generations to come. Then, it may turn into a
seedbed for another war, possibly a nuclear war with a far greater scale than
the bombs that created hells in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I would like you to see the face of this
remain of the Virgin Mary statue, again.
Does she look that she wants you to
remain vengeful?
To me, she looks like a face of a
mother, whose children are all killed. The fact that her eyes are missing
symbolizes great losses of lives. Her sad face, indeed, evokes an image of
Pieta, Mary holding the corpse of her son, Jesus.
About 2,000 years ago on the hill of
Golgotha in Jerusalem, Mary endured to see her son, Jesus died in agony
on the Cross, as human sinfulness, such as narcissistic grudge (phthonos/ φθόνος ) was killing this innocent man
(Matthew 27:18). During the years of Japan’s war, countless people throughout
the Asia-Pacific died in agony, many of whom were innocent civilians, also in
many cities in Japan, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where atomic bombs were
dropped, and Okinawa, where fierce ground battles took place. The blast
of the plutonium bomb exploded in Nagasaki 70 years ago can be a culmination of
all the sufferings and deaths throughout the war, signaling its end. The wooden
statue of Virgin Mary, as our mother (John 19:27), had to bear witness to all
of these deaths and suffering in agony, caused by anger and hatred, as well as
greed, just as what killed Jesus - phthonos/ φθόνος
– narcissistic anger and grudge (Matthew 27:18).
The wooden statue of Virgin Mary, our
mother, had to ensure in the culmination hell that human sinfulness of phthonos/ φθόνος has brought about, to kill each
other, in Nagasaki, to send a powerful message for our conversion from a
vicious cycle of phthonos/ φθόνος
for peace.
May we listen to a message of
Mother Mary who endured to witness her son, Jesus, died in agony, because of
phthonos/ φθόνος in our heart
from Jerusalem. Likewise, may we listen to a message of Mother Mary, who
witnessed her children die in agony throughout the Asia-Pacific, culminating in
man-made hell of Nagasaki, brought by phthonos/ φθόνος.
In suffering that Mother Mary witness
and bear with us, there is neither foe nor friend, because all are her
children, as Jesus is her son. Because, all are God’s beloved children, as Mary
is the Theotokos, the Mother of God, the Son, Jesus.
May peace – eirene/ εἰρήνη - that Jesus offers (Matthew
9:20) rule our heart and our world.
The word below the remaining head of the
Mary's wooden statue, says, “平和” (heiwa), which
means peace – eirene/ εἰρήνη - in Japanese.
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