Nagasaki ‘45 – The legacy of Takashi and Midori Nagai

It is 9 August 1945, at 11:02 a.m., when the plutonium bomb known as “Fat Man” is dropped on the city of Nagasaki, on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan. Only three days earlier, another plutonium bomb, called “Little Boy”, had also destroyed the city of Hiroshima. These wounds cannot heal: they have marked the history not only of Japan but of all humanity, and even today, more than 80 years later, we continue to reflect on their consequences. Yet amid that darkness, small but powerful lights began to shine, showing that even immense trials can be faced with courage and determination, becoming new experiences of life and stages in humanity’s great struggle towards a more just world.

The Archdiocese of Lucca, together with the Comitato Amici di Takashi e Midori Nagai, is promoting an important initiative within the “Legacy” theme of Lucca Comics & Games 2026, presenting to the public the testimony of faith and hope of the Nagai couple, whose lives were profoundly marked by the events of 9 August 1945.

The “NAGASAKI ‘45” pavilion, set up in the Chiesa di San Cristoforo in Lucca, focuses on the work of French comics artist Nathalie Fourmy. In 2024, she published the graphic novel “Nagasaki ‘45” in France, winning the Christian comics award at the prestigious Festival international de la bande dessinée. Paola Marenco subsequently translated it into Italian for ITL in 2025.

Nathalie Fourmy tells the story of Takashi Nagai, his conversion to Christianity, when he took the name Paul, and his experience as a survivor of the atomic bombing. She portrays the young Takashi, a brilliant and ambitious medical student, a materialist and an atheist, who later became a scientist and a pioneer in radiology and atomic research. His search for meaning and for what never dies reaches a turning point when he discovers the life of the people of Urakami and their history of martyrdom, and then meets Midori, who will become his wife and lead him to conversion to Christianity. The story follows his work as a radiologist and the leukaemia he develops through excessive exposure to X-rays. On 9 August 1945, Nagasaki is razed to the ground; Midori dies, leaving him alone with their two young children, and the doctor’s life changes forever. In 1949, he makes his extraordinary resilience in the face of the atomic catastrophe known to the world through the book La campana di Nagasaki, which achieves worldwide success. It is a rereading of the nuclear disaster in the light of his personal journey towards freedom and peace: a journey that made him the man who restored hope and a love of life to an entire people, and with them the courage to rebuild and turn Nagasaki from an atomic desert into a hill in bloom.

Paul Takashi Nagai dies on 1 May 1951. More than twenty thousand people attend his funeral amid the ruins of Nagasaki Cathedral. The city comes to a standstill, and Buddhist gongs, Christian bells and factory sirens sound together.

Sharing the story of Paul Takashi Nagai and Midori Nagai with new generations, 80 years after those events, shows how a “new beginning” is always possible through the strength of our ideals and the support of faith. As Leo XIV stated in his Message for the 59th World Day of Peace, in the face of the logic of war, “we must encourage and support every spiritual, cultural and political initiative that keeps hope alive, countering the spread of fatalistic attitudes, as though the dynamics at work were produced by anonymous, impersonal forces and structures independent of human will”.

Lucca Comics & Games 2026

Organised by:
Arcidiocesi di Lucca
Arcidiocesi di Nagasaki
Dicastero per l’Evangelizzazione – Section for First Evangelisation and the New Particular Churches
Ambasciata del Giappone presso la Santa Sede
Comitato Amici di Takashi e Midori Nagai

Under the patronage of:
Comune di Lucca
Fondazione Giacomo Puccini – Lucca
Fondazione Italia-Giappone
ISC ICOMOS PRERICO

In partnership with:
Lucca Crea | Lucca60 Legacy
Creator of the “Nagasaki ‘45” exhibition

Nathalie Quinterie Fourmy, a French painter and illustrator with a passion for the Far East, embarks on her first venture into comics to bring to light the lives of the Nagai couple: historical figures with a deeply moving destiny and a message of urgent relevance in an age of nuclear rearmament.

NAGASAKI ‘45 Pavilion Committee

General coordination: His Excellency Archbishop Paolo Giulietti, Paola Marenco, Olimpia Niglio
His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation
His Excellency Archbishop Paolo Giulietti, Archbishop of Lucca
His Excellency Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura, Archbishop of Nagasaki
His Excellency Koji Abe, Ambassador, Embassy of Japan to the Holy See
Atsutoshi Hagino, Counsellor, Embassy of Japan to the Holy See
Mario Pardini, Mayor of Lucca
Moreno Bruni, Councillor for the Budget, Comune di Lucca
Emanuele Vietina, Director, Lucca Crea
Gabriele Di Comite, President, Comitato Amici di Takashi e Midori Nagai
Paola Marenco, Vice-President, Comitato Amici di Takashi e Midori Nagai
Massimo Morelli, Comitato Amici di Takashi e Midori Nagai
Olimpia Niglio, University of Pavia, Archdiocese of Lucca, ICOMOS
Daniele Parolini, Graphic designer collaborating with Comitato Amici di Takashi e Midori Nagai
His Excellency Umberto Vattani, President, Fondazione Italia-Giappone
Luigi Viani, Director, Fondazione Giacomo Puccini, Lucca

We thank the CAMPANARI LUCCHESI association for its collaboration.
We thank the Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Archdiocese of Lucca for preparing the Ecumenical Prayer on 28 October.