Rich in dramatic Catholic history, Nagasaki awaits the pope

Japanese Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami, who heads Nagasaki's Catholic community of 60,000, speaks in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary that was damaged in the A-bomb attack, southern Japan. (AP)
Updated 19 November 2019
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Rich in dramatic Catholic history, Nagasaki awaits the pope

  • As Francis makes the first papal visit to Japan in 38 years, he will likely look to the past by honoring the doggedness of those so-called Hidden Christians
  • In many ways, Nagasaki is the perfect backdrop for his visit to a nation that was once coveted by the West as a place of Catholic expansion

NAGASAKI, Japan: It’s fitting that Pope Francis will start his first official visit to Japan in Nagasaki, the city where Christianity first took hold in the country and where nearly 500 years later it remains steeped in blood-soaked symbolism, both religious and political.

It was here that a small group of beleaguered Catholic converts went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution. It was here that their descendants dramatically emerged from hiding in the 19th century, their faith unbroken. And it was here that a US atom bomb brought death and destruction to the cathedral that community was finally able to build.

As Francis makes the first papal visit to Japan in 38 years, he will likely look to the past by honoring the doggedness of those so-called Hidden Christians, while also laying out his vision for a future free from the threat of nuclear weapons.

In many ways, Nagasaki is the perfect backdrop for his visit to a nation that was once coveted by the West as a place of Catholic expansion but where only 0.35 percent of the 127 million people are Catholic. One of the highlights of the visit starting Nov. 23 will be his prayer at a memorial to 26 martyrs crucified in 1597 at the start of an anti-Christian persecution that lasted until about 1870.

“Our Christian ancestors were oppressed and monitored, and then suffered from the atomic attack. This all made me think, ‘What is it supposed to mean?’” Japanese Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami said. “Perhaps the followers in Nagasaki have been given a mission to convey peace.”

Takami, who heads Nagasaki’s Catholic community of 60,000, by far the biggest in Japan, is a Hidden Christian descendant who was exposed to radiation in his mother’s womb when the atom bomb fell on Aug. 9, 1945, near Urakami Cathedral. He had several relatives die in the bombing that killed 74,000, a number that includes two priests and 24 followers inside the cathedral.

Takami, who has traveled the world with a statue of the Virgin Mary that was damaged in the blast, and other activists expect the pope will send a powerful anti-nuclear message on behalf of everyone in Nagasaki.

Many bomb survivors and supporters hope it will push Japan’s government, which is protected by the US nuclear umbrella, to sign the UN nuclear-ban treaty. Japan has refused to sign, saying it seeks to bridge the gap between nuclear and non-nuclear states.

Francis has gone further than other popes on the nuclear matter, saying that not only the use, but the mere possession of nuclear weapons is “to be firmly condemned.”

Francis will likely repeat his appeal for a total ban on nuclear weapons when he visits Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where 140,000 were killed by another US atomic bomb.

He will meet with survivors of those bombs, as well as those affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed a March 2011 tsunami and earthquake in northern Japan.

“Your country knows well the suffering caused by war,” Francis said in a video message to the Japanese on the eve of his trip. “Along with you, I pray that the destructive power of nuclear weapons never is let loose again on human history. The use of nuclear weapons is immoral.”

Takami, 73, grew up hearing stories from his relatives of the suffering that many in Nagasaki endured after the bombing and is reminded of his determination for peace every time he visits Urakami Cathedral.

“Any weapon is ghastly, but nuclear weapons are hundreds of times more so,” Takami said, adding they should be abolished. “World leaders should be ashamed of talking from a safe and distant place about nuclear weapons, calling them a deterrent even though they can kill hundreds of thousands, even millions of people.”

Many in Nagasaki are happy that the pope is coming first to their city, which is often eclipsed by the events in Hiroshima.

“I hope he will use his trip to Nagasaki to send a powerful message of the need to ban nuclear weapons,” said Chizuko Maruo, the daughter of an atomic bombing survivor who will attend the pope’s Sunday Mass at a city baseball stadium.

Francis will also greet some descendants of the Hidden Christians, who developed their own unique prayer known as the “Orasho,” or oratio, while hiding in Nagasaki’s northern islands, where some local Shinto and Buddhist residents supported them.

Francis, who is known to Japanese Catholics as Papa-sama, will also hold a Mass in Hiroshima and in Tokyo and meet with Japan’s emperor and prime minister.

Francis’ messages about life are universal and still can reach people’s hearts, especially given the state of global politics, said Kagefumi Ueno, a former Japanese ambassador to the Vatican.

“At a time when global leaders are increasingly becoming populist, the pope’s words can be a virtue of the international community and a moral authority,” he said.

As a youth Francis is said to have been fascinated by the history of the Christian experience in Nagasaki and wanted to be a missionary there.

The area around Nagasaki became the center of a rapid Catholic expansion after the 1549 arrival to Japan of St. Francis Xavier, the first Jesuit missionary. More than a quarter-million Japanese are said to have converted until the Tokugawa shogunate, fearing that Christianity was the beginning of Western domination, outlawed it 1612.

Christians were forced to renounce their beliefs on pain of death and to trample on Catholic icons. When discovered, Christians were tortured. Many were thrown into boiling hot springs or burned to death.

A small, determined Catholic minority went into hiding and practiced their faith in secret for more than 250 years. The Hidden Christians finally broke their silence in 1865 by approaching a foreign priest. But with the ban on Christianity still in place, the 3,300 Catholics were banished from Nagasaki and were not allowed to return until the ban was lifted in 1873. They built their long-dreamed-of cathedral in 1914.

Mitsuho Nakata, an artisan who makes Catholic statues near Urakami, is the great-grandson of a samurai who cut ties with his feudal lord to pursue his Catholic faith. A group of samurai ambushed and killed most of his great-grandfather’s family.

After studying at a Catholic theological school, Nakata returned to work in the family-run workshop his father started.

“My family is here only because our ancestors kept their faith despite constant fear of getting killed or tortured,” Nakata said at his workshop, surrounded by dozens of statues of the Virgin Mary and saints. “I’m so impressed by their devotion and their strong faith and that they abandoned everything they had for it.”


Pakistan hikes defense budget 20 percent following conflict with India, but overall spending is cut

Updated 8 sec ago
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Pakistan hikes defense budget 20 percent following conflict with India, but overall spending is cut

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has hiked defense spending by 20 percent following last month’s deadly conflict with India.
The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the increase Tuesday as part of the budget for the fiscal year 2025-26, in which overall spending will be cut by 7 percent to 17.57 trillion rupees ($62 billion).
Pakistan and India were pushed to the brink of war earlier this year after a gun massacre of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, marking the biggest breakdown in relations between them since 2019.
Weeks of tension followed, culminating in missile and drone strikes that resulted in dozens of fatalities on both sides of the border.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the government was allocating 2.55 trillion rupees ($9 billion) for defense compared with 2.12 trillion rupees in the previous budget.
India in February increased its defense spending by 9.5 percent.
Sharif told the Cabinet: “All economic indicators are satisfactory. After defeating India in a conventional war, now we have to go beyond it in the economic field as well.”
Opposition members of the National Assembly verbally abused Aurangzeb, chanting slogans, throwing scrunched-up copies of the budget at him, whistling, and banging their desks as he gave his address.
The coming year’s defense allocation is considerably more than the government’s expenditure on higher education, agricultural development, and mitigating climate-related risks, to which Pakistan is especially prone.


Los Angeles mayor imposes curfew on downtown following increased nighttime violence

Updated 43 min 20 sec ago
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Los Angeles mayor imposes curfew on downtown following increased nighttime violence

  • The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city

LOS ANGELES: Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday “to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting.”
She said in a news conference that she had declared a local emergency and that the curfew will run from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday.
“We reached a tipping point” after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said.
The curfew will be in place in a 1 square mile (2.59 square kilometer) section of downtown that includes the area where protests have occurred since Friday. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (2,295 square kilometers).
The curfew doesn’t apply to residents who live in the designated area, people who are homeless, credentialed media or public safety and emergency officials, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell.
McDonnell said “unlawful and dangerous behavior” had been escalating since Saturday.
“The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city,” McDonnell said.
Earlier Tuesday, National Guard troops began protecting immigration agents as they made arrests in Los Angeles on Tuesday, an expansion of their duties that had been limited to protecting federal property. Photos posted Tuesday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement show National Guard troops standing guard around officers as they made arrests.
ICE said in a statement that the troops were providing security at federal facilities and protecting federal officers “who are out on daily enforcement operations.” The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as President Donald Trump has promised as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The agency said Guard members are also providing support with transportation. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement.
National Guard troops and Marines deployed to LA
California Gov. Gavin Newsom had asked a federal court to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying it would only heighten tensions and promote civil unrest.
Newsom filed the emergency request after Trump ordered the deployment to LA of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines following protests of the president’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.
The federal government said Newsom was seeking an unprecedented and dangerous order that would interfere with its ability to carry out enforcement operations. A judge set a hearing for Thursday.
The Marines and another 2,000 National Guard troops were sent to LA on Monday, adding to a military presence that local officials and Newsom do not want and that the police chief says makes it harder to handle the protests safely.
Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith said Tuesday that the Marines had not yet been called to respond to the protests and were there only to protect federal officials and property. The Marines were trained for crowd control but have no arrest authority, Smith told a budget hearing on Capitol Hill.
Marines were not seen on the streets yet, while National guard troops so far have had limited engagement with protesters.
Trump says he’s open to using Insurrection Act
Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It’s one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a US president.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” he said from the Oval Office.
Later the president called protesters “animals” and “a foreign enemy” in a speech at Fort Bragg ostensibly to recognize the 250th anniversary of the US Army.
Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth.
The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of 4 million and have been far less raucous since the weekend. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids.
Several businesses were broken into Monday, though authorities didn’t say if the looting was tied to the protests. Nejdeh Avedian, general manager at St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Los Angeles Jewelry District said the protesters had already left, and “these guys were just opportunists,” though St. Vincent’s had armed guards and was left alone.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Tuesday that protesters have hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, set vehicles on fire, defaced buildings and public property and set fire to American flags.
The Los Angeles Police Department said there have been more than 100 arrests. The vast majority were for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting, vandalism and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail. Seven police officers were reportedly injured, and at least two were taken to a hospital and released.
On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters gathered peacefully in front of the federal complex, which was quickly declared an unlawful assembly. Police issued a dispersal order and corralled the protesters, telling members of the media to stay out to avoid getting hurt. Officers with zip ties then started making arrests.
Obscene slogans directed at Trump and federal law enforcement remained scrawled across several buildings. At the Walt Disney Concert Hall, workers were busy washing away graffiti Tuesday.
In nearby Santa Ana, armored Guard vehicles blocked a road leading to federal immigration and government offices.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested Tuesday that the use of troops inside the US will continue to expand.
“I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,” he said on Capitol Hill.
Los Angeles officials say police don’t need help

The mayor and the governor say Trump is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don’t need the help.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he was confident in the police department’s ability to handle the demonstrations and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with police would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge.”
Demonstrations have spread to other cities nationwide, including San Francisco, as well as Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York City, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made.
LA response takes stage on Capitol Hill
The Pentagon said deploying the National Guard and Marines costs $134 million.
Meanwhile, Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation on Tuesday accused the president of creating a “manufactured crisis.”
On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the deployment.
Trump said the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.


Two killed, 28 wounded in Russian strikes on Kharkiv: Ukraine official

Updated 11 June 2025
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Two killed, 28 wounded in Russian strikes on Kharkiv: Ukraine official

KYIV, Ukraine: Russian strikes on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv killed two people and wounded 28 early Wednesday, the mayor said.
“Seventeen strikes by enemy UAVs  were carried out in two districts of the city this night,” Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, later adding: “There is information about two dead already.”


Northern Ireland town hit by ‘racially motivated’ riot

Updated 11 June 2025
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Northern Ireland town hit by ‘racially motivated’ riot

  • “This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said
  • Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday

BALLYMENA, United Kingdom: Northern Irish police said Tuesday that 15 officers were injured in clashes after “racially motivated” attacks sparked by the arrest of two teenagers for the attempted rape of a young girl.
The unrest in the town of Ballymena, some 30 miles  northwest of Belfast, erupted Monday night after a vigil in a neighborhood where an alleged serious sexual assault happened on Saturday.
“This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said.
Tensions in the town, which has a large migrant population, remained high on Tuesday, as residents described the scenes as “terrifying” and told AFP those involved were targeting “foreigners.”
Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said.
The trouble began when masked people “broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties,” police said.
Houses and businesses were attacked and three people had to be evacuated, the Police Service of Northern Ireland  said, adding it was investigating “hate attacks.”
Security forces also came under “sustained attack” with petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks thrown by rioters, injuring 15 officers including some who required hospital treatment, according to the force.
One 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with riotous behavior, disorderly behavior, attempted criminal damage and resisting police.
Four houses were damaged by fire, and windows and doors of homes and businesses smashed.
Cornelia Albu, 52, a Romanian migrant and mother-of-two who lives opposite a house targeted in the attacks said her family had been “very scared.”
“Last night it was crazy because too many people came here and tried to put the house on fire,” Albu, who works in a factory, told AFP.
“My family was very scared,” she said, adding she would have to move but was worried she would not find another place to live because she was Romanian.
A 22-year-old woman who lives next door to a burnt-out house in the same Clonavon neighborhood said the night had been “terrifying.”
“People were going after foreigners, whoever they were, or how innocent they were,” the woman, who did not want to share her name for security reasons, told AFP.
“But there were local people indoors down the street scared as hell.”
Northern Ireland saw racism-fueled disorder in August after similar riots in English towns and cities.
According to Mark, 24, who did not share his last name, the alleged rape on the weekend was “just a spark.”
“The foreigners around here don’t show respect to the locals, they come here, don’t integrate,” said Mark.
Another man was halfway up a ladder, hanging a Union Jack flag in front of his house as a “precaution — so people know it’s not a foreigner living here.”
“Ballymena has a large migrant population, a lot of people actually work in the town and provide excellent work,” Mayor Jackson Minford told AFP.
“Last night unfortunately has probably scared a lot of people. We are actively working to identify those responsible and bring them to justice,” said Henderson.
Footage on social media appeared to show protesters smashing the windows of houses and some masked individuals kicking in doors.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “disorder” in Ballymena was “very concerning.”
“Obviously, the reports of sexual assault in the area are extremely distressing, but there is no justification for attacks on police officers,” Downing Street added.
 


Spain’s economy minister says ‘overtourism’ challenges need to be addressed

Updated 11 June 2025
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Spain’s economy minister says ‘overtourism’ challenges need to be addressed

MADRID: Spain could receive as many as 100 million tourists this year, according to some projections, which the country’s economy minister said poses challenges for the country’s residents that the government can no longer afford to ignore.
Last year, Spain received a record 94 million international visitors, making it one of the most visited countries in the world.
“It’s important to understand that these record numbers in terms of tourism also pose challenges,” Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “And we need to deal with those challenges also for our own population.”
Tourism is a key sector for the Southern European nation’s economy, which grew faster than any major advanced economy last year at 3.2 percent, and is projected to grow at 2.4 percent this year, according to the Bank of Spain, well ahead of the expected eurozone average of 0.9 percent.
But a stubborn housing crisis in which home and rental costs have skyrocketed in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere has led to growing frustration about one aspect tied to tourism in particular: the proliferation of short-term rental apartments in city centers.
The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Signs at demonstrations with slogans such as “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods” point to the growing anger.
In response, the government recently announced it was cracking down on Airbnb listings that it said were operating in the country illegally, a decision that the company is appealing.
“We are a 49 million-inhabitants country,” Cuerpo said. The record numbers of tourists illustrate the “attractiveness of our country, but also of the challenge that we have in terms of dealing and providing for a good experience for tourists, but at the same time avoiding overcharging  our own services and our own housing,” he said.
The Bank of Spain recently said the country has a deficit of 450,000 homes. Building more public housing is critical to solve the problem, Cuerpo said. Spain has a lower stock of public housing than many other major European Union countries.
“This is the key challenge for this term,” the minister said of the country’s housing woes.
On the possibility of more US tariffs on EU goods, the top economic policymaker for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy said he believed the EU still wanted to reinforce economic ties with the US
“From the EU side, we are constructive but we are not naive,” Cuerpo said, adding that the bloc would pursue “other routes protecting our firms and industries” if no agreement with the Trump administration can be reached.
A 90-day pause on tariffs announced by the EU and the US is slated to end on July 14. About halfway through that grace period, US President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on steel imports. The US has also enacted a 25 percent tariff on vehicles and 10 percent so-called reciprocal tariffs on most other goods.
On how Spain’s current housing woes got here, the minister said a steep drop in construction in Spain following the 2008 financial crisis played a role. So did population growth due to immigration, Cuerpo said, and pressures from an increase in the number of tourists.
While building more housing is key, the minister advocated for an all-of-the-above approach, including regulating Spain’s housing market and short-term rental platforms.
“For us, there’s no silver bullet,” he said.