I chose Nagasaki for our honeymoon—a long-held dream for someone from Tohoku, where Kyushu, and Nagasaki most of all, had always felt distant yet alluring. After savoring the bright, storybook charm of Huis Ten Bosch, we walked into the solemn hush of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
The park itself was conceived by Ikeda Takekuni, a man who once flew in the Okinawa kamikaze mission—an architect whose hands built beauty, yet had once been guided toward destruction. Our peace today rests upon the tragedies of war.
I've visited Nagasaki a few times. I love it for its multilayered history. For me, the most interesting place in Japan. The park is very moving, as is the Memorial Hall.
