Religious sisters and others pray during Mass Aug. 6, 2025, at the World Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima, Japan, for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing. The Mass was part of a "Pilgrimage of Peace" by four U.S. archbishops and U.S. Catholic university leaders and students to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to pray and dialogue for peace on the 80th anniversary of when the atomic bombs were dropped on those cities on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. (OSV News photo/Mihoko Owada, Catholic Standard) When the atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki, it also destroyed the spiritual heart of Japanese Catholics: Urakami, the centre of faith of the once persecuted Christians, was wiped out in seconds. On 9 August 1945, the second American atomic bomb, codenamed “Fat Man”, exploded over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Around 75,000 people died immediately…
