The “Atomic Cross” Returns to Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki, Japan

The story begins in Nagasaki, Japan soon after the United States detonated the second of two atomic bombs which destroyed the Urakami Cathedral during morning worship on August 9, 1945. Roughly 80,000 people were killed in Nagasaki. The Cathedral was the largest Christian cathedral in East Asia at that time and was located near ground zero of the bomb. The Cathedral was rebuilt in 1959.

In early October 1945, less than two months after the bombing, an American soldier, Walter G. Hooke, was stationed in Nagasaki as a member of the Marine Corps Occupation. He was a devout Catholic, educated in a Jesuit school. Hooke became the driver for Nagasaki Bishop Paul Aijiro Yamaguchi and they became friends.

On one occasion as Hooke and Bishop Yamaguchi were combing through the rubble of the Cathedral, they discovered a wooden cross, approximately 1 meter in length. Somehow, the wood cross survived the fire and devastation of the building. The Cross was one of the few items that survived the Urakami Cathedral bombing. Hooke stated in interviews that Bishop Yamaguchi gave him the Cross with the hope that the cross would help people in USA be more aware of the horrors of the atomic bomb. He spoke of the cross as an “atomic-bombed cross.”

Memory of the Cross was all but lost, with the exception of Fukahori Yoshitoshi, who had come across a photo from late August 1945 of the cross lying in the ruins. For over 40 years Fukahori wondered what had become of it.

Hooke sent the cross to his Mother in New York in Spring 1946. The cross was displayed in their home. The family moved many times but the cross was always displayed in a place of prominence. Hooke died in 2010 at age of 97.

In 1982, Hooke donated the Cross to Peace Resource Center, Wilmington College, in Wilmington, Ohio. The Center is recognized as having one of the largest collections of original materials from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, outside Japan. The Cross was displayed at the Center for almost 40 years.

The Cross, long-believed to have been lost in the blast, was “re-discovered” in 2019, when Dr. Tanya Maus, Director of the Peace Resource Center and specialist in modern Japanese history, contacted the Urakami Cathedral to search for a way to return the Cross to the cathedral. In Spring 2019, she was introduced to Dr. Hirokazu Miyazaki, Anthropology professor from Northwestern University. Miyazaki is the “official” Peace Correspondent for Nagasaki.

 Tanya Maus told Professor Miyasaki about the Urakami Cross located in the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College. Through his ties to the Catholic community and Cathedral in Nagasaki, Miyasaki reached out to Nagasaki’s Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami, who did not know the cross existed.

This was the beginning of the return of the “atomic cross” to the cathedral in Nagasaki.

On July 26, 2019, a special “blessing” of the Cross was held at Wilmington College. Approximately 50 people attended, mainly from the Quaker community at the College. The cross was carefully packed for its return to Nagasaki.

Tanya Maus, along with Nancy McCormick, Wilmington College Chaplain and 1 student boarded the flight to Japan, hand-carrying the cross on its return to Nagasaki. The cross was officially presented to worshippers in the Urakami Cathedral on August 9, 2019, exactly 74 years to the day when the Cathedral had been destroyed in 1945. The news was carried across Japan by national TV.

This is a story of citizen diplomacy—how private citizens from both countries cooperated to bring about the return of the Cross. It is a story about mystery—how the wooden cross survived the atomic blast and had been “lost” for over 70 years. It is a story about reconciliation between the people of Japan and USA. It is a story about hope and peace.

William P. Shaw, PhD, Founder and President, Crosscurrents International Institute, Member of Board of Trustees of Wilmington College, Ohio, USA