Bell reinstalled at Nagasaki Cathedral 80 years after atomic bomb

The Archdiocese of Nagasaki rang a bell from Urakami Cathedral today, August 9, exactly 80 years since the original was destroyed by an atomic bomb.

“The new bell was recently installed in the empty bell tower and will ring for the first time at the same time that the atomic bomb exploded in the sky of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945,” Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki, told Fides, the news agency of the Vatican. The bomb hit at 11:02 a.m.

The atomic bomb detonated only 500 meters from Urakami Cathedral, completely destroying it.

The cathedral originally had two bells: the larger was repaired and was re-hung in the south bell tower. The smaller was too badly damaged in the explosion and is presently in the cathedral's "Atomic Bomb Relics Exhibition Room," said a press release from the archdiocese.

Last year, the Archdiocese of Nagasaki announced that the bell would finally be replaced.

Money to replace the bell was largely funded by Catholics from the United States. The effort was spearheaded by the grandson of one of the chief medical officers involved in the Manhattan Project — the secret program that developed the atomic bomb.

The replacement bell arrived in Nagasaki on May 1, and was viewable by the public for a week, said the Archdiocese of Nagasaki. It was then prepared for its installation in the north bell tower.

On July 17, the bell was blessed by Archbishop Nakamura, and was installed that same day in the north tower.

It rang for the first time at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, the same time the bomb detonated, said the archdiocese.

Earlier this year, the Japanese bishops issued a statement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The bishops noted that they are "the only bishops from a country to have suffered atomic bombings in war," and that the effects of the nuclear weapons still are felt eight decades later.