35 Facts About Takashi Nagai

Takashi Nagai was a Japanese Catholic physician, author, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Takashi Nagai had a difficult birth that endangered his and his mother's life.

Takashi Nagai's father, Noboru Nagai, was trained in Western medicine; his paternal grandfather, Fumitaka Nagai, was a practitioner of traditional herbal medicine; and his mother, Tsune, was the descendant of an old family of samurai.

Takashi Nagai became increasingly interested with the surrounding atheism but was curious about Christianity.

Takashi Nagai began to read the Pensees, which influenced his later conversion to Catholicism, and boarded with the Moriyama family, who for seven generations had been the hereditary leaders of a group of Kakure Kirishitans in Urakami.

Takashi Nagai learned that the construction of the nearby Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Nagasaki was financed by poor Christian farmers and fishermen.

Takashi Nagai graduated in 1932 and was supposed to deliver an address at the ceremony.

Takashi Nagai slept without drying himself and found the next morning that he had contracted a disease of the right ear, which made him depressed and partially deaf.

Takashi Nagai made a quick diagnosis, telephoned the surgeon at the hospital and carried Midori there on his back through the snow.

Takashi Nagai met with a priest, Fr Matsusaburo Moriyama, whose father had been deported to Tsuwano for his faith, along with many other Christian villagers in Urakami, by the Government of Meiji Japan from the 1860s to the 1870s.

On 9 June 1934, Takashi Nagai received baptism in the Catholic faith.

Takashi Nagai became a member of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, discovered its founder, Frederic Ozanam, and his writings, and visited his patients and the poor, to whom he brought assistance, comfort and food.

Takashi Nagai met Kolbe through involvement with his parish St Vincent de Paul Society in Nagasaki.

In January 1933, Takashi Nagai began his military service with the 11th Infantry Regiment of Hiroshima.

In Manchuria, Takashi Nagai cared for the wounded and served in the sanitary service as a medic.

Takashi Nagai was strongly shaken in his faith in Japanese culture when he saw for himself the exactions of the Japanese soldiers and their brutality towards the Chinese civilian population.

Takashi Nagai was affected by the harsh winter in China, and the distress of the civilians and soldiers, both Chinese and Japanese.

Takashi Nagai spent his days and nights serving the wounded in his radiology department.

At the time of the atomic bombing, Dr Takashi Nagai was working in the radiology department of Nagasaki Medical College Hospital.

Takashi Nagai received a serious injury that severed his right temporal artery but joined the rest of the surviving medical staff in dedicating themselves to treating the atomic bomb victims.

Takashi Nagai wrote a 100-page medical report about his observations detailing the "concentric circles of death" around the epicentre of the blast.

Months later, Takashi Nagai was found to be seriously affected by his head wound.

Takashi Nagai returned to the district of Urakami on 15 October 1945 and built a small hut from pieces of his old house.

Takashi Nagai remained there with his two surviving children, his mother-in-law, and two other relatives.

Takashi Nagai gave a speech filled with faith, comparing the victims to a sacred offering to obtain peace.

Takashi Nagai received a visit from Helen Keller in October 1948.

Takashi Nagai was visited, in 1949, by Emperor Hirohito and by Cardinal Norman Gilroy of Australia, a papal emissary.

However, around 9:40pm, Takashi Nagai complained of dizziness and became unconscious.

Takashi Nagai's spleen had swelled to 3,410g, and his liver weighed 5,035g.

Takashi Nagai's remains were interred in the Sakamoto International Cemetery.

Takashi Nagai's name was added to the Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations erected in Hamburg, Germany.

Takashi Nagai left behind a voluminous output of essays, memoirs, drawings, and calligraphy on themes including God, war, death, medicine, and orphanhood.

Takashi Nagai's books have been translated into various languages, including Chinese, Korean, French, and German.

Takashi Nagai's works were republished in new Japanese editions by Paulist Press.

Much of Takashi Nagai's writing is spiritual, consisting of Christian reflections on the experience of himself and the people around him, especially his children, in the aftermath of the war.