The Saint of Nagasaki: Takashi Nagai: Loving Others As Himself

by Deb Sheffer, Walter Enloe, Dr Takashi Nagai (Illustrations)

I first heard of Takashi Nagai while living in Hiroshima and have been an admirer of his life-work ever doctor, father, researcher, man of God, and teacher. In the 1980s I was principal of Hiroshima International School and served for several years on the Board of Directors of the World Friendship Center (WFC). The WFC was founded on August 6, 1955, the tenth anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, by Barbara Reynolds, an American Quaker activist, author, and peace educator and the noted “peace surgeon” Dr. Tomin Harada. Barbara and her family lived a number of years in Hiroshima beginning in 1951 where her husband worked for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Committee (ABCC) studying the effects of atomic radiation on children. The WFC, staffed by volunteers, serves as a bed and breakfast for visitors, and as a gathering place for hibakusha (a-bomb victims), local citizens and visiting peace activists. Years later in 1975 Barbara established the Peace Resource Center at the Quaker affiliated Wilmington College in Ohio; the Center houses the largest collection outside Japan of materials related to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

54 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 2014

Reviews

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a moving biography!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little difficult to rate this; it is a new publication adding to my love for Midori and Takashi first discovered in 1989. It is not a stand-alone book, but an album of sharply printed photos and Takashi's own calligraphy and drawings with just brief text and quotations. As such, I am deeply grateful to have photos that were included in Glynn's Song for Nagasaki now cleared up with modern technology, new photos, and full color for his drawings and sketches. A received this book from Amazon a couple weeks ago and have carefully and tearfully savored it again today, August 9, 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Midori's death. Need I say more. Just that theirs is an amazing story, filled with spiritual depth, and this book gives me joy that they are not forgotten in our global pondering about war and peace. I must add that Glynn's Song for Nagasaki and Nagai's own of Bells of Nagasaki and We of Nagasaki are necessary for the full story. And I hope that a Japanese-English language expert will someday translate into English more of his works.

[☆Meredith (メルたん)♪ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small, brief, I mostly bought it for the pictures. A good coffee-table book, great for sparking an interest in reading more of his works or books about him!