He thus wrote about the nuclear age from a unique perspective—as scientist, Christian, and victim—and the passion with which he spent his final years confronting the meaning of the atomic bombs led him to be called, in his own lifetime, “the saint of Nagasaki.” The pope paid tribute to Nagai. Helen Keller visited him at his sickbed, as did Emperor Hirohito. In 1950, The Bells of Nagasaki was made into a movie, and the theme song of the film proved immensely popular.
