was a Japanese Catholic physician, author, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. His subsequent life of prayer and service earned him the affectionate title "saint of Urakami". His cause for canonization was opened in 2021 and he has been titled a Servant of God.
Biography
Early years Takashi (meaning "nobility") Nagai had a difficult birth that endangered his and his mother's life. His family was highly educated. His 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.Glynn, Paul (2009). A Song for Nagasaki. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. pp. 14–17, 185, 199; .
Nagai was born in Matsue and grew up in the rural area of Mitoya, raised according to the teachings of Confucius and the Shinto religion. In 1920, he commenced his secondary studies at Matsue High School boarding at his cousins' home close by. He became increasingly interested with the surrounding atheism but was curious about Christianity.永井隆博士が旧制松江高校時代の恩師にあてた直筆ハガキを展示 2011年12月12日 島根大学 Dr Nagai's handwritten postcard to his teacher at Matsue High School displayed at Shimane University , shimane-u.ac.jp, 12 December 2011.
Life in Nagasaki
In April 1928, he joined the Nagasaki Medical CollegeMakoto, Nagai (2000). 永井隆―長崎の原爆に直撃された放射線専門医師 "Nagai Takashi- A Radiologist Directly Hit by A-bomb in Nagasaki"], Tokyo/San Paolo, p. 46; Konishi, Tetsuro. 永井隆はいかにしてカトリック信者となったか "How Takashi Nagai Become a Catholic", pp. 75-76, 81-82 ci.nii.ac.jp; accessed 2 November 2016. where he joined the Araragi, a poetry group founded by Mokichi Saito and the university basketball team (he measured 1.71 m and weighed 70 kg).Kataoka, Yakichi (片岡 弥吉). The life of Nagai Takashi (永井隆の生涯). San Paolo, 1961, p. 21, 59, 61, 342, 349-50, 355-58, 361;
In 1930 his mother died from a brain hemorrhage, which led him to ponder the works of philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal. He began to read the Pensées, 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 learned that the construction of the nearby Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Nagasaki was financed by poor Christian farmers and fishermen.
He graduated in 1932 and was supposed to deliver an address at the ceremony. However, five days before the event, he became intoxicated at a farewell party and returned home completely soaked with water from the rain. He slept without drying himself and found the next morning that he had contracted a disease of the right ear (signs of meningitis), which made him depressed and partially deaf. He could not practice medicine and agreed to turn to radiology research.
On 24 December, Sadakichi Moriyama invited Nagai to participate in a midnight Mass. In the cathedral, Takashi was impressed by the people in prayer, their singing, their faith and the sermon. He would later say: "I felt somebody close to me whom I did not still know."
The next night, Sadakichi's daughter Midori was struck down by acute appendicitis. Nagai made a quick diagnosis, telephoned the surgeon at the hospital and carried Midori there on his back through the snow. The operation was successful and Midori survived.
In January 1933, Takashi began his military service with the of Hiroshima. In Manchuria, Nagai cared for the wounded and served in the sanitary service as a medic. He was strongly shaken in his faith in Japanese culture and in the value of science and progress when he saw for himself the exactions of the Japanese soldiers and their brutality towards the Chinese civilian population. While serving in Manchuria, Nagai had received a Catholic Catechism as a gift from his to-be wife Midori. The book immediately raised concerns with his commanding sergeant, who had it examined for "subversive ideas." Though his sergeant found the Catechism to make no sense to him, he determined that it was not "particularly socialist," returning the book to Nagai.
Upon his return from Manchuria, he continued his reading of the Catholic catechism, the Bible, and the Pensées. He met with a priest, Fr Matsusaburo Moriyama, whose father had been deported to Tsuwano (Shimane Prefecture) for his faith, along with many other Christian villagers in Urakami, by the Government of Meiji Japan from the 1860s to the 1870s (Urakami Yoban Kuzure). Eventually, Nagai's spiritual progress took a decisive turn when he thought about Pascal's words:"There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition."
Conversion to Catholicism On 12 June 1934, Nagai received baptism in the Catholic faith. He chose the Christian first name Paul and in August of the same year he married Midori Marina Moriyama. Midori was president of the association of the women of the Urakami district. Takashi became a member of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SSVDP), discovered its founder, Frédéric Ozanam, and his writings, and visited his patients and the poor, to whom he brought assistance, comfort and food. From 1931 to 1936, Father Maximilian Kolbe lived in a suburb of Nagasaki, where he started a monastery. Takashi met Kolbe through involvement with his parish St. Vincent de Paul Society in Nagasaki. In April 1935 the first son of Takashi and Midori Nagai, Makoto, was born.
Military service On 7 July 1937, after the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War he was mobilized as a surgeon in the service in the Medical Corps of the 5th Division. He was affected by the harsh winter in China, and the distress of the civilians and soldiers, both Chinese and Japanese. During his stay in China, their second child, Ikuko, was born (October 1937) and died (July 1938). On 4 February 1939, he received news of the death of his father and that of his daughter Ikuko. He remained in China until 1940. Upon his return, he continued his work and research at the college.
World War II After the Japanese declaration of war on the United States on 8 December 1941, Nagai had a somber presentiment: His city could be destroyed during this war. In August of the same year and in 1943, their third and fourth children, respectively Kayano and Sasano, were born. In 1944 Sasano died.
He obtained his doctorate in 1944. On 26 April 1945, an air raid on Nagasaki left numerous victims. The hospital was overwhelmed. Takashi spent his days and nights serving the wounded in his radiology department. In June 1945, he was diagnosed with leukemia and given a life expectancy of three years. This disease was due to his exposure to X-rays during radiological examinations which he performed by direct observation, since films were not available during the war period. He spoke to Midori about his disease, and she only said to Nagai, "Whether you live or die, it is for God's glory."
In the evening of 6 August, Nagai learned that a massive bomb had been dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima but they were not aware yet that it was an atomic bomb. With Midori, he decided to take their children Makoto and Kayano away to Matsuyama, 6 km away in the countryside, accompanied by Midori's mother.
Relief activities On 9 August 1945, at 11:02 am, the second atomic bomb struck Nagasaki. At the time of the atomic bombing, Dr. Nagai was working in the radiology department of Nagasaki Medical College Hospital. He 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. He wrote a 100-page medical report about his observations detailing the "concentric circles of death" around the epicentre of the blast.
On 11 August, he found his house destroyed and his wife dead. Months later, Nagai was found to be seriously affected by his head wound. He was confined to bed for a month, with death for a time seeming close as he began suffering from Cheyne–Stokes respiration. According to Nagai, when he drank water taken from Lourdes in Honkawachi, where Fr. Kolbe had founded a monastery, he heard a voice urge him to ask an intercession from the priest.Nagai, Takashi (1989). ルルドの奇跡 (The Miracle of Lourdes). 原子野録音 (Genshiya Rokuon), p. 37. Seibo no Kishisha;
Postwar years He returned to the district of Urakami (the epicenter of the bomb) on 15 October 1945 and built a small hut (about six tatami) from pieces of his old house. He remained there with his children (Makoto and Kayano), his mother-in-law, and two other relatives.
In 1947, the local Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SSVDP) built a simple two-tatami teahouse-like structure for him. Nagai named it "Nyokodo" (如己堂, Nyoko-dō to, literally "As-Yourself Hall", after Jesus' words, "Love your neighbor as yourself." He styled it as a hermitage and spent his remaining years in prayer and contemplation.Nagai, Takashi (2008). Leaving My Beloved Children Behind, Strathfield: St Paul's Publications. pp. 175–76; ."The Man who Loved Others as himself" (Chapter 4: Nyokodo), Nagasaki; retrieved 23 April 2011.
For six months, he observed mourning for Midori and let his beard and hair grow. On 23 November 1945, a mass was celebrated, in front of the ruins of the cathedral, for the victims of the bomb. Takashi gave a speech filled with faith, comparing the victims to a sacred offering to obtain peace.
In the following years, Nagai resumed teaching and began to write books. The first of these, The Bells of Nagasaki, was completed by the first anniversary of the bombing. Although he failed to find a publisher at first, eventually it became a best seller and the basis for a top box-office movie in Japan. In July 1946, he collapsed on a station platform. Now disabled, he was henceforth confined to bed.Cairns, Barry. "Doctor Takashi Nagai", Columban Mission Magazine, August/September 2016
In 1948, he used 50,000 yen paid by the Kyushu Times to plant 1,000 three-year-old sakura (cherry) trees in the district of Urakami to transform this devastated land into a "Hill of Flowers". Although some have been replaced, these cherry trees are still called "Nagai Senbonzakura" ("1,000 cherry trees of Nagai"); their flowers decorate the houses of Urakami in spring. By 2010, the numbers of these cherry trees were reduced to only about 20 due to aging and other causes.
On 3 December 1949, he was made freeman of the city of Nagasaki.Honorary Citizens. Nagasaki City) He received a visit from Helen Keller in October 1948. He was visited, in 1949, by Emperor Hirohito and by Cardinal Norman Gilroy of Australia, a papal emissary.
Nagai became increasingly famous in Nagasaki for his testimony of faith and hope, to the extent that hundreds of people daily started visiting him at Nyokodo. He was already address to as "the saint of Urakami".
Death On 1 May 1951, he asked to be transported to the college hospital in Nagasaki so that the medical students could observe the last moments of a man preparing to die from leukemia. He prolonged the day of hospitalization to wait for the statue of Our Lady, a gift from the Italian Catholic Medical Association.
Until the evening, his condition seemed stable. Around 9:40 pm, however, Nagai complained of dizziness and became unconscious. After two injections of cardiotonics, he regained his consciousness and prayed: "Jesus, Mary, Joseph, into your hands, I entrust my soul."
Then he took the cross from the hand of his son Makoto, who rushed into the room, and shortly after he shouted the words "Please pray!" Nagai died at 9:50 pm at the age of 43. On the following day, his body underwent an autopsy at the hospital according to his will. His spleen had swollen to 3,410g (normal weight: 94g), and his liver weighed 5,035g (normal weight: 1,400g).