| n a June day in 1936, marine clouds swept out across Nagasaki in a longgray shelf. Rising gradually from the west coast of Kyushu Island,Nagasaki, a small city of valleys and hills, was often referred to by travelguides as the San Francisco of Japan. A high mountainous ridge divided two valleys into the old city andthe new. The longest valley was the Urakami. There beat the heart ofindustrial Nagasaki. From the steep hills terraced with quaint residentialsections, one could look down on the peaceful Urakami River and the tallsmokestacks of modern factories. Within walking distance of a large textile mill, Hosokawa-Napier,Limited, stood the largest Catholic cathedral in Japan, giving proof to thefact that thousands of Nagasaki s citizens worshipped as Christians. Thechiseled stones that housed a faith brought to Japan from the New Worldand the high brick walls built to shelter ~odern technology had existedsince the nineteenth century, when Nagasaki had been the first city in theempire to open its port to trade with the West. Cathedral and weaving millgave testimony to the rebirth of this city. God s house remained secure,but not the house of a dynasty that had woven silk into cloth for more thansixty years. Douglas Napier waited with his Japanese partner in the broad gravelyard of Hosokawa-Napier, Limited, listening to the familiar thunder ofmachinery from inside the mill. Having done everything in their power tokeep the looms running, they now waited for the silence they bothdreaded. After a few minutes the mill grew quiet. Baron Tadashi Hosokawa looked at his American partner but saidnothing. Together they watched the factory smokestacks exhale a wispyhaze. The Hosokawa-Napier signature had been among the first to bewritten in smoke across Nagasaki Bay. Now the stacks expelled their lastgasps, which were carried away on the same breeze that lifted the kites ofchildren playing nearby. Watching the children, Douglas Napier smiled. This was a city of kiteenthusiasts, and each year during the kite festival, throngs of spectators |
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