Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 422, The City on the Edge of Forever, Part 1.

This week, we're going to return to an approach that has proven quite popular in the past,

and which I am excited to utilize going forward, the history of specific places in Japan.

And I have gotten and continue to get a lot of requests in this vein more than I realistically

think I'll ever be able to do, but I at least want to make sure I do this one, because

it's an interesting story that reflects so many different facets of Japanese history so

very well.

Starting this week, we're going to talk about the history of a city that was once

Japan's window on the outside. We are starting on the history of Nagasaki. Before I knew anything

about Japanese history, I knew the name of that city, for the reason I imagine many Americans do.

But of course, there's a lot more, so much more, to the history of

Nagasaki than the story of the atomic bombs, which is why for the next few weeks we are

going to focus on the founding of the city and its early years, because otherwise this series

will take, by my rough calculations, at least like two or three months, and that's a long

time to do one subject.

So, how was Nagasaki founded? Well, to figure that out, we have to wind the clock back to the

1500s. Many of Japan's great cities, like Kyoto and Osaka, have existed in one form or another

for over a thousand years. Even the ones that

came into their own during or after the Civil Wars of the 1500s, like Edo slash Tokyo or Hiroshima,

at least existed for a few centuries before they became sprawling castle towns. Nagasaki, however,

was not much of anything except for a few sleepy fishing hamlets,

and it has a unique claim, at least as far as I'm aware, in Japanese history.

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