At 11.02am on 9 August this year, two minutes’ silence was observed during a Mass to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which brought the Second World War to an end.
A number of Sisters of the Good Samaritan were among those who gathered on Nagasaki Peace Day in Holy Name of Mary Parish at Hunters Hill for the commemoration, which was organised by Sydney’s Japanese Catholic community.
The silent observance was timed to coincide with the ringing of two bells in Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, which had been badly damaged in the bombing on 9 August 1945. Of the approximately 12,000 Catholics who lived in the Urakami district, about 8000 were killed.
St Kateri Bell of Hope. Image: Marine-Blue/CC BY-SA 4.0
One bell was recovered and installed in a new cathedral, which was completed in 1959. A new bell, the St Kateri Bell of Hope, was blessed and installed in July this year through donations to the Nagasaki Bell Project. More than 600 American Catholics and others raised $US125,000.
The project is an initiative of Professor James Nolan Jr, a grandson of one of the doctors who worked on the Manhattan Project, which produced the world’s first atomic weapons.
Professor Nolan was inspired by an encounter with Mr Kojiro Moriuchi, a second-generation hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor). That encounter inspired Professor Nolan to begin the project as a gesture of peace and reconciliation.
Mr Moriuchi hopes the St Kateri Bell, together with the surviving bell, will become a strong symbol of peace.
“When people around the world hear about this bell, I want them to feel that war must end and that leaders must have the courage to make it happen,” he said.
The new bell features an image of St Kateri Tekakwitha, the first North American Indigenous Catholic saint. To avoid persecution, she fled to Canada to the mission of St Francis Xavier, who led the first Christian mission to Japan. Kateri died in 1680 aged 24 and is the patron of ecology and the environment, people in exile and Native Americans.
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan have had a ministry of presence in Japan since the early days of recovery and reconstruction after the war. In 1948, six Sisters under the leadership of Mother Oliverio Murphy went to Japan at the invitation of the Bishop of Nagasaki to respond to the needs of the people in his diocese. It was the first overseas mission established by the Australian Congregation. Later, they established communities in Sasebo and Nara, working in schools and parishes.
Sister Patty Fawkner SGS said it was courageous of the Good Sams to go to Japan so soon after the war had ended. “A number of the Sisters had relatives who had suffered and died during the war, both in Europe and in the Pacific. My own father was badly wounded by the Japanese armed forces in New Guinea,” she said.
“The Sisters first served in a dispensary, tending the wounds of the victims of the bomb. They tended the physical, emotional and psychological wounds. They befriended, and were befriended by, the Japanese people. Over time, a number of women joined our Congregation – out of the devastation came new life and hope.”
A fragment of the destroyed bell was recovered from the ruins of Urakami Cathedral. Image: Michi Sugimoto.
In 1990, two Japanese Good Samaritan Sisters – Haruko Morikawa and Keiko Goto – founded the Congregation’s mission to Bacolod in the Philippines in response to the call of the Japanese Church to be agents of peace and reconciliation in Asia. Their wish was to engage in a process of reconciliation with the Filipino people for the atrocities committed by Japan during the Second World War.
The last remaining Japanese Sisters reside in the Domus Gratiae, an aged care residence for priests and religious in Osaka.
Sister Jacinta Shailer SGS said the singing during this month’s commemoration was glorious. “It brought us into an atmosphere of deep peace as we celebrated with sad hearts,” she said. “I’m sure a prayer that no more atomic bombs would fall on any country ever was in the hearts of all present.”
Jacinta, who served in Japan for 20 years, has a special memory of a bomb survivor who became a Good Samaritan Sister. “She was a baby when the bomb fell and her mother held her close to her breast so one side of her face was severely scarred and the other side was very beautiful,” she recalled. “I prayed for all those bomb victims.”
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan were warmly welcomed by members of the Japanese Catholic community. Image supplied,
For Sister Michelle Reid SGS, the commemoration at Hunters Hill was a very moving experience. “Many Japanese people across two generations gathered and prayed for peace,” she said.
“A great deal of preparation had gone into the liturgy and the sharing of food with friends who had various connections with Japan. A number of the Japanese Catholic community are members of a Cosmology Group in Wentworth Falls, organised by Jacinta Shailer, so they were delighted that seven Good Sams came to pray for peace.
“The Japanese community has long known of the connection of the Good Samaritan Sisters with Japan, and it was my first time to connect with them. They were so hospitable and grateful that we could attend. It is wonderful that people can gather and remember a horrific act and turn it into a plea for peace and nuclear disarmament.
“They still express gratitude to our Sisters who went to be with the people in Nagasaki. I felt proud that our Sisters were courageous and that a deep compassion drove them across the miles, never knowing if they would return to Australia. They were great pioneer women!”
Patty Fawkner said the ringing of the bells in Urakami Cathedral was a reminder that peace is possible, but it is not enough simply to want peace. “As St Benedict says in the Prologue of his Rule, we must ‘seek peace and pursue it’. We must work at peace.”
This article was published in the August 2025 edition of The Good Oil.
The first community of Sisters who departed for Japan in October 1948, photographed with Cardinal Gilroy at St Scholastica’s Convent in Glebe Point, NSW. Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan.
