NAGASAKI
Nagasaki is a city of great antiquity, and in the early days of European in- tercourse with the Far East was the most important seat of the foreign trade with Japan. It is admirably situated on the south-western coast of the Island of Kiushiu. A melancholy interest attaches to the neighbourhood as the scene of the extinction of Christianity in the empire and the extermination of the professors of that religion. in 1637. At the entrance to the harbour lies the celebrated island of Pappenberg, where thousands of Christians are said to have been thrown over the high cliff_rather than go through the form of trampling on the cross. Not far from Nagasaki is also the village of Mogi, where 37,000 Christians suffered death in defending themselves against the forces sent to subdue them. When the Christian religion was crushed and the foreigners expelled, to the Dutch alone was extended the privilege of trading with Japan, and they were confined to a small plot of ground at Nagasaki called Deshima. By the Treaty of 1858, Nagasaki was one of the ports opened to British trade on the 1st July in the following year.
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On entering the harbour of Nagasaki no stranger can fail to be struck with the admirable situation of the town and the beautiful panorama of hilly scenery opened to his view. The harbour is a landlocked inlet deeply indented with small bays, about three miles long with a width varying from half-a-mile to a mile. A reclamation scheme was commenced in October 1897, and completed in January 1905; 147 acres have been reclaimed, and retaining walls measuring nearly five miles in length has been built in front of what were formerly the foreign concessions at Deshima and Megasaki. Simultaneously, the harbour has been deepened. The cost of the work was four million yen.
The town is on the eastern side of the harbour, and is about two miles long by about three-quarters of a mile in extreme width. foreign quarter adjoins the town on the south side. The chief mercantile houses. are situated on the bund facing the harbour, behind which are a few streets running parallel with it, and there are a number of private residences on the hill-side. There are English Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, three clubs (Nagasaki, Bowling and International) and a Masonic Lodge. The principal hotel is the Nagasaki Hotel, opened in 1898, a three-storeyed brick building situated on the Bund. There are several other hotels, of which the largest are the Hotel de France, the Cliff House and the Hotel de Japan. The Mitsu Bishi Company own three docks in Nagasaki, the largest of which has a length of 714 feet on the keel blocks and a depth of water at ordinary spring tides of 34 ft. 6 in. As a ship-building centre the place is rapidly developing, and since 1889 eight large ocean-going vessels, of between 6,000 and 7000 tons, have been launched, having been built there for the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The waterworks, owing to the growth of the town, were found to be insufficient for its wants, and a large extension of the works was completed in March, 1904. The reservoirs hold 405,240,000 gallons, and there are three filter beds and a service reservoir. The Sanyo Railway is now completed between Shimonoseki and Yatsushiro, in Hyogo province. Connection is made at Moji (across the narrow strait) with the Kiushiu line to Nagasaki, so that it is possible, with a brief sea passage of ten minutes between Moji and Shimonoseki, to travel by rail to Kobe and thence to Tokyo. The climate in Nagasaki is mild and salubrious, and there are several very popular health resorts in the neighbourhood, the most famous being Mount Unzen.
In 1904 the imports were valued at Yen 20,856,419, a substantial increase of Yen 7,989,039 as compared with the figures for 1903, while exports remained about the same, the value being Yen 4,303,544.
Though the foreign trade has fallen off considerably, the population of the port has increased greatly. In December, 1904, it was returned as 159,041, nearly double what it was ten years ago. The foreign population, exclusive of Chinese, was 463 including 99 American, 89 British, 73 French, 33 German, and 38 Russian, a slight decrease on the previous return. An English newspaper, entitled the Nagasaki Press, is published daily; a monthly magazine is published from the same office, entitled Cherry Blossoms: The Nagasaki Press Monthly.
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