Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 400

NAGASAKI

At the end of the sixteenth century, when the nations of Western Europe were vigorously competing for the trade of the Far East, Nagasaki-then a fishing village was set aside by the Japanese authorities as a place of foreign residence. It speedily became the chief trading port of the country. When the Christian religion was banned in 1637 and only the Dutch were allowed trade privileges, a small island in Nagasaki harbour called Deshima was allotted to the Dutch merchants as a trading station and place of residence. During the persecution which culminated in the expulsion from Japan of foreign Christian priests, the city was the centre of the anti-Christian opera- tions conducted by the Japanese government. By the treaty of 1858 Nagasaki was one of the ports opened to British trade on the 1st of July in the follow- ing year.

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 land-locked inlet deeply in- dented 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 were reclaimed, and retaining walls measuring nearly five miles in length have been built in front of what were formerly the foreign concessions at Deshima and Megasaki. Simultaneously, the harbour was deepened. The cost of the work was 4,000,000 yen. A wharf to accommodate two vessels of 8,000 tons has been constructed by the muai- cipality and is used by the vessels engaged in the express service between Shanghai and Kobe. The town is on the eastern side of the harbour and the foreign quarter is on the south-east. The foreign consulates and chief mer- cantile 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 is a Roman Catholic church; Anglican aud Nonconformist services are held on alternate Sundays at the Seamen's Home. There are two clubs (Nagasaki and International) and one foreign hotel-the Hotel du Japon. The Mitsubishi 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 feet 6 inches. There are three other smaller docks owned by the Matsuo Ironworks & Dockyard Co., and situated nearer to the harbour entrance. As a shipbuilding centre the place has rapidly deve- loped in recent years; in addition to large ocean-going steamers, a battle- cruiser of 27,500 tons displacement and a battleship of over 30,000 tons dis- placement have been constructed there. Nagasaki gained considerable im- portance as a base for steam trawlers, but the vessels were all sold to foreign governments for war service during 1918. The industry has been restarted on a smaller scale but most of the trawlers now use Shimonoseki as a base. The Municipality has erected a large fish market on a wharf near the railway station. A large extension of the waterworks to meet the growing needs of the town was completed in March, 1904. Further

Further extensions were carried out a few years ago. The railway developments of recent years have made it possible, with a brief sea passage of ten minutes between Moji and Shimono- seki, to travel by rail from Nagasaki to Kobe and thence to Tokyo. The climate of Nagasaki is mild and salubrious, and there are popular health resorts in the neighbourhood, the most famous being Mount Unzen, on which a nine- hole golf course was laid out in 1911, and which, since 1923, has been gradually improved; another course has been laid out at Isahaya, a small town about one hour by rail from Nagasaki.

In

The population of the port has increased greatly during recent years. the census taken in 1930 it was returned as 204,626, nearly double that which it was 30 years previously.