Nagasaki Japan

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Nagasaki is located at the mouth of the Urakami River, where it empties into the Nagasaki Harbour. This is the city in which Kazuo Ishiguro was initially born in, and the author spent his first five years of his life in the city. Nagasaki was a location in which the atom bomb has been dropped and while some of the city has been rebuilt, much of it is still in ruins from the atomic bomb. Kazuo Ishiguro himself was born after the atomic bomb's drop, but his mother and her family lived in Nagasaki when the bomb dropped. It was also the second oldest trading port in Japan after Hirado, where the Portuguese arrived and introduced Roman Catholicism and guns to the Japanese. The reason why Nagasaki had been chosen as a location for the atom bomb's drop was because the city was a popular place for building ships at the time. Nowadays, the city is still popular with tourists as there are many historic sights to see for travellers. 

Sources:

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britanica. "Nagasaki | Japan, History, Bombing, Map, and Facts." Britannica, 27 Apr, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/place/Nagasaki-Japan.

Juuyoh, Tanaka. Kazagashira Nagasaki city Nagasaki-ken(Prefecture), Japan Nagasaki Nagasaki City limelight. Pxhere. https://pxhere.com/zh/photo/259568.

"Kazuo Ishiguro - Biographical." The Nobel Prize, accessed 2 May, 2025, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2017/ishiguro/biographical/.

Parent Map

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Coordinates

Latitude: 32.750333400000
Longitude: 129.877888800000

Timeline of Events Associated with Nagasaki Japan

Date Event Manage
Apr 1960

Kazuo Ishiguro Moves to England

Free Night View Nagasaki photo and picture

Kazuo Ishiguro was initially born in Nagasaki Japan, and he attended Kindergarten to learn hiragana; the most simplest form of the Japanese alphabet. However, his father had been invited to work in England, which initiated the move. Because Ishiguro's father's work was continuously supported by the British government, the family never moved back to Japan. As Kazuo Ishiguro grew older, he was fascinated by song writing and writing as a subject, as he studied literature and began to practice his own writing. As an example, he started an unfinished novel in 1977. 

In 2005, his novel Never Let Me Go was published. This book seemingly follows Kathy and her friends at a boarding school as they form connections and attend classes to learn about art. However, Kathy and her classmates are told that their sole purpose in life is to donate their organs once they reach a certain age, and so these students do not have much time on earth. This novel deals with feelings of humanity, which include making connections, learning lessons through school, and trying to enjoy life despite the fact that these students will die at a young age from donating organs away. Mortality is an aspect of humanity, and one way in which we can cope with this is to do our best to enjoy our lives despite the fact that our time on earth is limited. 

Sources:

Ag2016. Night View Nagasaki Japan Three. 2016. Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/photos/night-view-nagasaki-japan-1342591/.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. Faber & Faber, 2010.

"Kazuo Ishiguro – Biographical." The Nobel Prize, Accessed 1 May, 2025, <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2017/ishiguro/biographical/>.