ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the narratives described from two pre-bomb photographs, the persecution stories in public literature, and on the study of trauma via theology to examine the symbol of the cathedral. The ruins of Urakami Cathedral after the atomic bombing signified ‘crippling memories’ of the profound negative of death and the quashing of the Christian community. The ruined cathedral as symbol crossed into the civic life of the city outside Urakami more so than Mary, arousing even the non-Catholic community – and was heralded as a dangerous memory for the planet as a whole. Fukahori Joji’s photograph affirms the narratives of his deceased siblings and his family’s survival and return to this parish, where the community built the biggest church in East Asia. The community was further fractured by division, apart from those tortured, killed or missing. The community memorialised her resistance by placing the ‘torture stone’ alongside the cathedral.
