Restored bell to ring at Nagasaki’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral for the first time since A-bomb devastated the city in 1945.Twin cathedral bells will ring in unison in Nagasaki for the first time in 80 years, as the Japanese city commemorates the moment the United States decimated it with an atomic bomb eight decades ago.Crowds are set to gather at Nagasaki’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral on Saturday morning, as the church’s two bells will ring together for the first time since 1945.The US dropped an atomic bomb on the southwestern port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, at 11:02am local time, three days after it dropped a nuclear weapon on Hiroshima.About 74,000 people were killed in Nagasaki, while 140,000 were killed in Hiroshima.On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, marking the end of World War II.The church in Nagasaki, widely known as Urakami Cathedral, was rebuilt in 1959 after it was almost completely destroyed in the monstrous atomic explosion, the hypocentre of which was just a few hundred metres from the religious building. Only one of two church bells was recovered from the rubble.But, funded by Catholics in the US, a new second bell has been constructed and restored to the tower. It will chime on Saturday for the first time in 80 years at the exact moment the bomb was dropped.Nearly 100 countries are set to attend this year’s commemorations in Nagasaki.Among the participants will be a representative from Russia, which has not been invited since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Israel, whose ambassador to Japan was not invited to the memorial last year over the country’s war on Gaza, is also ex …
