Nagasaki, the heart of Catholicism in Japan, lies in ruins following the bombing of the city on Aug. 9, 1945. The remnants of the Catholic cathedral can be seen near the hills on the left side of the picture.

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Nagasaki, the heart of Catholicism in Japan, lies in ruins following the bombing of the city on Aug. 9, 1945. The remnants of the Catholic cathedral can be seen near the hills on the left side of the picture.

‘To remember the past,’ said Pope St. John Paul II in Hiroshima, ‘is to commit oneself to the future.’