• Night of March 9-10: Firebombing of Tokyo, killing approx. 80 to 100,000
• May 8 - Germany surrenders
  
• Aug. 6: First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing approx. 70,000
• Aug. 9, 11:02 AM: Second atomic bomb dropped on Urakami valley area of Nagasaki, killing approx. 30,000
• Aug. 15: Japan surrenders 1951 - Death of Takashi Nagai 1958 - Reconstruction of cathedral in Urakami 1981 - Pope John Paul II visits Japan

Summary:
We discussed the story of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the historic Catholic area of Urakami in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 AM. The bomb exploded extremely close to the area where the Immaculate Conception Cathedral stood, and where Catholics were gathered in preparation for the upcoming Feast of the Assumption. The cathedral was reduced to ruins which burned through the night. Catholic priests and nuns, as well as about two thirds (about 8,000) of the city's Catholics perished in the bombing, in which approximately 30,000 people total were killed instantly. Ironically, the commander and pilot of the B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb was an American Catholic, Major Charles Sweeney (then only 25 years old), who professed to never regret the bombing.

Those who survived faced many struggles - they were stigmatized as irradiated persons, called hibakusha; they faced local pressure to leave the devastated cathedral in ruins as a peace memorial; they experienced "survivor guilt"; and struggled with traumatic memories of losing family and homes.

Although the writings of Dr. Takashi Nagai explained the bombings as providential, many Catholics felt dissatisfied with his views . These different perspectives began to be shared after Pope St. John Paul II's 1981 visit to Japan, in which he spoke of the evils of atomic warfare and stated at Hiroshima, "War is the work of humanity; war is destruction of human life; war is death." (Dangerous Memory, p. 75). Survivors took this message to mean they did not need to accept uncritically Nagai's sacrificial theory of the bombing.

Among the survivors we discussed were:

• Dr. Takashi Nagai - He was a radiologist working in a hospital at the time of the bombing. He was diagnosed with leukemia shortly before the bombing due to his exposure to radiation in his work and nearly died of his injuries after rallying the survivors from the hospital to help the wounded in and around Nagasaki. He eventually returned to Urakami with his two young children to live in a hut where he wrote the first book allowed to be published providing an eyewitness account of the bombing, The Bells of Nagasaki. Nagai used proceeds from the book to plan cherry trees throughout the city. He is controversial for his theory that the bombing of Nagasaki was providential and provided an acceptable burnt offering of the good and innocent to God for the sins of mankind in waging World War II. He has been designated a "Servant of God," meaning he has an open sainthood cause.
• Brother Ozaki Tomei (Tagawa Koichi) - A Franciscan monk who was working in an underground factory at the time of the bombing. He was haunted by his turning away from helping others in the immediate aftermath of the bombing as he desperately tried to get home. In his home he was unable to find his mother's remains, only what was left of her rosary. He later entered a monastery founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe, about whom Ozaki has written a book.

Sources and Further Reading

Movie: All that Remains (Ignatius 2016) - Includes a short documentary with Paul Glynn.

Specific Focus on Nagasaki Bombing:
• The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai, translated by William Johnston (Kodansha International, 1984) (originally published in Japanese in 1949 as Nagasaki no kane).
• We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland by Takashi Nagai, translated by Ichiro Shirato and Herbert B.L. Silverman (Duell Sloan and Pearce, 1951).
• A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai by Paul Glynn, S.M. (Ignatius Press, 1988).
• Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki: Prayers, Protests and Catholic Survivor Narratives by Gwyn McClelland (Routledge, 2020)
• Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard (Penguin Books, 2016).
• Nagasaki: The Massacre of the Innocent and Unknowing by Craig Collie (Allen & Unwin 2012)
• Resurrecting Nagasaki: Reconstruction and the Formation of Atomic Narratives by Chad R. Diehl (Cornel Univ. Press, 2018).

General Background on the end of WWII in the Pacific and the atomic bombings:
• The Fall of Japan: The Final Weeks of World War II in the Pacific by William Craig (Open Roads Media, 2015)(originally published in 1967).
• Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire by Richard B. Frank (Random House, 1999).
• Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath by Paul Ham (Thomas Dunne Books, 2011).
• The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan by Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011).
• War's End: An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission by Charles W. Sweeney (memoir of the pilot on the Nagasaki mission).

Image Credit: **"Urakami Cathedral" by Jake (based on stained glass image at Nagasaki's Immaculate Conception Cathedral)
**Music Credit: *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!

Brief Chronology:
Early 1300s - Marian apparition and founding of shrine for Virgin of Guadalupe of Extremadura in Spain
1474 - Cuauhtlatoatzin ("Eagle that Speaks"), later known as Juan Diego, is born at Cuautitlan in the Texcoco Kingdom.
1521 - Conclusion of Spanish conquest of the Mexica ("Aztec") empire in central Mexico
1531 - December 9th through 12th - Apparitions of Blessed Virgin Mary to Juan Diego; appearance of image of Virgin of Guadalupe on Juan Diego's tilma on December 12.
1545-48 - The Nican Mopohua, recounting the apparition story in the native language Nahuatl, likely written.
1548 - Juan Diego dies.
1666 - Formal investigation of the tilma and apparition story by the Church
1795 - Acid spilled accidentally on the tilma during cleaning of its frame.
1810 - Image of the Virgin of Guadalupe used as banner of the Hidalgo rebellion.
1921 - Bomb explodes in flower display in front of the tilma, but does not harm the image.
2002 - Canonization of St. Juan Diego on July 31.

(Based mainly on Appendix B of Our Lady of Guadalupe, cited below).

Summary:
We discuss the Virgin of Guadalupe (Feast say December 12) and St. Juan Diego (Feast day December 9).

Just as millions of northern and western Europeans left the Catholic Church as a result of the Protestant Reformation(s), millions of Native Americans entered the Catholic Church. One witness reported that by his count as many as nine million baptisms occurred in Mexico in the space of about 15 years in the early 16th century. The flood of conversions came after the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on the cloak (the "tilma") of an Indian named Eagle that Speaks, baptized as "Juan Diego."

Over time the image has become iconic and ubiquitous in Mexican Catholicism. But hasn't modern science probably debunked the "miraculous" image on the tilma by now? Listen to our discussion of this vivid, unique Marian apparition and why it is something you need to know about. We also discuss how the Church generally evaluates Marian apparitions and private revelation.

Sources and Further Reading:

• Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez (Image, 2009) - Includes the Nican Mopohua in an appendix.
• Mexican Phoenix: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Image and Tradition Across Five Centuries by D.A. Brading (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
• Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1993).
• A Still, Small Voice: A Practical Guide on Reported Revelations by Fr. Benedict Groeschel (Ignatius Press, 1993).

Documentary:

Guadalupe: A Living Image (2009)

Music Credit: *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!

Image Credit: "Nick Black Elk" by Jake.

Music Credit: *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)!
Episode 8: Nicholas Black Elk, Lakota Mystic and Servant of God

Brief Chronology:
1863 - Black Elk born.
1865 - End of U.S. Civil War.
1866 - Battle of the Hundred Slain / the Fetterman Massacre, in which Black Elk's father is wounded.
1872 - Around this time, at about age 9, Black Elk experiences his great vision.
1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn; Black Elk, about age 12, kills a soldier.
1877 - Crazy Horse killed.
1886 - 1889 - Travels to Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.
1890 - Sitting Bull killed; Massacre at Wounded Knee on Dec. 29.
1892 - Black Elk marries Katie War Bonnet
1899 - Birth of son Benjamin Black Elk, who will become important for interpreting Nicholas Black Elk's legacy.
1904 - Conversion to Roman Catholicism; he is baptized Dec. 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas.
1906 - Marriage to Anna Brings White, mother to Lucy Looks Twice
1907 - Black Elk begins travelling as a catechist.
1930 - Interviews with John G. Neihardt which will become the basis of Black Elk Speaks, published in 1932.
1936 - Black Elk begins managing Duhamel Indian Pageant.
1945-46 - Interviews with Joseph Epes Brown which will become basis for The Sacred Pipe, published in 1953, after Black Elk has died.
1950 - Death of Nicholas Black Elk on Aug. 17, followed by a vivid display of the northern lights.

Summary:

In this episode we discuss a modern candidate for sainthood, Nicholas Black Elk (ca. 1863-1950). Black Elk was a Lakota Sioux medicine man whose journey took him from traditional Lakota religion and the Ghost Dance movement to Roman Catholicism.

He was probably born in 1863, at a time when his people, the Lakota, still lived independently hunting buffalo on the Northern Great Plains, in what is now the Dakotas and Montana. He relates the story of the first few decades of his life in Black Elk Speaks, a book written by and formed out of a series of conversations with a Nebraskan poet, John G. Neihardt in the early 1930s. Included in the book are his memories of Crazy Horse, the battle of Little Big Horn, meeting Queen Victoria as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the Ghost Dance movement, and witnessing the tragic massacre of Lakota civilians at Wounded Knee. And that was only the first part of his long life.

Black Elk's life was full of prayer and intense religious questioning. He experienced visions from a young age and eventually became a medicine man. After marrying a Catholic, he eventually converted and became a catechist and missionary, travelling and speaking across the country. At the same time, he passed on Lakota traditions by sharing his life experiences and knowledge with Neihardt (Black Elk Speaks) and anthropologist Joseph Epes Brown (author of The Sacred Pipe), as well as performing traditional dances for tourists.

His legacy and claims about his personal religious beliefs remain controversial. Scholars continue to debate whether he continued to believe traditional Lakota religion alongside Christianity, was a sincere orthodox Catholic who rejected the traditional past, and how he reconciled different belief systems and chapters of his life.

Two clarifications/corrections to the episode - We checked again on the Two Roads chart and are still unclear on the exact story of its origins, but you can learn more about it in Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala by Steltenkamp. Also, the speech by Benjamin Black Ellk and separate comments by Benjamin Black Elk's nephew concerning the practice of Christianity alongside traditional religion were connected in the retelling in our conversation, but would best be understood (and parsed out) by reading/listening to them in context in the sources below, the documentary Walking the Good Red Road and the first chapter of Black Elk Lives.

Finally, a disclaimer: this episode covers some controversial episodes in American history as well as a controversial religious thinker. We hope you find this a useful addition to the conversation about Black Elk. Of course we always recommend going back to the sources - ad fontes - and forming your own judgment about this fascinating candidate for sainthood.

Link to the Documentary:

Walking the Good Red Road

Sources and Further Reading:

• Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by John G. Neihardt (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press 1988).

• The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux by Joseph Epes Brown (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1953).
• Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala by Michael F. Steltekamp (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1993) - Written by a Jesuit priest, this book presents extensive material from Black Elk's daughter Lucy Looks Twice and other people who knew him concerning his Catholic faith.
• Black Elk Lives: Conversations with the Black Elk Family by Esther Black Elk DeSersa, Olivia Black Elk Poirier, Aaron DeSersa Jr., and Clifton DeSersa; edited by Hilda Neihardt and Lori Utrecht (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2000) - This book is composed of recollections and anecdotes from descendants of Benjamin Black Elk and contains the speech by Benjamin Black Elk brief referenced in the episode.
• Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary by Joe Jackson (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016). - A biography that takes a more skeptical stance towards Catholicism and Black Elk's orthodoxy, but provides a very readable and detailed narrative history of Black Elk's full life.
• Black Elk's Religion: The Sun Dance and Lakota Catholicism by Clyde Holler ( Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1995).
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown (Holt, Rinehard and Winston, 1971)- This history of the 19th century wars that led to resettlement of many Native American tribes on reservations has chapters that provide useful background on the war for the Black Hills, the Ghost Dance religion, and Wounded Knee massacre.