Many thanks to a correspondent for this story of Fr Hubert Schiffer and seven other Jesuits who were in a house about a kilometre from the centre of the blast at Hiroshima and survived while everyone else within that distance was killed instantly. See also another account, and a further account.
Fr Schiffer put the survival of the small community down to their devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and their daily Rosary.
9 comments:
Father,
What an amazing story -- I've never heard this before, though I've known a few Japanese who survived the bomb.
Does there exist a post-explosion photo identifying the Jesuit House? In the image on your site I see perhaps 14 large public-type buildings standing; it would be intersting to see where the Jesuits were living.
The two links you provide, "another account" and "further account," both go to the exact same url.
Kind regards,
--Guy Power
Dear Father Finigan,
Being somewhat sceptic to things that sound too good to be true ... (I fault my father who sends me so much junk via email)... I decided to look for corroboration.
In addition to the many Catholic sites retelling the same story (many cases, word-for-word), I found another site with a somewhat different account of the priests at Hiroshima. It is written (apparently) by either an atheist, or anti-Catholic; however, with that said, he has presented some documentation that should be read and considered.
http://www.lazyboysreststop.com/mary25.htm
I do not wish to appear as a wet blanket ... but working with scientists causes me to look at and consider all data -- regardless if the data support or reject my thesis.
Kind regards,
--Guy
Thanks for this story Father. I heard about this years ago and have wanted to know more, but never found anything.
Thats a really cool story, but has it been independently verified?
Beware - there's some really dodgy apparition stuff on these pdtsigns.com links - For up-to-date full and factual info on Fatima see www.fatima.org especially http://www.fatimacrusader.com/consecration/tocconsecration.asp And before you say "Fr Gruner is suspended", I beg you to read http://www.fatima.org/apostolate/defense/notsusvir.asp It will leave you in ABSOLUTELY no doubt as to who is on the side of the angels in the Fatima controversy.
ghp(etc) thanks for your comment. I was looking for some independent corroboration or denial of the story. The "anti" article does not really cover the whole story and I would be genuinely interested to see any other sources that can shed some light on this extraordinary claim.
Fr. Tim,
Amazing story -- no way is the survival of the Rosary-praying Hiroshima priests a coincidence.
It's interesting that the priests were located at the Church of the Assumption given that the announcement of Japan's surrender was made on 15 August 1945: the feast of the Assumption. I wonder if Pope Pius XII picked up on the latter 'coincidence' when he defined the dogma of the Assumption in 1950? He surely can't have missed the fact that America entered the Second World War (thereby saving the Western world's bacon) on 8 December 1941: the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
These 'coincidences' are like a string of signal graces for the world, demonstrating the intercessory power of Our Lady.
I have worked in Hiroshima and know of this story. It is mentioned in a book called 'Hiroshima' (author unknown) but, being a secular account it gives little detail. Japanese people do not like to consider this as, to them, Hiroshima was an abomination from which no person survived.
Many years ago I did see newsreel footage of the Jesuits arriving at an airport somewhere and, in respo0nse to the questio "How did you survive" a priest responded: "we prayed the Rosary, we prayed Fatima".
All very anecdotal, I know, but corroboration is on the internet if you believe the sources.
Interesting story, but I just wanted to make a slight correction. You said, "everyone else within that distance (1 km) was killed instantly."
Several people were closer to the blast than the priests, according to atomicarchive.com. Eiko Taoka and nine other people on a streetcar 750 meters from the blast survived. Akiko Takakura, who was in a bank 300 meters from ground zero, survived as well, and as far as I can tell from the link, is still alive.
http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/twocities/hiroshima/page14.shtml
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