n a June day in 1936, marine clouds swept out across Nagasaki in a long

gray shelf. Rising gradually from the west coast of Kyushu Island,

Nagasaki, a small city of valleys and hills, was often referred to by travel

guides as the San Francisco of Japan.

A high mountainous ridge divided two valleys into the old city and

the new. The longest valley was the Urakami. There beat the heart of

industrial Nagasaki. From the steep hills terraced with quaint residential

sections, one could look down on the peaceful Urakami River and the tall

smokestacks of modern factories.

Within walking distance of a large textile mill, Hosokawa-Napier,

Limited, stood the largest Catholic cathedral in Japan, giving proof to the

fact that thousands of Nagasaki s citizens worshipped as Christians. The

chiseled stones that housed a faith brought to Japan from the New World

and the high brick walls built to shelter ~odern technology had existed

since the nineteenth century, when Nagasaki had been the first city in the

empire to open its port to trade with the West. Cathedral and weaving mill

gave testimony to the rebirth of this city. God s house remained secure,

but not the house of a dynasty that had woven silk into cloth for more than

sixty years.

Douglas Napier waited with his Japanese partner in the broad gravel

yard of Hosokawa-Napier, Limited, listening to the familiar thunder of

machinery from inside the mill. Having done everything in their power to

keep the looms running, they now waited for the silence they both

dreaded. After a few minutes the mill grew quiet.

Baron Tadashi Hosokawa looked at his American partner but said

nothing. Together they watched the factory smokestacks exhale a wispy

haze. The Hosokawa-Napier signature had been among the first to be

written in smoke across Nagasaki Bay. Now the stacks expelled their last

gasps, which were carried away on the same breeze that lifted the kites of

children playing nearby.

Watching the children, Douglas Napier smiled. This was a city of kite

enthusiasts, and each year during the kite festival, throngs of spectators