On August 6, 1945, the U.S. B-29 Stratofortress bomber named “Enola Gay” dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Eight Jesuit missionaries were at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption rectory, located in Nobori-cho, a neighborhood in Naka-ku, about 1 kilometer (1,400 yards, roughly eight blocks) from the epicenter. Future Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, was also nearby at a novitiate, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away.

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, Fr. Hubert Cieslik, Fr. Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Fr. Hugo Lassalle, Fr. Klaus Luhmer, and Fr. Hubert Schiffer were among the survivors and most cited individuals by historical accounts. Their survival is widely viewed by the faithful as a miracle.

The “Miraculous” Survival

While surrounding buildings were flattened and incinerated, their church structure largely remained standing, and the priests sustained only minor injuries, mostly from glass splinters and fragments of wreckage.

Medical professionals who examined them afterward warned of fatal radiation sickness. However, the priests lived for decades without developing severe radiation-induced illnesses or long-term complications.

The priests attributed their survival to spiritual protection, specifically stating they lived the message of Our Lady of the Fatima and prayed the daily Rosary.

We commemorate these miracles as we celebrate the Marian feast days in September — the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8, the Most Holy Name of Mary on September 12, and Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15.

The Rectory at Ground Zero – The Fatima Rosary Miracle

Fr. Schiffer was buried beneath a portion of a wall and suffered a head injury. Fr. Lassalle, the Mission Superior, received most of the splinters in his back and lower extremity. Miraculously, none of them ever suffered from radiation sickness or long-term complications, living well into old age.  When interviewed by scientists and doctors hundreds of times, the priests firmly maintained that their protection was divine.

Fr. Hubert Cieslik dedicated his post-war years to researching Japanese church history and the “Hidden Christians.” Fr. Wilhelm Kleinsorge remained in Japan continuing his pastoral duties and assisting with local community rebuilding, sharing personal accounts of the devastation without entering the sphere of geopolitical anti-nuclear protest.

After the war, Fr. Hugo Lassalle dedicated his subsequent decades to reconciliation and spiritual peace, notably driving the construction of the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace in Hiroshima. Fr. Klaus Luhmer returned to Japan and spent decades working as a professor and administrator at Sophia University, the Jesuit university in Tokyo. He dedicated much of his life to education and pleading for global nuclear abolition. He passed away in Tokyo on March 1, 2011, at the age of 94.

Fr. Hubert Schiffer traveled and spoke publicly in later decades, such as at the 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia, sharing his experience as a physical wonder and attributing it to the message of Our Lady of Fatima. He wrote the booklet The Rosary of Hiroshima and famously testified: “We believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in that home.”

More details have been reported by a priest who once met Fr. Schiffer in Saginaw, Michigan, after he gave a talk before the Blue Army, an organization that promotes the apparitions at Fatima. The priest recounted their conversation:

“The next thing he remembered, he opened his eyes and he was lying on the ground. He looked around and there was nothing in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground. The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. Many thousands were killed or maimed by the explosion. After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. Many of the Japanese people had blisters and sores from the radiation. To the doctors’ amazement, Father Schiffer’s body contained no radiation or ill effects from the bomb. Father Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary. He feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects.”

In the face of the most destructive weapon ever created, the power of prayer and devotion to Our Lady proved stronger to the Jesuit priests, “We believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the Rosary daily in that home.”

The Novitiate at Nagatsuka

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ (who later became the Superior General of the Jesuits) was also in Hiroshima during the bombing, but at a different location.

Born in Bilbao, Spain in 1907, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1927 and was sent to Japan as a missionary in 1938. He was placed in charge of the rural parish and mission in Yamaguchi. When World War II broke out, he was arrested and detained by Japanese authorities under false suspicions of being a western spy. He was imprisoned for several months by the military police.

In 1942, he was assigned to the Jesuit novitiate Nagatsuka outside Hiroshima where he served as the Master of Novices. He was at this hillside location on August 6, 1945, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the epicenter when the atomic bomb was dropped. The building was heavily damaged by the shockwave, but Fr. Arrupe and his 35 novices miraculously emerged entirely uninjured.

Many of the people he had treated asked to be baptized, including Tadashi Hasegawa (1931–2011), a fourteen-year-old Japanese boy at the time of the bombing. Fr. Arrupe rode his bicycle daily to treat the boy who later chose to become a priest and recounted his experience in his autobiography entitled The Morning of August 6, I Was 14 Years Old.

While Fr. Arrupe was not one of the eight priests inside the downtown rectory at the exact moment of the “Rosary Miracle,” his survival and subsequent medical crusade are forever bound to the same day of miraculous Jesuit history in Hiroshima.

Fr. Arrupe became the Provincial Superior of Japan in 1958 and in 1965 he was eleced as the 28^th Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

Pope Francis remembered that Fr. Arrupe was “a man of prayer. … I remember that he prayed sitting on the ground, as the Japanese do.”

Featured header: The reconnaissance photo shows the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption standing alone amid the devastation. On the street are four Jesuit priests, gazing across the flattened homes and businesses. Written by Joe De Jesus for Dateline Ibalon based the references listed below. (photo: public domain)

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