Stained glass in the library of Junshin Junior College, Nagasaki Japan

Stained glass window at Junshin College, Nagasaki Japan

In my just released novel Gifted Hands: Sainō No Aru Te the character Kathleen teaches at Junshin Junior College for women in Nagasaki Japan. Junshin college is run by a Catholic order and sits on the top of a mountain to the north of the city where it was moved after the original school's destruction of the atomic bombing in 1945.

In the fall of 1980, in preparation for the coming visit to Nagasaki by Pope John Paul II to Nagasaki and a possible visit to Junshin, I was asked to create a series of stained glass windows for the new library at the college.

This I did and delivered in time as the library was being finished. I came across one of the photos today and thought I would share it with you. The task was to show the Nagasaki city flower the hydrangea and the flower that grows in profusion on the slopes of the mountain on which the college was built, the poppy. In the center is the Madonna and the Christ Child. Holding the window on the left is Father Aguilar who ran the Nagai Catholic youth center where I stayed in Nagasaki and on the right is a teaching nun at Junshin. Father Aguilar and his center were the models for the priest and center for Father Alvarez and the Kokusai Center, fictional character and institution in Gifted Hands.

Kenneth Fenter