Sasebo is a port city in the Nagasaki prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyushu. It was nearly half destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII. The Sasebo region hosted one of the few foreign trade franchises during the period when Japan was a closed domain, and today a large theme park, the Huis Ten Bosch, recreates a Dutch community in the Netherlands, in honor of the Dutch trading community that once thrived here. The offshore Kujuku Islands are heavily forested and hold many traditional buildings created by the immigrant Japanese Catholics who fled there during oppressive regimes. Seishin cathedral is a Catholic chirch built on 1930 that is the symbol of Sasebo, reproduced on its city crest.The nearby cape of Kozakihana is the westernmost point of Kyushu island and of Japan’s four main islands.
