Nagasaki, literally "long peninsula", is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture. It is located on the south-western coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four mainland islands of Japan. It was a center of European influence in medieval Japan from first contact through the isolationist era until the opening of Japan and the resultant modernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration. It became a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese War and eventually was the second city on which an atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. during World War II.
Nagasaki lies at the head of a long bay which forms the best natural harbor on the island of Kyushu. The main commercial and residential area of the city lies on a small plain near the end of the bay. Two rivers divided by a mountain spur form the two main valleys in which the city lies. The heavily built-up area of the city is confined by the terrain to less than 4 square miles.