Urakami Cathedral is the exact copy of the Cathedral, which stood almost on this very spot before the tragic events of August 9, 1945. The explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, there was five hundred metres from the temple. At the time of the disaster in the Cathedral was conducted divine service, and all those present parishioners were killed. From the Cathedral remained of the wall, which was agreed to keep as reminders of the tragedy has occurred here. Other fragments of the building are exhibited in the Museum of the atomic bomb in the new Cathedral, which was opened in 1980.

Another name for the Church is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the blessed virgin Mary. Before the bombing, he was considered the biggest Catholic Cathedral in South-East Asia. Today it is a Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Nagasaki.

Residents of the district of Urakami, which is now included in the city limits of Nagasaki, almost all professed Catholicism. In the period from 1869 to 1873 Christians living in Urakami, has been prosecuted: 650 people died, others left town. In 1873 went back and started construction of a Catholic Church. The temple was built of red brick in the Romanesque style and opened in 1925.

After the Second world war, the city government and Catholic Christians Urakami has not been able to find a mutually satisfactory decision about where to begin the erection of a new Church. The representatives of the Catholic Church insisted that the new Cathedral should stand on the same spot where the former, in memory of those persecuted and killed by the persecution of believers. City officials believed that the remains of the building must be left as evidence of the terrible consequences of the atomic bombing and offered for the Cathedral a new location, slightly away from the ruins of the old. This dispute lasted nearly two decades. Today the remains of the old building are included in the memorial Peace Park.