AP PHOTOS: On remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction

IKITSUKI, Japan (AP) — On the rural islands of Nagasaki, a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns, and martyred missionaries and believers.

On Ikitsuki and other remote sections of Nagasaki prefecture, Hidden Christians pray to what they call the Closet God — scroll paintings of Mary and Jesus disguised as a Buddhist Bodhisattva, hidden in special closets. They chant in a Latin that has not been widely used for centuries.

Now, though, the Hidden Christians are disappearing. Almost all are elderly, and as the young move away to cities or turn their backs on the faith, those remaining are desperate to preserve evidence of this unique offshoot of Christianity — and convey to the world what its loss will mean.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

A Shinto shrine stands on a hilltop which was previously a cemetery for Christians in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Visitors look at an exhibition at the Ikitsuki Island Museum "Shima no Yakata" in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, once secretly worshipped, is seen at a home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A woman plants rice in a terrace rice field in Ikitsuki island in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

A woman walks past the Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on Saturday, April 26, 2025, which commemorates 26 Christians executed in 1597. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church, back right, looks over Zuiunji, lower left, and Komyoji Buddhist temples, in front of the church, in Ikitsuki island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

The sun sets over water-filled, terraced rice field in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and a community leader who is one of only hundreds of so-called "hidden" Christians on the island of Ikitsuki, speaks at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Masatsugu Tanimoto, a farmer and one of the few remaining hidden Christians on Ikitsuki Island, prepares a scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus once secretly worshipped at his home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A fisherman, left, walks on a seashore of Ikitsuki island in Hirado, southern Japan, Monday, April 28, 2025, as seen from a sacred site where it's believed a grave was built after Catholic family members were martyred. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Shigeo Nakazono, a folklore studies expert specializing in the hidden Christians and head of the Ikitsuki Island Museum "Shima no Yakata" explains an official edict board issued to ban Christianity during Japan's Edo period displayed at the museum at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Masatsugu Tanimoto, from left, Yoshitaka Oishi and Yoshinori Yamamoto chant Orasho, recitation of Latin chants, in the Ikitsuki Island Museum "Shima no Yakata" at Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

A scroll of the Virgin Mary and Jesus once secretly worshipped hangs at a home in Ikitsuki Island in Hirado, southern Japan, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A Christian cross at a memorial park for Catholics martyred in the early 1600s is silhouetted before sunrise at Hirado, southern Japan, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.

The strike was taking place at The Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its satellite campuses, with picket lines forming. The other affected hospitals are NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to New York State Nurses Association.

The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.

The hospitals involved have been hiring temporary nurses to try and fill the labor gap during the walkout, and said in a statement during negotiations that they would “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions.” Montefiore posted a message assuring patients that appointments would be kept.

The work stoppage is occurring at multiple hospitals simultaneously, but each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other hospitals across the city and in its suburbs reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.

The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.

Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents like a an incident last week, when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.

The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.

The nonprofit hospitals involved in the negotiations say they’ve been working to improve staffing levels, but say the union’s demands overall are too costly.

Nurses voted to authorize the strike last month.

Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani had expressed concern about the possibility of the strike. As the strike deadline neared, Mamdani urged both sides to keep negotiating and reach a deal that “both honors our nurses and keeps our hospitals open.”

“Our nurses kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable,” Mamdani said.

The last major nursing strike in the city was only three years ago, in 2023. That work stoppage, at Mount Sinai and Montefiore, was short, lasting three days. It resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at those hospitals.

It also led to promised staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

FILE - A medical worker transports a patient at Mount Sinai Hospital, April 1, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)