The Wolverine shows Nagasaki during the 1945 atomic bombing.
The film opens during the final days of World War II, when Logan is held as a prisoner of war near Nagasaki. He saves the Japanese officer Ichiro Yashida from the blast by using his body and healing ability to shield him, establishing the connection that drives the later story.
Years afterward, the elderly Yashida summons Logan to Japan. The meeting leads Logan into a conflict involving Yashida’s family, the yakuza, and the mutant assassin Viper. The wartime prologue therefore explains why Yashida knows Logan and why he seeks him out decades later.
Nagasaki is sometimes confused with Hiroshima, another Japanese city affected by an atomic bombing in 1945. The film specifically depicts Nagasaki, while its later action moves through locations including Tokyo and the village of Yashida’s family.