The origins of the medical education at Nagasaki Medical College, the precursor of the present-day Nagasaki University School of Medicine, go back to the Igakudensho medical school established in 1857 towards the end of the Edo era. It moved to its present location in the year 1891, and subsequently gained the status of the core site for medicine in Nagasaki. The hospital, which conducted clinical lectures and medical training opened here in 1902. It was given the name it had at the time of the bombing, Nagasaki Medical College, in the year 1923.

Nagasaki Medical College Hospital was situated in the grounds of the Nagasaki University School of Medicine and Nagasaki University School of Dentistry in what is nowadays Nagasaki City's Sakamoto 1 Chome. A red cross was painted on the roof of the ferroconcrete building to make the fact that it was a hospital visible from the air, the walls were camouflaged, and preparations made to ensure that it would not be damaged by aerial bombardments, but since it was only 0.7km from the hypocenter the hospital suffered tremendous damage.

In particular, the hospital director Dr. Susumu Tsunoo who was diagnosing outpatients and many professors and nurses lost their lives in the north-side building facing the hypocenter. The total number of dead at the hospital including the adjacent medical department campus was 898, comprised of students, teaching staff and others.

The team of professors in the south side of the building not facing the hypocenter gave treatment to other hibakusha requesting help, despite the fact that they themselves were injured. Nagasaki University School of Medicine eventually went on to lead a renaissance of medical education in the city.

The camphor tree at Nagasaki Medical College Hospital is located at the southernmost corner of the grounds, furthest away from the hypocenter, and since there was a ferroconcrete ward building between it and the hypocenter, although its branches and leaves were blown apart it started to take bud again after the war, so much so that it still bears plenty of fruit.

The surrounding buildings have changed, but the tree continues to create a large canopy at the front entrance to the main building of the Nagasaki University School of Dentistry, maintaining its watch over the only medical school in the world that has experienced an atomic bombing.