For two hundred and fifty years, Christians were persecuted and murdered in Japan. In the mid-nineteenth century, the era of persecution of followers of Christ in the „land of the rising sun“ ended. For which reason? Why did Christians stop being enemy number one?
Was this for at least two reasons? First, Japan was almost completely isolated from the world, and no one came into it from outside new ideas, so there was a belief that Christians succeeded in eliminating or at least pacifying. Second, at one point, power felt unchallenged.
Conviction, however, some rulers managed to get rid of Christ’s followers in Japan misguided. He stated I would like one interesting comparison: When the Portuguese came to India in the middle of the fifteenth century, Vasco da Gama heard the question: „Why the hell did you come to us?“. Sailor, he replied: „ We came looking for Christians.“In the nineteenth century, when the era of isolationism ended in Japan and the Europeans coming to the country were certainly not looking for Christians there, it was a massive shock for them when they found out that there were Christians in the country after all. Za Some people began to arrive at Europeans, asking them if they had a statue of the Virgin Mary or whether they were obedient to the Holy Father in Rome.
They spread there are rumors that a large part of Christians in Japan did not believe in the arrival of Europeans, and she continued to wait in hiding for some other, more convincing sign, after which she would dare to come out of the underground.
How did Japanese Christians react to the end of isolationism? Reports of how they reacted have been preserved, for example, to celebrate Holy Mass by a priest.
Japan, including France, was allowed to operate foreign diplomatic missions. It should be borne in mind that France, which was part of the other empire, was friendly to Christians. Finally alone, Napoleon III. believed that he was the successor of privileges dating from the time of the Valois, that is, that he was the protector of Catholics in the mysterious East and, therefore, also in Japan. Thanks to the measures taken by the French, Japanese Christians began to leave the underground.
However, there is a great danger associated with it because anti-Christian regulations were not repealed. Although in Japan, in the nineteenth century, Christians were no longer murdered, conversions to Christianity continued to be considered for high treason. A curious coincidence arose at one time. Japanese elites decided to carry out a mental revolution in the United States, and they sent a big message to Europe.
Na The West was often asked how the government treated Christians in Japan. Sure, at the moment, they found their way and realized that the persecution of Christians was lousy advertising for their country. And so, in 1873, they were anti-Christian regulations repealed in principle. I’m talking basically because the question of how to reconcile Christianity with respect cannot be answered and shown to the emperor, and what is this respect? Is it respect to the office, part of the monarchical system, or is it a religious cult? This it became clear only in 1945.
There was one more thing. At that time, the mad hunt for the modernization of Japan began. There were also extreme ideas, such as renouncing the Japanese language and introducing the English language to make the country modern. They also intended to abandon Chinese characters and introduce the Latin alphabet. They thought of giving up rice and replacing it with bread, not because it is tastier, but because civilized people eat bread. At one point, the idea arose to adopt Christianity as the state religion.
Why was this last request not implemented?
OF for an unfortunate reason. Japanese elites traveling the world came to believe that the elites in Western countries are no longer honest Christians and that it is in the fashion of believers among Western intellectuals in Christ, instead to mock, among them especially the popes, than „pleated persons“.
Aj, when some representatives of the Japanese elite staying in the West accepted Christianity, they got their bearings very quickly when they saw that they could work even without it in the world. Even if someone says that he has become a Christian out of conviction, others look at him as a freak.
The Japanese eventually concluded that, in that case, they did not need Christianity.
Despite this shameful situation in the second half of the nineteenth century, Malo Christianity in Japan is a chance to develop?
It developed sa in the sense that it came out of the underground. Christians could pray openly, parishes were established, and the Japanese were ordained priests and even bishops.
Pope Pius IX beatified and canonized the first Japanese martyrs, including Sts. Pavel Miki and his companions. Too bad that this did not happen earlier, although we do not know whether, with the impermeability of the Japanese, it would be possible for the world at all. Information that Japanese martyrs are canonized and respected throughout the Christian world could have been important to the Japanese underground Church.
In this regard, the Church in Japan developed. Nevertheless, it is impossible to get rid of it, and they are under the impression that the best moment for the Christianization of Japan was the sixteenth century. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it was created in Japan’s centralized state, and it turned out that Europe could also be imitated without Christianity. He was behind the basic principle and then accepted the cult of the emperor. For example, the obligation to bow before was introduced a portrait of Emperor Meij during the recitation of his work „O návove“. Christians, those who rejected this gesture, were immediately fired from their jobs.
Some European missionaries claimed that such a bow could be shown (even though it is necessary not only for the emperor himself but also to pay tribute to the moral one with bow literature such as the work above.
So, the best moment for the Christianization of Japan passed, and the conversions of the essential Japanese personalities, even representatives of the imperial family, did not make much of an impression on anyone. In other words, whether they are true or rumors don’t matter. This is best described in the personal drama of Emperor Hirohito, the grandfather of the reigning emperor, who is said to have considered converting to Christianity. Even if it happened, would it mean a breakthrough? Undoubtedly, for Hirohito’s soul, yes. And for the world? Perhaps this would be bombastic news, but would it shake Japan and Poland the baptism in 966 accepted by Mieszko I.?
While is he an emperor to the Japanese?By God?Officials?Lord over life and death?
Constitution Japan says that the emperor is the primary power source in the country, and everything that happens in the country happens through him. However, there is a gap between the provisions of the Constitution and political practice.
If you have read, for example, the Constitution of Great Britain, because this country, despite widespread opinion, has a constitution, but not in the form of a booklet, but a library, you would learn that the queen exercises the leading power in the state, that she appoints it for the prime minister, whoever he wants, she is the supreme commander of the army, etc. Britain, however, has an entirely different political reality.
Is emperor to the gods for the Japanese? First, you need to be clear about your understanding of divinity. Not for nothing, as I mentioned before, the first missionaries compared the Japanese religion to the religion of the ancient Romans, especially with that „really“ religion of ancient Rome before it became similar to the religion of the ancient Greeks.
I can say that it was a huge problem, especially for Christians who did not know how to react. In 1921, Crown Prince Hirohito was introduced to Pope Benedict XV. then, the question of the emperor’s divinity appeared. At the time, Hirohito said it was known from a European perspective that it was nonsense, but it could not be denied so that ordinary Japanese people would not be offended.
So, was ecumenism already in full swing then?
No, please. Benedict XV was an old-school man who did not want to harm Christians in Japan. Therefore, he accepted this rhetorical reversal.
Pope also counted on the fact that he would be able to get along with Dobra with such gestures as a message to members of the imperial family and convert them to Christianity. The problem turned out to be more complicated when people from the environment of Emperor Hirohito asked if the Emperor-Christian could perform Shinto rites.
Here, the question must be asked: Who is the ruler? It is well known that there is no such thing as a secular king because if someone is titled a secular king, as in Scandinavia, he is not a king, just a jester who does not believe himself to be a king. Swedes, at least, are consistent when they banned the coronation because it isn’t a secular ceremony.
In Japan, it’s completely different. Certainly not during enthronement coronation) is performed in several rituals.
Why enthronement and not coronation?
Because the ruler of Japan does not have a tiara, there are three types of cover heads and other insignia. So the question arises whether the Christian can participate in something like this, and what it would all mean for him. The answer is not simple.
Miscellaneous persons from the imperial family were suspected because it was never officially announced, from the fact that they converted to Christianity. Still, it always concerned extended family, empress, or imperial wives.
An example is Empress Michiko, who abdicated with her husband on April 30, 2019. It is interesting to mention that she is a former student at the School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She represented the school as a single at congresses of Christian schools in Europe. But she was Christian? No one officially asks this question in Japan.
The problem for Christianity in Japan, what it is after all in the West: growing indifference.
Once upon a time, I read on one of the eastern portals that one of the emperors openly said that he converted to Christianity. Japanese media had to explain to people that it meant nothing because the emperor was god and could say what he wanted and convert to what he wanted…
This situation never happened because no emperor, even though he converted to Christianity, did not publicly admit it, and no one asked him about it.
Were there but such rumors?
Of course. Rumors were regularly repeated at different times and concerned at least two rulers and one empress.
Let’s start with Hirohito – the most famous ruler of Japan. They say that his mother was a Christian woman, but the evidence in this matter is circumstantial and inconclusive. Of course, this should have happened long after the Hirohite’s birthday and her husband, Emperor Taisho, died in 1926. It seems, however, that this alleged evidence is wishful thinking.
Unless this is about Hirohito, his conversion should be evidenced by events from the American occupation. Then, as a result, he would say I am – for personal reasons, including shock caused by defeat in war and by subsequently executing some of the imperial ministers as war criminals, he had the emperor is said to be interested in the conversion.
Next, the rumors concerned Hirohito’s successor – Emperor Akihito. His relations with a profoundly religious person, even if his religiosity was specific, because I mean the American commander MacArthur, were minimally complicated. The fact is that Akihito was under the supervision of an American educator – a Protestant from a group of Quakers – a deeply religious person.
But even if it had happened, neither Hirohito’s nor Akihito’s conversion to Christianity was officially announced.
Why?
Usually, there are two reasons for the adverse decisions of the Japanese rulers. The first is that if the emperor did it, it would explain that he did it out of fear and that it was collaboration and humiliation on his part. He praised democracy and the occupation, and now he praises Christianity.
Second, the lost war strongly threatened the throne’s position. V If a converted emperor were to sit on the throne, it could cause too much upheaval for the very institution of the Japanese monarchy.
Is it is known that Hirohito corresponded with Pope Pius XII, thanks to which they began to spread more crazy rumors on this topic. We know that he visited Nagasaki – the center of Japanese Christianity and at the same time, the city was destroyed as a result of a nuclear attack. It is also known that he suggested they pray together at meetings with his son’s Christian teacher, but do we know if he turned? We don’t know. Probably nah.
And what do we know, Professor?
Hirohito had two sons – Akihita, who recently resigned, and Prince Masahito. Unless it is about the prince, there is some evidence. Still, unfortunately, it is not convincing that during his stay abroad, he became a Christian and regularly believed that he practiced. It was never announced in Japan ex-cathedra.
Fortunately or unfortunately for the system in Japan, religion is relegated to a background completely different than, e.g., in the British royal family. There, it is clear that the consequence of conversion to Catholicism is the loss of the right to the throne, which is quite amusing because discussions remain as to whether an atheist can be the head of the Anglican Church. However, if we consider contemporary Protestantism, the answer can be heard more and more often: „Why not?“
It is also certain that Emperor Akihito married a Christian woman, even though he tried to deny it.
What do you mean by that?
V in 1959, Akihito married a person from the people. In the future, although Empress Michiko came from a wealthy family, she was from a family without aristocratic titles, and in addition, she was a Christian – horror of horrors. It went about the first such case in Japan’s history.
Negotiated about it in the parliament as much as possible, but a representative of the imperial court said it was no problem because despite her parents being Christians, Michiko was not baptized, so the fears were irrelevant.
It is. However, it is doubtful that Christian parents in the thirties did not have their daughter baptized when the empress came into the world. Why wouldn’t they have done that? Maybe they were already counting then because she would become the bride of the heir to the throne?
Her affiliations among Christ’s followers are evidenced by much circumstantial evidence, e.g., an audience with Pope John Paul II in which the Empress kneels and kisses his ring, so he makes a gesture before which Pope Francis was recently reluctant about hygiene reasons.
Except for Michiko’s question, which, according to her, was the most crucial event in the history of Japan, she answered without hesitation: Visit the Holy Father in our country.
In connection with this, we can assume that the empress converted to Christianity your man – Emperor Akihito?
Even if that were to happen, I repeat: these questions are not asked by anyone in Japan. Drama consists of even if the emperor ( the former emperor!) Akihito became a Christian; it would not impress anyone more. It would be a great shame for the Japanese government and the imperial court, but nothing more.
But after all, the current Japanese government is breaking all kinds of taboos. Some time ago, the constitution was voted on, according to which the Japanese armed forces can participate in foreign missions, which caused fierce disputes in the local parliament because it meant a change of more fifty-year ban…
No these are no taboo topics, only politically sensitive issues. Tabooed the topic is, for example, finding an answer to the question of whether Japan committed aggression during World War II or whether he surrendered at Yasukuni Shrine in respect of war criminals.
You are talking about political gestures that can be beneficial or unhelpful.
According to you, the Japanese government would react if the future Emperor Naruhito said: Am I Catholic?
That would be a problem for her. Mainly because some politicians of the so-called debating class would start thinking out loud about who the emperor is, what the monarchy is, and what the state is.
The Japanese constitution does not clearly say that the emperor is the head of state. Even with a bit of malice, it is also possible to conclude that, in reality, this is not the case. It is written there that the emperor is a symbol of the state and the unity of the nation, but such problematic questions arose, for example, whether the emperor has the right to receive credentials from ambassadors (a receives…), i.e., when he is not the head of state in the technical sense of the word.
Indeed, whether the emperor-Christian can perform all Shinto rituals would be debatable. Even so, we have a problem – on whose behalf does it do it? Is it state celebrations or his private activity?
But why is it so important? After all, a person has the impression that Japan is essentially a secular state…
