Martyrs of Japan
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The 1500s was a time of incredible change. The world was expanding rapidly, people were
interacting for the first time, and European powers were beginning to trade
with places they’d never known of before.
East Asia, South Asia, the Americas: There was a whole new world out
there.
During time, Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits, and
some others set off for Japan. It was,
at that time, fertile mission field. The
people of Japan were receptive to Christianity, and the Shogunate welcomed
them.
The Christian Missionaries were welcomed for a couple of
reasons. The Shogunate appreciated the
trade benefits that the missionaries brought; allowing the missionaries into
the country greased the skids a bit for trade with Spain and Portugal, which
was something they wanted. Additionally,
the missionaries and the church provided a check on the Buddhist monks.
When we think of Buddhists these days, we tend to think of
people like the Dali Lama, or perhaps a middle-aged hippy Uncle with a soul
patch who treks off to California occasionally to “find himself.” In reality, they can be quite a force to be
reckoned with. Even today in Myanmar,
there are always roughly the same number of Buddhist monks as there are men in
the Army, and the two provide a check on each other, not just morally, but in
force. In past uprisings and unrest, it
has been the monks that have lead the protests, and in some cases, brutal
violence. The Shogun was more than happy
to let in someone who would help check and reduce their power.
Eventually, though, the Shogun started worrying about
Imperialism, and he wasn't wrong. The
Spanish especially did tend to send Christian Missionaries into countries partially to
undermine the power of the “pagan” governments so that they could come in and
take control as the rightful Christian rulers.
Eventually, the Shogunate found a trade ship with some arms on it, which
was not kindly received. They reacted, well… poorly.
They cracked down on Christians, culminating in a battle where 30, 000
Christians faced off against 100,000 Samurai.
Though there was a great cost to the government, the Christians were
crushed.
Japan sealed their borders, and effectively cut off in the
early 1600s, and they would not open for more than 200 years.
The thing is, there were still many, many Christians in
Japan. And those Christians needed
priests. And Jesus called us to preach
the Gospel in all parts of the world.
And so priests snuck in and were smuggled in to provide
sacramental ministry to the Christians who were in Japan. Both those martyred at the beginning of the
genocide and those who were caught during it faced horrific fates.
On February 5th, 1597, twenty-six Christians were crucified
in Nagasaki. They were the first of
thousands to be killed. Wives and
children of those who were martyred were also ordered to be killed.
A ships captain who helped sneak two priests into the
country who was himself Christian was caught and sentenced to be burned. He preached on the scaffold before his
execution and was ordered to stop. He
asked what greater pain they could inflict on him than they were already, and
he continued to preach even as he burned.
His body and those of his officers who met the same fate were left for
days where they were. Christians tried
to come and venerate the bodies and take relics, and they were beaten severely.
Christians were crucified. They were hung upside down into
cesspits with slits cut into their foreheads to relieve the pressure in their
heads. They were tied naked to stakes as
the tide came in, left to either drown or freeze to death. Many went to their death singing hymns of
praise, on their way to paradise.
Priest captured would be put where they could hear and see
their flock captured with them. If they
did not recant and apostasize, their flock would be tortured and executed in
front of them until they did. Rather
than torture and inflict pain, Christians were made to bear the suffering of
others, taking on responsibility for the suffering and death of those they
loved, a story as old as Christianity itself.
The whole nation was divided into groups of three
families. If one family was found to be
Christian and they were not turned in by o
ne of the two families they were
paired with, all three families would be tortured and killed.
There has perhaps at no point since the death of Christ,
including during the Diocletian persecutions or the persecution of Nero, been a
time when Christians were more literally forced to take up their cross and
follow. When we pray that God regard not
our sins but the faith of the church, this is the faith to which we can only
hope to attain.
This faith in a good and loving God, and incarnate God, a
God awash in love in the person of Jesus is all the more remarkable for
allowing itself to be proclaimed in the face of forces that can only be
described as satanic.
A comparable analogue today would be if priests were
sneaking into Nineveh in territory controlled by the Islamic State and were
ministering to the Christians there. The
threat they would be under is similar, and the need for Christian witness would
be similar. That is the gravity of the situation in which these Christians
found themselves.
And yet, the faith continued. The light of Christ was not extinguished. When Japan opened its borders nearly 200
years after sealing itself off, families were found that had crosses and
crucifixes carved into the back of their Buddha statues.
And though there are nearly three times as many Catholics
today in Philly as in Japan. More
Catholics in Philly than there are Christians of any stripe in Japan. There are still Christians in Japan. Even those forces of Darkness could not be
overcome by the forces of Christ.
Though the teachings were imperfect, having been handed down
for generations without access to training or clergy, the faith continued, the
traditions were passed down, and the church did not fail.
The Persecution in Japan was the most successful, and it
forced nearly all Christians to take up their cross and follow, but even in the
face of that success, Christianity endured.
We will never be asked to take up our cross like the martyrs
of Japan. We’ll never be asked to suffer
in the same way they did. But we can
draw our inspiration from them, we can remember their witness during our own
difficulty, we can be brave enough to share the Gospel with those we encounter. We can strive to witness as they did. And by doing so, we can honor the sacrifices
they made while tied to stakes, awash in seawater, amidst the flames, hanging
in cesspits, and bearing the suffering of others.
May we have even a portion of the bravery and faith those
brave men and women had, to give up our lives, take up our crosses, and follow
the risen Christ.
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