Western-Style Weddings in Japan

The shoguns of the time were pretty peeved about this and understandably saw Christianity as a threatening 'foot in the door' by Iberians for future colonisation; just as Europeans were doing to other countries.

Japanese tend to be quite tolerant of other religions and the government's persecution of Christians was sociopolitical rather than purely on religious grounds. The Christian teaching that an individual's conscience and ethic should dictate their belief was hard to swallow by the Shogunate who demanded unconditional obedience.

Consequently around 280,000 Christians were reportedly tortured and 3,000 to 6,000 martyred. We don't know how this persecution (fumi-e) took place, and early modern hagiographers were inclined to exaggerate the number of martyrs. However, the crucifixion in 1597 of six missionaries and 20 Japanese converts is recorded in Nagasaki, executed on the orders of Japan's supreme ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi and a further 51 in 1622.

(Watch Scorsese's 2016 movie Silence starring Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson and others, based on Shusaku Endo's book depicting the incredible torture inflicted on, and suffered by, 17th century Christians in Japan.)

In 1626 Christianity was completely banned, forcing any remaining adherents to hide from inquisitors.

But life was not so easy for them either and the persecutions continued as the Tokugawa anti-Christian edicts were still in force. In 1859, ten or more were tortured to death. A few years later 64 Christians were arrested in Urakami, and in Omura 110 were imprisoned. Sixty of them died of exposure.

Things didn't improve much from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Over 4,000 Christians were shipped to other provinces. Six hundred of them died in exile and it wasn't until 14 March 1873 that international pressure forced the Meiji government to issue a decree withdrawing religious sanctions, allowing the remaining exiles to return home. This was a good start, although complete religious freedom was conspicuously absent from the charter.

As mentioned above, the Japanese are remarkably tolerant to other religions. Even so, they're an island race and it's natural for islanders to perceive anything foreign as a threat. As recently as October 1941, Dr Roy Byram, his wife and another missionary were arrested for promoting a religion opposed to the state's official religion of Shintoism.

The next year, 42 Pentecostal ministers were arrested for teaching the sovereignty of Christ. Was this religious fervour on behalf of the Shintoist? Unlikely, since Shintoism is all about respect. Was it nationalism? Probably. The Japanese authorities no doubt welcomed the apparent 'progress' from adopting Western ways, such as the colleges, trade unions, medicine, etc. But they would also have realised the threat of Western economic domination.

Although the Meiji constitution allowed freedom of religion, Christianity was still technically a crime with a maximum punishment of death. In the Second World War, Shinto was the official religion and all others were illegal. Christians were seen as sympathetic to the Allies and therefore traitors, so persecution increased.

(Ironically, when the US dropped their atomic bomb on Nagasaki Cathedral in 1945, it killed more Christians than had ever been killed in Japan during centuries of persecution.)

At the end of the war in 1945, as part of the surrender Japan was forced to adopt our God Bless America's one-size-fits-all constitution. After all, if the culture is good for the USA then it must be good for every country.

This egocentric arrogance, under the guise of a moral crusade, continues today. Ignoring the Japanese Constitution that prohibits any form of overseas military engagement, Japan was forced to send its troops to support Bush's war in Iraq and Japan is forced to pay for the US military to remain on Japanese soil to safeguard the economic interest of the US in Asia.