[CATHOLIC / ORTHODOX CAUCUS] The Catholic Holocaust of Nagasaki

Nagasaki was first evangelized in 1549 by Jesuit missionaries from Portugal, led by the Spanish Jesuit St. Francis Xavier, who arrived in Nagasaki on August 15, the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.2 Providentially, perhaps, exactly four hundred years later in Nagasaki on August 15, 1949—and exactly four years after Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945—there would be a great celebration of Japan’s evangelization by this great preacher, with high Church officials and a delegate from Pope Pius XII in attendance. The coincidence of these three “Assumption events” is quite striking and, as we shall see, not isolated.3

Christianity spread quickly from Nagasaki, so that by 1580, just over thirty years, there were two hundred thousand converts in Japan. The multiplication of Christians proceeded despite the opposition of Buddhist priests and local rulers. However, in 1587, after a sizable number of Japanese feudal barons and a great number of samurai became Christians, along with the tens of thousands of peasants and townsfolk, Emperor Hideyoshi reversed his previous admiration for the Jesuits, ordering that they be banished and that all Japanese Christians renounce their religion. Nevertheless, in 1593 six Franciscans, led by the Spanish friar Fr. Peter Baptiste, also entered Japan and worked zealously amid persecution, converting many to the faith and even building some churches and a hospital.

In 1596 the Emperor cracked down on the Christians, ordering twenty-six of the leading offenders to be arrested in Kyoto, the capital city, and force-marched to Nagasaki for the penalty of death by crucifixion. The offenders consisted of three Jesuits, fifteen Franciscan Tertiaries, two other laymen, and the six Franciscan friars. Each had part of his left ear cut off before the forced march to Nagasaki, a distance of about five hundred miles taking thirty days, all in the midst of winter. In Nagasaki they were tied to crosses with their necks held in place by iron rings. As they awaited death, the singing of psalms broke out from the twenty-six. The great crowd that had assembled to watch the spectacle quieted and began to listen. Then one of the twenty-six began the Sanctus, a fitting oblation: for here, as in the Mass, they were offering themselves for the glory of God and were about to have their lives crushed out, just as the bread and wine offering is made by the crushing of wheat and grapes. Then one of the Franciscans, from his cross, began singing the simplest of litanies, “Jesus, Mary…Jesus, Mary….” The event is beautifully re-told in A Song for Nagasaki:

The Christians in the crowd took up the prayer, four thousand of them. Hazaburo Terazawa was the official in charge of the execution, and he would have to give a personal account to the dictator. He was growing apprehensive, as it was becoming a show of Christian strength rather than the bloodcurdling spectacle Dictator Hideyoshi had ordered.

One of the twenty-six asked leave to speak. He was the thirty-three-year-old Jesuit Paul Miki, son of a general in Baron Takayama’s army, an accomplished catechist and preacher. Dying well was tremendously important for samurai, and they often met death with a jisei no uta, or farewell song. Miki’s strong voice reached the edges of the crowd.

“I am a Japanese and a brother of the Society of Jesus. I have committed no crime. The only reason I am condemned to die is that I have taught the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am happy to die for that and accept death as a great gift from my Lord.” Miki asked the crowd if they saw fear on the faces of the twenty-six. He assured them there was no fear because heaven was real. He had only one dying request: that they believe. He said he forgave Hideyoshi and those responsible for his execution. Then with deliberation and a ringing voice, he gave his farewell song. It was the verse of Psalm 31 that Christ quoted from the Cross: “Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Terazawa gave a sign, and the samurai moved in with their steel-tipped bamboo lances. The samurai gave deep-throated cries, and their lances ripped into the twenty-six. The deadly silence of the crowd suddenly erupted into an angry roar, and Terazawa hurriedly withdrew to complete his report. The spectacle of humiliation had gone awry. The prestige of Christians rose dramatically, and baptisms increased.4

It was February 5, 1597, the day of Japan’s first martyrs, now celebrated in the Church as a memorial on February 6. Christianity continued to spread in Japan, especially after the Emperor died. However, in 1614 a new persecution began and Christians in great numbers chose death rather than renouncing the faith. Within a year all churches and missionary centers were destroyed. With government agents, soldiers and spies everywhere, priests and catechists were executed, and new priests arriving from Europe were easily identified by their foreign accents and executed. With the introduction of new and refined tortures to break the Christians, Nagasaki Christians migrated to offshore islands and inland, up the nearby Urakami Valley. They devised ways of handing on the faith without priests: they became farmers and fishermen and formed an underground church. They appointed a “waterman” to baptize, a “calendar man” to keep the dates of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and so forth, and a chokata, or “head man,” as overall leader.5

This is important. Note that Mary, Mother Of God, Queen Of Heaven and Earth, saved man who was at ground Zero from all radiation effects, and he lived to be an old man.

At the time, US President was a Mason, but I know NOT if there is a connection with the fact that both Japanese civilian targets where predominately Catholic!

I’d be curious to know the name of the man at ground zero, and reading his story. I would have thought that the heat and pressure waves would have done for him, and that in his case radiation would have been redundant.

Wikipedia (FWIW):

On May 10–11, 1945, the Target Committee at Los Alamos, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, recommended Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and the arsenal at Kokura as possible targets. The target selection was subject to the following criteria:

* The target was larger than three miles in diameter and was an important target in a large urban area.
* The blast would create effective damage.
* The target was unlikely to be attacked by August 1945. “Any small and strictly military objective should be located in a much larger area subject to blast damage in order to avoid undue risks of the weapon being lost due to bad placing of the bomb.”

I don’t see the demographics of the cities listed for consideration.

I highly recommend the book “Song For Nagasaki”. It may be available through your local library. If not, Ignatius press should have it.

http://www.ignatius.com/Products/SNAG-P/a-song-for-nagasaki.aspx

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