Nagasaki Prefecture
Following our day in Arita, Woody and I headed to bed while continuing to marvel at our experiences over the prior two days. We had slept in a western bed the first evening, but since we were staying in this historic home with its very Japanese features, we decided to try sleeping “Japanese style” in the adjacent bedroom. The bedroom was part of the original home with a grass mat flooring, or ‘tatami’, and rice paper sliding doors, or ‘shoji’. The sliding doors opened to balconies that overlooked the front courtyard and the garden and surrounding hills.
As had become our nightly routine, we took turns taking a bath when we were ready for bed. Then as Woody slept, I mapped out our plans for the following day while we had Internet access. In addition to finding some primary destinations to visit, I also looked for restaurants where we could find food that we both liked, and also a place that I thought I could get to and find parking.
Since the city of Nagasaki was infamous for being one of two cities that were destroyed by an atomic bomb, I thought the city, and the museum built to commemorate the bomb and its victims, to be an important place for us to visit the following day.
As I scanned the area around the atomic bomb museum, I discovered a memorial that had been built on a prominent hill in the center of the city to honor 26 Christians who had been martyred there through crucifixion because they would not renounce their faith. That occurred in the late 1500’s in the years leading up to the closing of Japan. Given our calling, I thought we should visit this memorial as well.
Knowing that there is an unseen spiritual battle spoken of in the gospels, the prophets, and epistles, I believe the extinguishing of Christianity, the closing of Japan, and the atomic bomb were all related. They not only had direct effects, but indirect effects as well. When it comes to the gospel, a closed Japan continues to persist today. It will only be broken by the Holy Spirit in His time.
Consider the prophetic word of the Lord spoken to Abram regarding his offspring's rise and captivity in Egypt before destroying the Amorites and taking the land of Israel:
Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.
Genesis 15:16
We may not know or understand God’s time with the nations of men but we can be assured that He knows the heart of man and that we can completely rest and trust Him and His plan. In Joel, He states:
It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophecy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Joel 2:28-29
Random Dutch encounter
The following morning, Woody and I left the Airbnb and walked across the railroad tracks and made our way down the path towards the car. As we approached the intersection of the two walking paths, we suddenly heard a woman’s voice.
“Yoo hoo! Helloooo there!” sounded the voice. We looked around but saw no people. The woman repeated the greeting and we spotted her calling and waving through an open downstairs window of a nearby two story building. “Hello! Are you staying at the Villa Kaede?” she continued as we stopped and began talking with her across a vacant lot between the pathway and the building.
“Yes… we are,” I replied somewhat haltingly as I wasn’t sure if I should be affirming where we were staying out loud to a complete stranger while leaving many important belongings behind in the house.
“Oh, it’s a wonderful place!” she said as I continued to wonder who she was. Her English was quite good, although she spoke with a strong accent. With the empty lot between us, we both spoke fairly loudly as we continued the conversation. I could clearly see that she was of western descent.
“Do you live in Arita?” I asked.
“Yes, yes,” she started. “I bought this building as a place for people to stay while visiting Arita. Like many of the buildings in this part of Arita, it was in disrepair. I was able to convince the owners and town that I could fix it. So I bought it and had some friends that helped me to renovate the property.”
“That’s amazing,” I replied. “Your English is quite good but I detect an accent. Do you mind if I ask where you are originally from?”
“Oh, I’m Dutch. My name is Hanneke. Are you American?” she asked in reply.
“Yes. My name is Rick and this is my wife, Woody. We’re from Texas. I’m of Japanese descent. We’re here for a short time and found this place on Airbnb. Can I ask how you came to live in Arita?” I continued as I was surprised and curious as to what brought her to this rural town.
“I came here a while back to live and work in Nagasaki. Have you been there? There is a large Dutch amusement park and also a pretty large Dutch community,” she replied.
“Oh, that’s fascinating! We’re going to visit Nagasaki today. Interesting…” I paused as I wondered if I should say more. “My hero is Dutch,” I continued, not really meaning it as bait.
“Really? Dutch?” She asked in amazement. “Who is your hero?” she asked.
“Have you ever heard of Corrie ten Boon?” I asked in reply. “She recently passed away, but she’s my hero,” I continued as I thought this might be the first Dutch person that I’ve ever met.
“What is this ‘ten Boon’?” I have often seen it on signs and things back home, but I don’t know who that is!”
I then described the ten Boon family and their actions to save Jews from capture and transfer to death camps during WWII during the Nazi occupation of Holland. I told her of Corrie and how she seemed to be the least likely of the ten Boon family to become famous, but how God had used her and her family, and later allowed her to survive and then escape from the most deadly Nazi woman’s concentration camp. And despite her father and sister perishing as prisoners, how God used her to help so many people all over the world following the war. I asked if she had ever heard of the book, The Hiding Place - the biography of that period in her life.
I let her know what inspired me the most about Corrie’s life was to see how the God of the universe was alive and active in the life of a modern person. I had read of the relationship between God and men and women in the Bible, but when I read the story about Corrie and her relationship with God, it was so thrilling to me. I knew that she had the type of relationship that I desired with God. Her humility and her life before God is what made her my hero.
I then shared a brief account of my testimony and how I too found and have enjoyed a relationship with God. I told her how my relationship with God brought us to Arita and our trip to Kyushu.
Hanneke intently listened to all that I had to say. It was a lot to take in! After talking a bit more she expressed how very grateful she was that we stopped to have this conversion. She hoped that our paths would cross again so we could talk further.
I certainly did not expect to meet a Dutch woman in rural Kyushu and felt assured that the Lord of the universe had caused our paths to cross and had given me the words to speak. Following our return to Texas from our trip, I sent the books The Hiding Place and Tramp for the Lord to the address of her guest house in Arita. The two books wonderfully capture the story of my Dutch hero!
Following our conversation with Hanneke, Woody and I continued our walk to the parking area for our 75km drive to the atomic bomb museum. We still hadn’t purchased groceries so I planned to stop for an early lunch when we arrived in Nagasaki. There didn’t appear to be very many options near the museum so I searched for restaurants on the roads leading to the museum.
One of the only restaurants directly on our route was a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Much like its counterparts in the US, I could use Google Street View to see that it had ample parking surrounding the restaurant. I thought it would be fun to visit an American fast food restaurant while in Japan. KFC would be of particular interest since we heard that there was an odd tradition for Japanese to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Eve.
As we were getting settled in the car, I opened the maps application on my phone to help direct us to the location. The previous day, I found that I could open both the map application in the car and on my phone, and then use the location on my phone to find the location on the map in the car by comparing the layout of the roads on the two maps. It was a laborious and cumbersome way to do so as I would have to make sure both maps had logical north pointing in the same direction. I would need to zoom in and out on both maps in order to make sure I was viewing the same location on both maps. The screen in the car was much larger and convenient to view, particularly while driving, so it was worth the effort in my mind.
As I went through the motions to look for the KFC on the car map, Woody asked if I could look up the location in the directory. I showed her that the street names and location names were all in Japanese. She then remembered that the agent who rented us the car said that we could use a phone number to obtain directions to a location with the car GPS. I had completely forgotten that, as had she, until this moment!
In the tiny notebook that I used to record our planned destinations and restaurants, I had also included the phone numbers of the planned destinations. I opened the notebook and then entered the phone number of the KFC into the car mapping application. Sure enough, it positioned the map destination over the location of the Nagasaki KFC! From there, I could instruct the app to map a route from our current position to that location! Soon thereafter, we were on our way to the KFC in Nagasaki and I was once again reminded of the wonderful partner that God has given me. It is particularly helpful when I am kind and patient and take the time to listen!
An hour and a ‘yatta’ or two later, we exited the toll road and into the city of Nagasaki. We made it a practice to pray as we crossed the border into each prefecture with the understanding that our obedience to visit every prefecture is spiritually beyond what we know or understand, but clearly what we know to be His instruction.
How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? But how are they to preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”
Romans 10:14-15
KFC
We soon found ourselves at an intersection next to the KFC. The parking area, although small in comparison to those in the states, looked so wonderfully familiar and car friendly. We parked, thanked the Lord for an in-car GPS that navigated us to our intended destination, and headed inside for a subsequent lesson on how not to communicate in Japan, and one that we will likely laugh about for the rest of our lives.
Woody and I decided to split a meal which we often do now that we are older and in need of fewer calories. The one caveat at KFC is that we both prefer eating a chicken thigh, and a meal with 2 thighs is not a selectable meal option. Even when we order at one of the stateside chicken fast food restaurants, we have to find a way to order a two thigh meal.
As we walked into the KFC, the signage looked familiar but the writing was all in Japanese. Our first inclination was to try ordering in English. What seemed so simple before we walked in likely became a memorable moment for the servers who were trying to make heads or tails of what we were trying to say.
The first chuckle came when I tried to say, “I want one order of two thighs.” Seems simple enough, right? Seeing that the young lady at the counter didn’t speak English, I tried to give my order while substituting the Japanese words for one (ichi) and two (ni), all while holding up my fingers to emphasize what I was saying. She didn’t understand.
We now know that the Japanese have a different way of expressing quantities. We were familiar with the basic numbers in Japanese, but were not aware of the Japanese counting words. Furthermore, the Japanese have a notion of ‘counters’ for different types of things, with each type having its own set of counters.
My guess is since they didn’t understand ‘order’ or ‘thigh,’ they just heard me saying one and then two. Thinking about it from their perspective, was I emphasizing our orders by number? Or perhaps we wanted to order meal number one or two? Or perhaps we didn’t know the quantity words and we wanted one or two pieces of chicken?
The poor young lady was soon joined by two other workers all trying to discern our order. They would politely hold a hand in front of their mouth as they whispered ideas amongst themselves. Every so often, one server would boldly try to express what they thought we were saying in order to see if it was correct. When those efforts failed, the workers and I started to point at the pictures of chicken on their overhead monitors but that seemed to elicit more confusion since none of the pictures depicted what we wanted. Was I pointing at a meal option, a particular piece of chicken, or what?
Seeing that I wasn’t getting anywhere, Woody thought to interject the word, ‘tori’ into the conversation in an effort to clarify what I was trying to say. Tori means ‘bird’ in Japanese, but is often used in restaurants to refer to chicken. I tried to remind Woody that KFC is a chicken (tori) restaurant. I didn’t think her saying it was helpful, but she continued to inject a ‘tori’ here and there, which combined with my ‘ichi’ and ‘ni’ adding to the humor and confusion.
At one point, I seemed to get the point across as to the number of pieces that we wanted, but the cashier turned and pointed at a photo of a drumstick to confirm what we wanted. I shook my head, picked up my leg and slapped my thigh in an effort to communicate that we wanted a thigh and not a leg, to which the servers once again appeared confused. For all I know, she might have been trying to confirm we wanted a piece of chicken and not a chicken sandwich or another menu item. Meanwhile, Woody started to laugh uncontrollably seeing me slap my thigh in an effort to communicate the type of pieces that we wanted.
At this point, the servers, Woody and I were all giggling as we settled on an order which I then paid. What order? I don’t even recall! l don't even recall what pieces of chicken we ended up receiving, or whether we received one or two meals. We could hardly eat as we continued to break out in laughter at our silly effort to order chicken at a familiar American fast food restaurant in Japan.
During the remainder of our trip over the next two weeks, Woody would occasionally burst out in laughter as she would lift up and slap her leg. I would join her laughing while saying, ‘tori, tori, tori!’. Meanwhile we imagined that the KFC servers likely continued to have a giggle from our visit. “Remember when the Americans came and the man started to slap his leg while his wife kept saying, ‘bird, bird, bird?!’”
Our journey here on earth while walking with the Lord is full of surprises and encompasses the whole character of his creation, including laughter! It’s an incredibly fabulous journey!
Atomic Bomb Museum
We left KFC and our laughter for a most sobering visit to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. It’s perhaps impossible to characterize a single moment and determine its effect on a people, a nation and the world. But one of those moments in modern times has to be the Nagasaki atomic bomb. In an instant, the lives of many in the city were extinguished. But more importantly, it led to Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who many Japanese considered to be a god, cast a deciding vote for the nation of Japan to surrender, and led to the Emperor's official declaration of surrender being broadcast to the Japanese people within a week.
It’s impossible to really capture the magnitude of the event or the aftermath, but seeing the artifacts and the photographs provides a glimpse of the weapon and provides an understanding as to why there is so much effort to not allow it to proliferate.
But perhaps a more stunning outcome that resulted from the bomb and Japan’s surrender is the transformation of the Japanese from ruthlessness and brutality to what many now consider to be one of the most gentle, kind and passive people.
The following thoughts all came to mind as we walked through the museum:
- My great-grandfather, who had returned to Japan from Hawaii following the death of his wife, survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb three days prior to the bomb in Nagasaki
- My grandfather and grand uncle both received national decorations (The Order of the Rising Sun) from Emperor Hirohito for their efforts in helping Japan to rebuild after the war and to build ties with the United States
- My father served three tours in Japan, the last two under two 3-star generals who led the US Air Force in Japan and throughout the Pacific, and the further transition of power to Japan and to the Japanese defense force
- I was born in Japan, a short 12 years after the bomb, on a US military installation outside of Tokyo
- The Japanese people have adopted governmental, economic, industrial, education, and cultural America, but not the God in which America was founded
26 Martyrs
A few miles from the atomic bomb museum I discovered a much lesser known museum that memorializes 26 people who were crucified on Nishizaka hill in Nagasaki for refusing to renounce their faith in 1597. They were some of the first of thousands who were killed.
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| Side of memorial marker and almond tree |
I was really surprised when I learned about the 26 martyrs while planning our trip to Nagasaki. Woody and I were unaware that Christians were martyred in Japan, that crucifixion was used, or that Japan had a period of time when Christianity, or Catholicism in particular, was banned. Because of our calling, I felt that it was important that we visit the museum and learn more about what happened.
The museum noted that a Jesuit priest, Francis Xavier, brought Christianity to Japan when he landed in the southern town of Kagoshima in southern Kyushu in 1549. Francis Xavier is noted to be one of the seven students who made a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience which led to the creation of the religious order known as the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. Xavier’s commitment ultimately led him to travel to India under the direction of Pope Paul III, and eventually to Japan. He was sent to India as part of a Portuguese delegation meant to shore up the faith of those who preceded him for trade and conquest.
According to the museum records, Xavier found some success finding converts in Japan. Around 500 people had converted to Catholicism by 1552 when Xavier left to return to India. The museum states that Catholicism continued to spread and that their numbers grew to 30,000 by 1571, to 297,000 by 1597 when the 26 were martyred, and to 400,000 by 1614 when Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, began to strictly enforce the ban on Christianity and the expulsion of the missionaries from Japan.
At the time of Christian banishment, the Shogun was the leader who answered to the Emperor, but ultimately held power during this period in Japan. According to museum records, over 250,000 Japanese were martyred, although other sources list this number as much fewer. As a note, the museum numbers may include those who committed apostasy by renouncing their faith to the Catholic church in addition to those who were actually killed.
Why was there such a strong rejection of Christianity by the Japanese rulers after over 50 years of tolerance? In the midst of this writing on Nagasaki, I decided to take time to try and gain an understanding of what occurred during this period. To that end I stumbled across an excellent resource, The Christian Century in Japan, written by C. R. Boxer in 1951. His book covers the period between 1549 - 1650. I appreciate that Mr. Boxer made an effort to include the many perspectives from letters and writings which were preserved by various entities in Portugal, Spain, Holland, England and Japan. He includes an English translation of these writings in his book and appendices.
I started to write a brief synopsis of Boxer’s book but there is really no way to do it justice as it is quite lengthy and involved. I decided to instead summarize this critical historical period to the best of what I learned from Boxer and other sources. I believe the events that occurred during this period help to understand Japan's current spiritual darkness when it comes to faith in Christ.
Let’s first look at the state of the nations that interacted with Japan during this time period. Following the discoveries of Christopher Columbus in 1492, there were disputes between Portugal and Spain as to the sovereignty of the lands discovered beyond western Europe. To resolve the dispute, the leaders of Portugal and Spain, with the blessing of the Pope, drew up a north to south demarcation in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Japan fell to Portugal under the treaty.
Soon thereafter the Protestant Reformation reshaped western Europe. Portugal and Spain remained part of the Catholic Church and both nations became two of the fiercest defenders of Catholicism. England had separated from the Catholic Church a little more than a decade prior to Xavier's arrival. The Dutch Republic was fighting for independence from Spain and the Catholic Church during this period.
When Frances Xavier arrived in Kyushu in 1549, Japan was in the midst of a civil war between regional samurai leaders, called ‘daimyo.’ In succession, three Daimyos - Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa - fought and rose to power in an effort to unify Japan from Xavier’s time of arrival until the early 1600s. After many years of fighting, all of Japan became unified under Tokugawa. What is known as the ‘Tokugawa Shogunate’ began in 1603 and remained in power for almost 270 years.
Prior to the unification, regional daimyos embraced the trade that the Portuguese brought to Japan. At the time, Portugal was the preeminent shipbuilding and naval power in the world. Their ships dwarfed the much smaller boats of the Japanese and became known as the 'black ship', or ‘kurofune,’ because of the dark pitch and tar that coated the hulls of their ships. Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit missionary to arrive on one of these trading ships to Japan.
Xavier initially dressed in humble attire and attempted to convert the working class as he had done in other places before coming to Japan. Having very little success, Xavier and his entourage changed their tactics when first meeting the daimyo of Yamaguchi by dressing as persons of stature and bearing gifts. Xavier and his entourage were well received and the daimyo in turn gave them permission to preach to his people.
From that point forward, the Jesuits continued to appeal first to the daimyo of a province. In several instances the daimyo himself would convert to Christianity and then strongly urge conversion to those in his province. The Jesuits found much success using this approach and Japan soon became renowned within the Catholic church as its most successful missionary outreach in Asia and the world.
It is important to note the unfortunate connection between the Portuguese merchants and the Jesuits which makes it difficult to know the actual effectiveness of the Jesuits' outreach. Receiving goods from a Portuguese black ship was particularly lucrative to the daimyo and his province. Records indicate that many local conversions were coerced in order to gain favor with the Jesuits in the hopes that the merchant ship would come to their ports.
While reading through Boxer’s book, I often found myself considering Paul's writing in Ephesians regarding the “schemes of the devil.”
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12
In considering Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, the first scheme was to appeal to His hunger by getting Him to command stones to turn to bread. Jesus' response was, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’” He set a contrast between man’s temporal need and eternal sustenance and its source.
In contrast, the Roman Emperor Constantine’s incorporation of Christianity into the Roman Empire back in the 4th century (see Thoughts on the Church) normalized mammon as an integral part of the church and created the institutional church that was present in 16th century Japan and persists to this day throughout the world.
In theory, the Portuguese merchants were to appeal to the Japanese temporal needs while the Jesuits were to present the eternal. In practice, there was not a clear delineation between the two. In so doing, the Japanese were challenged to embrace two masters, God and mammon, much as we are today.
During the sermon on the mount, Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” You can’t help but see this introduction of God with mammon during this period in Japan and the difficult, and likely confusing, predicament it ultimately placed on the listener.
To complicate matters, the Franciscans, a different sect of the Catholic church, made their way to Japan aboard Spanish ships when the Spanish traders arrived. The Spanish became aware of the lucrative Portuguese trade and began using suspect means to defy their treaty with Portugal regarding jurisdiction over Japan.
Rather than taking on the dress and traditions of the Japanese as the Jesuits had done, the Franciscans retained their traditional dress and held mass in the open. They appealed to the lower class and began having success in making converts amongst them. However, contention began to grow and fester between the Franciscan and the Jesuit orders and between their followers. Rather than presenting a unified representation of the church, the Jesuits and Franciscans made appeals to the Japanese rulers to have the other order expelled from Japan.
The contradictions between the message and the messengers led to an additional problem. The Japanese rulers faced an ongoing concern of what was described as a Christian “5th column.” It was a tactic of Spain and Portugal to use Christian conversions to subvert the populace in order to overthrow governments so that the country would come under theirs and the Pope’s rule and authority. The direct admission to this subversion by a Spanish pilot was the catalyst for Toyotomi Hideyoshi to order the execution of the 26 martyrs and the initial ban on Christianity.
Hideyoshi already was made aware that the Philippines had come under the rule of Spain under this pretense. The direct admission by Spanish Pilot Major Francisco de Olandia affirmed this concern. Of the 26 martyrs, twenty were Japanese and one was a crew member from the Spanish galleon. Three Jesuits were included by mistake. The 26 were paraded in towns from Kyoto to Nagasaki as an example of the ban on Christianity. The route spanned roughly 1000km, or 621 miles, and took around 30 days.
The gospel was further complicated with the arrival of the first Dutch ship to Japan with an English Pilot, William Adams, in command. Adams was a Protestant Christian as were the Dutch. The Jesuits claimed that Adams and his shipmates were pirates and that the Japanese should put them to death. In a letter, Adams writes:
Now in this long time of imprisonment, the Jesuites and the Portugals gave many evidences to the Emperour against us, alleadging that wee were theeves and robbers of all Nations and if we were suffered to live, it should be against the profit of his Majestie, and the Land : for then no Nation could come there without robbing : but if Justice were executed on us, it would terrifie the rest of our Nation from comming there any more. And to this intent they sued to his Majestie daily to cut us off, making all the Friends they could to this purpose. But God was mercifull unto us, and would not suffer them to have their wills of us. At length, the Emperour gave them this answer. That as yet wee had done no hurt or damage to him, nor to any of his Land ; and therefore that it was against reason and Justice to put us to death : and if our Countreys and theirs had warres one with the other, that was no cause that he should put us to death. The Emperour answering them in this manner, they were quite out of heart, that their cruell pretence failed : for the which, God be praised for ever and ever.
Adams additionally records that from his initial imprisonment through his elevation to a leading samurai to Ieyasu Tokugawa that he was called more than 20 times before the Shogun in regard to his faith and whether he and the Catholics believed in the same God. There is no record as to whether Tokugawa was personally intrigued by the gospel, but he certainly appeared to be interested based upon the number of times he called Adams with Christian faith as the topic for discussion. As a note, Adams and Dutch shipmate, Jan Joosten, were the only westerners to receive the appointment as high ranking samurai, or 'hatamoto.' A hatamoto had rights to a direct audience with the Shogun.
Despite any contradictions or confusion, the so-called "Christian century” likely resulted in the largest percentage of Christians ever in Japan. There appeared to be a true hunger and outpouring of God’s Spirit during this period. In fact, records appear to indicate that there was a majority Japanese Christian population in Nagasaki and surrounding areas during this time.
Some might wonder if these Japanese Christians were true believers. I’m certain that Jesus’ parable of the sower and the soils answers the question for them as it continues to do for us today. Multiple records indicate that many were willing to suffer and to die for what they believed.
The son and grandson of Ieyasu Tokugawa, and their rise to the position of Shogun, were significantly more brutal and thorough in enforcing the ban on Christianity following Ieyasu’s death. Catholic led uprisings in the Nagasaki area were soundly defeated and the participants harshly punished or killed. They ultimately banned Portugal and Spain completely from trade with Japan and greatly restricted trade with the Dutch and English to an island port in Nagasaki.
Following the uprisings, Christian daimyo were rooted out and brutal methods were established to expose Christians and force them to renounce their faith. Imprisonments, torture and death occurred across Japan for any who held onto their belief. The torture methods used to bring forth a renouncement are difficult to read about.
The museum displayed a replica of a sign from 1711 (and English translation):
The Christian faith has been prohibited for a long time. If you catch a suspicious person, you should send notice to the authorities. As a reward, we offer:
500 silver coins for the accuser against a Bateren (Priest),
300 silver coins for the accuser against a Iruman (Religious Brother),
300 silver coins for the accuser against a Tachikaerimono (Returner),
100 silver coins for the accuser against a Dojuku (acolyte or catechist) or a Christian. We issue orders as mentioned. Even if the accuser is a Dojuku or a Christian, that person will receive the 500 silver coins according to the one accused.
If the fact that you had hidden a Bateren, Iruman, etc. is revealed, the Nanushi (village headman) of your village, the Goningumi (five-family groups) and your relatives, indeed your whole clan will be punished. To be strictly obeyed.
The fifth lunar month of the first of the Shotoku Era (1711)
Bugyo (Government Official)
Of course, it is very difficult as a person so far removed to understand the history of Japan and the complex interplay with other foreign cultures from centuries ago. The records are almost certainly clouded by some amount of personal bias, perspective and interest. Moreover, it is impossible to know the hearts and intentions of men. But I believe this period of Japanese history is important to understand Christianity in Japan, and therefore relevant to our call. Besides, like the rest of our two week trip, I don’t believe that our time in Nagasaki, the Atomic Bomb Museum, or the 26 Martyrs Museum was by chance.
One final note to consider is that Kyushu, the Island that we believe we are to eventually reside, is the first place we decided to visit in Japan since our call. We also decided to rent a car and visit all seven prefectures in Kyushu and travel to the coasts facing all four geographic directions. I don’t believe either decision was by happenstance now knowing the history and the blood spilled by those before us. We were amazed to learn that Christianity, both Catholicism and Protestantism, first entered Japan through Kyushu. Our trip plans also had us 'coincidentally' visit the actual ports of entry for both faiths as well.
It’s fascinating that our day in Nagasaki started with sharing the gospel to a Dutch woman in Arita. Her presence in Kyushu is likely a direct result of the successful landing of the first Dutch ship in Kyushu that was piloted by William Adams. His rise from jailed, accused pirate to trusted advisor to the Shogun led to the Dutch establishing trade with Japan and their port and trading community in Nagasaki. That history, now over 400 years old, led to the Dutch amusement park and community which brought Hanneke to Japan and our 'chance' encounter.
William Adam’s ship was named Liedl, or ‘Love’. It was the only one of five ships - Faith, Hope, Love, Fidelity, Gospel - in the Dutch expedition to make it to Japan.
