What did the church in Japan do during World War 2?

Answer 1

Your question did not specify which "church" you were referring to so my answer will dwell on general RELIGION IN JAPAN...

RELIGION IN JAPANThe Encyclop�dia Britannica has stated: "The ancient History of Japan, as recorded in the native annals, is so completely shrouded in mythological legend as to be absolutely untrustworthy." In this mythology, the first emperor, Jimmu, is supposed to have come to the throne in 660BC He and the dynasty of 124 emperors down to Hirohito are said to be descendants of Amaterasu Omikami, the sun-goddess-the one who brought light into the world when she was enticed to leave her cavern through the artifice of letting her glimpse her beauty in a mirror. Over the centuries Shinto ("The Way of the Gods") was developed, primarily as a system of worshiping the ancestors and the forces of nature. To this day, each local community holds its annual Shinto festival, when half-naked men and boys march around noisily, carrying on their shoulders a portable shrine. In this the mirror, the jewel and the sword hold the places of honor as Shinto symbols. Until the end of World War II, Shinto was the state religion, focusing very much on emperor worship.

But in Japan many people belong to more than one religion. They feel that they can thus take the best out of a number of religions. Starting from the sixth century A.D., when Buddhism entered Japan from China and Korea, many Buddhist practices were grafted onto the lives of the people. The Shinto and Buddhist religions became coexistent. It is not uncommon to find the local Shinto shrine and Buddhist temple standing side by side. Many Japanese homes display the Shinto god shelf in the entrance porch, while the family Buddhist altar is prominent in an inner room. At either place, fruit, flowers, and so forth, are set out for the pleasure of the ancestral spirits.

Traditionally, couples are married-and their infants are blessed-in a Shinto ceremony, but funerals and the memorial services that follow are conducted by the Buddhist priest. Shinto is mainly concerned with purification from ceremonial defilement, but Buddhism with rites for the dead. There are literally hundreds of different Shinto and Buddhist sects.

During the era that state Shinto held sway, people's minds were very much bent toward emperor worship. Many were imbued with the strong militaristic, nationalistic fervor that reached its peak in the heat of World War II. Lives were freely sacrificed on the altar of emperor worship, and those who surrendered rather than die for the honor of the emperor were often regarded as outcasts. As Japan went down in defeat, whole armies chose annihilation rather than surrender. In the heyday of militarism, and prior thereto, the Japanese scene did not present bright prospects for success in preaching the good news (i.e. the gospel) concerning the "Prince of Peace" (i.e. Christ Jesus).

Indeed, the entire history of Japan has been marked by internal warfare, assassination (e.g. one example is the Ninja) and harakiri (i.e. ritual suicide), revolution and swordsmanship. Few countries have had so violent a history, and much of this is still glorified in stage plays and movies featuring samurai knights and the cult of bushido ("the way of the warrior"). During bitter feuds between rival Buddhist sects, the streets of Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, literally ran red with the blood of these priestly fighters and their henchmen.

SOME PRE WW2 BACKGROUND - THE COMING OF CHRISTENDOM'S MISSIONARIES Could Christianity get a foothold among the conglomeration of Buddhist and Shinto sects, and especially with the state Shinto so prominent a factor in their lives?

The religions of Christendom (i.e. all religions that profess to be of orthodox and organized Christianity) started to send missionaries to Japan in the mid-16th century A.D (i.e. the 1500's). In the Nagasaki area, some 150,000 are said to have been converted to Catholicism. However, after stating that the Roman Catholic religion became to the Japanese more of "a symbol of European civilization," the Encyclop�dia Britannica comments: "While some of the oppressed peasantry welcomed the gospel of salvation, the merchants and trade-conscious warrior lords regarded Catholicism as an important link between themselves and the expanding European continent." The Catholic religion [during the 16th-17th century] became the pawn of traders and gunrunners, and shortly the Japanese shogun, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ordered its suppression by cruel persecution. In desperation, the Catholics of western Japan rose in armed insurrection, only to be virtually annihilated by 1637. Survivors either renounced their faith or were driven underground as the "hidden Christians," who camouflaged their Catholic images under Buddhist symbolisms.

Until Japan's "great re-awakening," which started with the Meiji era in 1868 A.D., most foreign influences, including religion, were forbidden entry into Japan. However, when the doors to the outer world were again thrown open, the sects of Christendom sent their missionaries by the score. There was no mass conversion of the Japanese. These felt that their Shinto and Buddhist beliefs were good enough for them, as they had been good enough for their ancestors. Did not Buddhism have a good moral code? What did Christendom have to show, with its long record of wars and colonial oppression, that recommended its religion as superior? So the Japanese took from Christendom's religions whatever they considered to be beneficial, adding this to their own traditional beliefs, much in the same way that they had grafted on something of Confucianism and Buddhism in earlier centuries.

Finding that they could make little progress with a "gospel of salvation," the missionaries of Christendom sought to make their mark by establishing hospitals, schools and universities, thus giving indirect encouragement to adopt the religion of Christendom's sects. Many of the Japanese have been grateful for medical and educational benefits received, and they have made good use thereof, but very few have seen a reason for adopting Christendom's religion. Today, in a population of more than 100 million+, only half a million profess to be Christians.

Many of the Japanese today have a Bible, and they will tell you that they attended Bible instruction at one of Christendom's schools. But now, if they have a religion, they are content to go along with that of their ancestors, "senzo dai-dai" ("from generation to generation"). The biggest impression that Christendom's sects have made on the Japanese appears to be in the celebration of Christmas, with its glitter and tinsel, merrymaking and throwing off of restraints. A Japanese storekeeper once told a missionary: "I am a good Christian and a good Shintoist. I sell Christmas trees for Christmas, and Shinto trees for New Year." Christmas has not succeeded in making the Japanese Christians.

From the time of the "Manchurian Incident" of September 18, 1931, militarism was very much on the ascendancy in Japan. Accordingly, on May 16, 1933, some non-Catholic/non-Protestant missionaries (called in Japanese "Todaisha" or in English the "Lighthouse Association" - to be explained further down in this post) were arrested and examined by the public procurators on suspicion of having violated the 1925 Peace Preservation law of Japan's police state. However, they were soon released because of lack of evidence. But further difficulties loomed on the horizon for these particular Christain missionaries from USA!

After Japan joined Germany in an anti-Communist pact in 1936, all religious bodies came under heavy pressure from the government. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church changed its position with regard to doing obeisance to Shinto shrines, permitting this as a "nonreligious" ceremony! The government asked all religious bodies to send their representatives to the front to pray for Japan's victory, and most complied. Under the Religious Bodies law of 1939, Buddhist sects and Christendom's sects respectively were compelled to unite their denominations. In 1944, both the Protestant alliance (Kyodan) and the Roman Catholic Church joined the Japan Wartime Patriotic Religious Association, along with the Shinto and Buddhist sects. How were these "non-conformist" non-Catholic/non-Protestent Christian missionaries from USA called Todaisha treated during the oppressive rule of the Shinto warlords, supported by their pantheon of "eight million gods"?

A summary report prepared by the Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs in 1947 describes those turbulent days: "In May 1933, [Todaisha]. . . were arrested on... charges in Chiba Prefecture and [Todaisha was] dissolved. It was reorganized and many members . . . (some 200 in all, including 50 residents of Tokyo) were dispatched throughout Japan, Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan, etc., making speeches and distributing literature translated by [Todaisha]. They [Todaisha] asserted that the doctrine of the Trinity was false and advocated a [one God - Psalms 83:18] monotheism; that all religions other than that of [their Christian organization] were inventions of Satan, and that the political organization of the world was also an invention of Satan causing oppressive war, poverty and disease; that Christ would rise and destroy these satanic inventions in Armageddon and construct the Kingdom of God. Finally, and this was the crux of the case as far as the Japanese courts were concerned, because otherwise they would have had no interest in the doctrines of this or any other religious body, '[Todaisha] was assisting in the establishment of [the one God mentioned at Psalms 83:18] organization and system.' Since this assertion was considered as a plan to overthrow the Japanese state structure (Kokutai), the members of the Todaisha were arrested on June 21, 1939, and some were found guilty."

Volume I of Study of Resistance in War Time, edited by the Institute for Study of Cultural Science, Doshisha University, Kyoto, and published in 1968, gives an extensive report on the activity and persecution of Todaisha in Japan prior to and during World War II. This report is based largely on actual court records. Some of the Todaisha, as well as some who have left the organization, were also interviewed. The report mentions the earlier court order of 1933, prohibiting the distribution of Todaisha literature, printeed in USA, and most of their other publications, but says that, by 1938, more than 105,000 publications were being produced each month. Then a description of imprisonments and court trials is given, as detailed in the following paragraphs:

In January 1939, three members of the Todaisha were brought before the draft board. These stated, "We will not worship any creature above [God], nor will we bow toward the Emperor's palace or his photograph." They also said: "Since the Emperor is a creature of the original Creator of the universe, [God], and since today the Emperor is no more than an instrument of the Devil's wicked rule, we have no desire to worship the Emperor or to swear allegiance to him." They were sentenced to from two to three years in prison.

On June 21, 1939, in one swoop, 130 others of the Todaisha were arrested-ninety-one in Tokyo and eighteen other prefectures in Japan, thirty in Korea and nine in Taiwan. The Todaisha headquarters in Tokyo were surrounded by more than one hundred armed police, and a thorough search was made. Here, twenty adults and six children were arrested. The local missonary leader (Junzo Akashi), his wife, and second and third sons were put in the lockup at Ogikubo police station.

In August 1939, Mr. Akashi alone was transferred to the Ogu police station. For seven months he was investigated there by special police of the religious department. They used violence in order to extract "confessions" from him. He was tortured day and night, and had as his cell mates poisonous insects, mosquitoes, lice and bugs. He was kicked and thrown repeatedly to the floor, and his face beaten until it was unrecognizable. His whole body was covered with wounds. Finally, according to this Doshisha University report, he gave up and put his seal to anything the police asked of him. After increasingly violent cross-examinations, the police completed their report on Junzo Akashi on April 1, 1940.

On April 27, 1940, Akashi and fifty-two others were charged formally with violating the Peace Preservation law. Akashi himself was also charged with sedition against the government and disrespect for the emperor. On August 27 of the same year, the Todaisha was banned as an illegal organization that incited public disorder. The trial of Junzo Akashi and the fifty-two others continued through 1941 and 1942, during which time one died of illness. Finally, all but one, who responded to the military call-up, were convicted and sentenced. Junzo Akashi received a sentence of twelve years and the others from two to five years of imprisonment.

Police investigations were accompanied by all kinds of violence and torture. Less severe treatment came in the form of cursing and beating, but often sadistic handling resulted in crippling and maiming. Due to the long period of living in unsanitary cells, many became ill or incapacitated. Some died in prison. Families were scattered or disappeared, and many fell into pitiable circumstances.

One of the Todaisha was first confined in Tokyo Yoyogi Military Prison in June 1939, and later released on December 16, 1940. Rearrested in Kumamoto on December 1, 1941, he was held in a small, dark cell for two months with his arms tied up behind his back. He was repeatedly beaten. In August 1942, two military policemen beat and kicked him for an hour and a half before the eyes of his father, and left him half-dead. This was on account of his refusal to bow in the direction of the emperor's palace. While in the same prison, in midwinter, December 1944, he was stripped of his clothes, his arms were tied behind his back and he was laid out on a wet concrete floor. Bucketsful of water were poured over his face and nose until he was unconscious, and then he was left for several hours until he revived. The same process was repeated again and again. When finally released from Fukuoka Prison in October 1945, he was more dead than alive.

The book Study of Resistance in War Time concludes its report: "But even through persecution of this kind, many of the Todaisha continued to keep their faith, awaiting their release that came in 1945." In 1947 Mr. Akashi decided to fall back to his religious Shinto roots as polygamy was too attractive to him and officially left the Todaisha faith. The Todaisha technically no longer exist today as it has served its purpose to bring fundamental Christianity (the originnal teachings of Christ) to Japan. The group is known today as there American organization's name. Mr. Akashi died in 1965.

A NEW START FOR RELIGION AFTER WORLD WAR IIThere were revolutionary changes in Japan in the post-World War II period. With a new peacetime Constitution, Japan set itself to find a destiny by peaceful, rather than warlike, means. Shintoism, Buddhism, Catholicism and the Protestant Christian Alliance (called "Kyodan") had all lost face with the people because of going along with Japan's lost cause in the war - conformism not known amongst the Todaisha. Many people were looking for something to fill the religious vacuum. In the space of a few years, literally hundreds of new Buddhist and Shinto sects were brought forth, each following some human leader. One of these sects, Soka Gakkai, a militant politically minded offshoot of Nichiren Buddhism, now claims 10 million adherents, many of them obtained through forced conversions. But there are also many people who yearn to know the truth about life and why we are here on Earth.

Emperor Hirohito had been taken off his "god" pedestal on January 1, 1946, when he himself renounced his divinity by proclamation. It has been reported that the emperor himself suggested to General MacArthur that Christianity be made the state religion in Japan. The general wisely rejected this proposal, but made the suggestion, instead, that the American people send 10,000 missionaries. Thus the way was opened for more missionaries to enter Japan. Conditions were now far different from before 1914, when "missionaries were considerably discouraged." Fanatical Shinto worship had been downgraded and people were permitted to think for themselves. They could now feed upon real Bible truths, and gain a heartfelt appreciation of God and his kingdom. Moreover, they themselves had actually shared in many of the bitter events that Bible prophecy foretold for these "last days." They were in a favorable position to understand the Bible's powerful message for our day.

At the close of World War II, when the some locals returned to Matsuyama Japan after hiding in the mountains, they had nothing. Their clothes were in rags. Their food had been grass and the birds that they could kill. At the same time Christendom's foreign missionaries came back, too, driving around in big cars, living in luxury and still demanding money from the people to build churches. So it was a sharp contrast that the Todaisha missionaries rode around on old "boneshakers" (AKA klunkers, junkers, hoopties, etc.). As a result they overcame local prejudice and were accepted. The entire island of Shikoku, where the Todaisha missionaries were so favorably talked of, now has over 300 publishers and several churches (or congregations) under the Todaisha more common American name.

The rivalry between the Catholics and the Buddhists make missionary work in Nagasaki a little different from other parts of Japan. The Todaisha missionaries hear such objections as: 'I'm a Catholic . . . We have our church and literature . . . Go to the Buddhists who don't know anything yet.' They are indifferent, and do not seem to know about the upheaval that is going on in the churches elsewhere in the world. The Buddhists, on the other hand, sometimes view the Todaisha as Catholics or some other church group looking for converts, and so they do not want to get involved.

Though special Todaisha missionaries (internally called "pioneers") had done excellently in establishing congregations in the 2 sections of Nagasaki Japan. When the Todaisha missionaries arrived, there were fifty-eight publishers and five "pioneers" working here. But with the Todaisha missionary stimulus, many missionaries being located in one congregation and a few in the other, meeting attendances began to climb rapidly and as many as 130 have been attending congregational meetings within recent years in Nagasaki Japan.

I hope this answers your question about church activity in pre-war, war, and post-war Japan.

SPK