{"id":90375,"date":"2019-06-14T14:50:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T21:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90375"},"modified":"2019-06-14T14:50:35","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T21:50:35","slug":"how-japanese-saved-themselves-from-christian-missionaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/14\/how-japanese-saved-themselves-from-christian-missionaries\/","title":{"rendered":"How Japanese saved themselves from Christian Missionaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Chiniquy<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Africans who voluntarily converted to Christianity before the colonial conquest such as Affonso I of the BaKongo in the 15th century probably did not discern the purpose of the brand of Christianity that was supplied to them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which was probably why they fell easy prey to the missionaries and the white traders and pirates who followed them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\ntheir Japanese counterparts probably did discern the game, even without access\nto some version of Leopold\u2019s letter.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\neven if the Japanese Shoguns did not intuit what Leopold makes explicit, they\nclearly realized the danger of Japanese converts to Christianity forming a\nfifth column within Japanese society and state, a fifth column loyal to their\nco-religionists in Europe.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nrid Japan of that danger, in the late 16th century, the Shoguns began their\nexpulsion of Portuguese and Spanish missionaries on the grounds that they were\nforcing Japanese to become Christian, teaching their disciples to wreck\ntemples, taking and trading slaves, etc.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then,\nin 1596, it became clear to the Japanese authorities that Christianization had\nbeen a prelude to Spanish conquest of other lands; and it quickly dawned on\nthem that a fifth column loyal to Rome and controlled by the priests of a\nforeign religion was a clear and present danger to the sovereignty of a newly\nunified Japan.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon\nafter, the persecution and suppression of Japanese Christians began.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early\nin the 17th century, sensing the danger from a creed that taught obedience to\nforeign priests rather than the Japanese authorities, all missionaries were\nordered to leave and all Japanese were ordered to register at the Buddhist\ntemples.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Japanese Christians took part in a rebellion, foreign priests were executed, the Spanish were expelled and Japanese Christians were forbidden to travel abroad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After another rebellion, largely by Christians, was put down, the Japanese Christians were suppressed and their descendants were put under close state surveillance for centuries thereafter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the 1640s all Japanese suspected of being Christians were ruthlessly exterminated.\u00a0\u00a0Thus did Japan, by 1650, save itself from the first European attempt to mentally subvert, conquer and colonize it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Letter from Belgium’s wicked King Leopold II, to Christian missionaries in Africa<\/a><\/blockquote>