DARKNESS OF THE SUN
DARKNESS OF THE SUN The Story of Christianity in the Japanese Empire
RICHARD TERRILL BAKER
f
ABINGDON-COKESBURY PRESS New York Nashville •
DARKNESS OF THE SUN COPYRIGHT, MCMXLVII BY STONE & PIERCE All rights in this hook are reserved. No part of the text may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publishers, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers.
K PRINTED IN TnE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
to the memory of my friend
R.N.K.
PREFACE
THE FLAG of Japan is a large white banner with a red ball in the center. The ordinary Japanese schoolboy will tell you that the ball is a symbol of peculiar cosmological significance to him and his fellow countrymen. One morning I stood with a Japanese schoolboy on the eastern coast of Japan and watched the horizon lighten with the dawn's early light and the cone of Mount Fuji toss back the first bright rays of the day. "Now you see why Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun," he said. For centuries Japan has watched the huge red ball come up out of the Pacific void and bathe its land in light. Queen of the skies, the sun has been good to Japan. Regular and faithful, it has ascended into the heavens each day, and just so it has ascended into the pantheon of deities which guide and guard the country. Into the archaic legends of Japan was woven the story of the sun. Primitive, animistic imagination called the blood-red orb a goddess-Amaterasu-omikami-mother of the race, divine progenitor of the Japanese imperial line. With this sun upon its banners and the goddess' divine blessing upon its purposes, Japan struck out in 1931 to spread the light of its sun across the Orient. But where the banner flew came not light but darkness. The darkness of dungeons, where Korean patriots died for their love of liberty. The darkness of imperialistic exploitation, of savage military aggression, of bombing open cities, of rape and torture, of bayonet and sword. The darkness of a nation at home, its mind clouded by the skillful manipulations of propagandists and their police escorts. To millions of Orientals in the past fifteen years the sun has not been a symbol of light but a symbol of horror and darkness, the mystic symbol which drove the Japanese with irrational, 7
DARKNESS OF THE SUN
religious fervor to the fulfillment of their empire-building dreams upon the soil of East Asia. When the sun-goddess was enlisted in the cause of Japanese empire building, that cause became a crusade. Challengers were more than dissenters in the hurly-burly of the day's politics; they were offenders against the faith which was synonymous with Japan, and they were obstructing the way of the gods. Cloaking their political schemes in such a religious dress, the leaders of Japan were certain to run head on into a clash with prophetic Christianity. This was just what happened. Inside Japan they found the Christian church a continuing objector to their religious pretensions and they pounded it relentlessly to bring it into line with their beliefs and practices. Not all their efforts were without success. In Korea, in China, in the Philippines, and elsewhere in the path of invading armies, the Japanese empire-builders found the Christian church a thorn in their way. The significance of this religious conflict in the political history of the Orient over the past fifteen years should never be obscured. It is to draw attention to the role which prophetic Christianity played in the contest with a false ideology, and the political consequences of that resistance, that this book has been written. In the pages which follow the reader will find evidence of numerous occasions in which Japanese Christians bent to the yoke which the state forced upon them. It is impossible to write the story of the Christians' struggle against the Shintoistic J apanese state without noting these compromises of the church's prophetic voice. Where shall the blame be laid? An effort has been made in these pages to treat the facts without placing blame. Noone of us is in a position to call the other a defector from true, prophetic Christianity. A prophetic religion always occupies a nervous position between heaven and earth. It cannot be completely esoteric and out of this world. Nor can it be entirely of this world. It has to walk the earth without getting its feet muddy. The history of 8
PREFACE
religion, particularly in the Hebrew-Christian tradition, is a continuing story of struggle between the involvement of religion in the cultural surroundings where it has to live and the prophetic judgment of religion upon that culture. A prophetic religion is tugged upward to the revelation of God, and tugged downward into the historical processes of men, where it must be known and meet the existential situation. A result of this tendency of a prophetic religion to make its voice heard in the affairs of men is an equally pronounced tendency to switch the cart before the horse. The culture comes to be bulwarked by religion rather than judged by it. This was the story of the Israelites in Canaan, repeatedly submerging their Jahweh worship into the sociological milieu and repeatedly being snatched back again before the tabernacle of the Most High by the great prophets of Israel. Certainly in wartime Japan the Christian community made at least tentative marriages with the general culture. Some of them seemed to be gross defections from the religion of a universal God and a Prince of Peace. But the Christians of Japan were not the first in history to find their God behind the state's leadership rather than leading. It is easy enough for Americans to see this kind of defection. We have a long tradition of separation of church and state behind us. But before any of us is too quick in blaming the Japanese church for its submergence into the general pattern of its nation at war, it is well for us to consider the ways in which our own Christianity takes on the color of the cultural milieu in which it moves. It is not so easy for us, for instance, to distinguish between Christian virtues and the virtues of our mercantile civilization. We are as prone to use God as a blessing rather than judge of our business success and material prosperity as the Japanese were to harness God to their empire-building machine. The God of American Christians is also discolored by our own sociological mores, our accepted business practices, our 9
DARKNESS OF THE SUN
race relations, our materialism, and our own brand of nationalism. Let us not be blind to our own peculiar compromises of prophetic Christianity, nor too hasty in condemning those of others. Once we admit there is guilt in all of us for failure to practice true Christianity, there are lessons for all of us to learn in the experience of the church in wartime Japan and its empire. To point out these lessons is another reason for this book. The author wishes to thank World Outlook and the Methodist Board .of Missions for granting him the leave of absence which permitted three years of study of the Oriental scene and made possible his spending the winter of 1945-46 in Japan as World Outlook correspondent; the Bureau of Public Relations of the United States Army and its functionaries in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Manila for their courtesies; his wife for assistance in indexing this volume; Miss Florence J. Mitchell for typing the manuscript; and his old friend and Union Theological Seminary classmate Nobu Tajima, who worked with him as interpreter and colleague in assembling the information concerning the church in Japan. More than thanks are due the dozens of sincere Christians throughout the Orient who helped fill the notebooks from which this volume has come, thanks and a lively hope that by their strength, wisdom, and faith they will realize the new church they dream about and the better world they deserve. RICHARD TERRILL BAKER
10
CONTENTS
I.
It Was a Battle of the Gods .
II.
The Church That Yielded
III.
The State Meets the Church
VI.
Shinto
v. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.
13
· · ·
··.
21
· · ··
36
. · · · · ·
Nippon Kirisuto Kyodan
61
· ····
75
Christian Schools in Japan.
101
Bee-San-Flier with Fire.
122
The Resistance of Piety Kagawa
. · ·
The Remnant
•
······ ···· ····
133 145 162
····
XI.
Korea
XII.
China
XIII.
The Philippine Islands
XIV.
After the Storm
173 197
· · · · · .. .
· ····
Index • • • • •
.
218 237
• 249
11
INDEX
Abe, Toyozo, 48, 134-44 Abe, Yoshimune, 33-34, 178,208-13 Air raids, 70, 112-16, 122-32, 149 Aiura, Tadashi, 219, 223, 234 Akimoto, Kitaro, 88 Alejandro, Bishop, 231, 234 Alejandro, Dever, 231 Allen Memorial Methodist Church, Shanghai, 201, 212 Allied occupation mood of Japanese in, 238-41 missionary movement alongside, 244-47 U. S. part in, 245 -48 Amaterasu-omikami, 49, 64 Amos, Vicente, 231 Aoyama Gakuin, Tokyo, 58, 101-2, 109 Asada, Ryoitsu, 112-13 Assembly, Christian, 32-33, 70 Atomic bombing, 29, 112, 119-20, 12426, 127-32 Baker, James C., 96 Bartolome, Crisostomo, 231 Bethel Girls' High School, Manila, 235 - 36 Bomm, Edward C., 220 Brush, Francis W., 220 Buddhism, 62 Bunce, William K., 66 Burial, Christian, 71 Catholics shrine attendance in Japan, 16, 67 clergy, 32 relations between Japan and Philippines, 33 nuns, 50 kyodan,77 destruction of churches, 124-26 in Korea, 187-89, 194-95 in China, 206, 211 in the Philippines, 227-28 Central Student Church, Manila, 228, 231, 232
Chaing, Myun, 195 Chiang, Kai-shek, 197, 199, 214, 243 Chiba, Isarou, 88, 219-21, 223, 233-34 Chiba, Yugoro, 78 China, 197-217 invasion of, 24, 147 lack of collaboration in, 197-98 destruction of properties in, 197, 199205 weariness of Christians, 198 lack of Christian persecution in occupied zones, 205-6 humiliation of missionaries in, 205, 210 pressure on schools, 205 -6, 208 anti-Semitism in, 207 Japanese wooing of Christians in, 207-8 Japanese seizure of Christian properties in, 210-11 Sino-Japanese Christian co-operation, 213-14 gains for Christianity during war, 21415, losses, 215 -16 communist-Christian relations, 216, 242-45 Chinzei Gakuin, Nagasaki, 112, 119-20, 125 Chosen Christian College, 176-77, 194 Chou, En-lai, 216 "Christ for Japan" campaign, 99 Christian Educators' Association, 108 Chun, Chin-kyu, 185 Chun, Pi/-soon, 184-85 Chung, Choon-soo, 181-86, 192-93 Chung, In-kwa, 183 Chung, James K., 187 Church of Christ in Japan. 75 Communists, 242-45 in Japan, 23 in China, 216 Confucianism, 62 Conscientious objection to war, 21 Co-operatives. 15 9-60
249
DARKNESS OF THE SUN Cordero, Vicente S., 225,231 Creed, Christian in Japan, 20, 34, 38-39, 140-41
Friends' School, Tokyo, 113 Fujen University, Peiping, 206, 208 Fujita, Masatake "Johnny," 13, 48, 218,
Cuadra, Matias, 224, 227 Cynn, Hugh, 181
Fukien Christian University, Foochow,
Darby, Hawthorne, 230 De Guzman, Jacinto, 231 Desecration of Christian symbols, 71,
Fukuoka }o Gakko, 107, 163 Furuta, }., 223 . Futaba Girls' School, Tokyo, 113
223, 233-34 203
101-2, 114
Dia, Leonard G., 227 Doremus School, Yokohama, 42 Doshisha University, Kyoto, lOS, 107, 111-12, 117-18, 160
Ebisawa, Akira, 30-31 Elizabeth Blake Mental Hospital, Soochow, 202 Emperor of Japan bowing to, in Christian services, 16, 31, 93
shrine to, on school campuses, 101-2 Endo, Vice-Governor General, 190 Episcopal Church in China, 211 Episcopal Church in Japan, 41, 82-83, 115, 122, 126-27
Episcopal Church in Korea, 189 Episcopal Theological Seminary, Tokyo, 114-15
Evangelical Church of the Philippines, 224-27
Methodist resistance to, 224-25 Episcopal resistance to, 225 Disciples support 01, 225-26 United Church of Christ support of, 225-26
disintegration of, 226-27 Ewha College, 176-77 Federation of Evangelical Churches in the Philippines, 223-24 Ferris School, Yokohama, 42, 116 Fitch Memorial Presbyterian Church, Shanghai, 201 Fonger, W. H., 220 Foreign Office, Japanese, 23 Foreignism of Japanese Christianity, 46, 54-55
Freedom School, 58
250
Galvez, Francisco, 224 Garcia, Gumersindo, 220 Ginling College, Nanking, 203 God-shelves, 70, 105, 189 Guerrero, Cesar M., 227-28 Gyosei Catholic Boys' School, Tokyo, 113 Hall, Ronald 0., 213 Ham, Tai-young, 195 Hani, Motoko, 58, 163, 171 Hatanaka, Hiroshi, 80, 118, 172 Hidaka, Zenichi, 88 Hideyoshi, Toyotomi, 54 Higashi-kuni, Premier Prince, 143, 15355
Hinomoto }o Gakko, Himeji, 49, 119 Hinga, Tokuzo, 43, 88, 97, 142 Hirosaki Girls' School, 112, 163 Hiroshima Girls' School, 29, 112, 127-32 Hitotsuyanagi, Merrell, 164-66 Hodge, General, 195 Hokusei Higher Girls' School, Sapporo, 112
Holiness Church, 20, 53, 90, 133-44, 156, 163
in Korea, 187-89 in China, 211 Holter, Don Wendell, 220 Honda, Yoichi, 102 Horton, Douglas, 96 Hung, William, 215 Hwa Nan College, Foochow, 203 Ichimura, Yoichi, 117 Ichinomiya, Masakichi, 136 lijima, Noboyuku, 113 Ikeda, Chojuro, 143 Imai, Saburo, 28 Imaizumi, Gengo, 29
INDEX Imperial Rescript on Education, 67, 103-4 Inoue, Kensaku, 88 Internationalists, Japanese, 23 Ishihara, Ken., 115, 163, 169 Iwai, Fumio, 88 Japan Co=ittee, Foreign Missions Conference of North America, 96-97 Joshi Gakuin, Tokyo, 113 Kagawa, Toyohiko, 48-49, 56, 69, 75, 145-61 Kamidana. See God-shelves Kang, Chang-keun, 179 Kanto Gakuin, Yokohama, 115-16 Kanzaki, Kiichi, 51-52, 107, Ill, 118 Kashing High School, China, 202 Kato, Hiroyuki, 104 Katsube, Takeo, 88 Kaung, Z. T., 206, 208-9, 211-14 Kawahata, Chujiro, 59, 123 Kawai, Michi, 18-19, 109-10, 163, 169 Kim, Eung-tai, 190 Kim In-young, 178 Kim, Kiusic, 174, 195 Kim, Kwan-sik, 190, 192 Kim, Mrs. Sun, 195 Kim, Yang-cho, 192 Kim, Yung-sup, 185 Kimata, Bin, 88 Kinjo Joshi Semmon Gakko, Nagoya, 112, 116-17 Kishi, Sennen, 51 Kobe Union Church, 92-93, 156 Kobe Women's College, 80, 105, 111, 118 Kodama, Yoshio, 154-H Koide, Hoji, 143 Koku Gakuin. Tokyo, 68 Koo, Kim, 174, 192, 194-95 Koo, T. Z., 170,206 Koran Girls' School, Tokyo, 115 Korea, 173-96 Christians in postwar leaders~ip of, 174, 193-94 Japanese Christians in, 174-75, 178 nationalization of Christian leadership, 175, 178 shrine question, 175-76 National Christian Council, 176
Christian schools in, 176-78 Russians in, 194-95 missionaries returning to, 195 condition of churches in, 195-96, 23738,241-42,244-45 Korean Methodist Church, 175, 179-86, 189, 192-93 Korean Reformed Church, 184-85 Korogi, M., 223 Kozaki, Michio, 88, 99-100, 208, 214 Ku, Cha-ok, 194 Kuomintang, 206 Kurumada, Akiji, 134, 136 Kusama, N., 223 Kuwata, Shuen, 141 Kwansei Gakuin, Nishinomiya, Kobe, 107, 111,118 Kwassui Gakuin, Nagasaki, 30, Ill, 119,
172 Kyodan. See United Church of Christ in Japan Lerch, Archu L., 19S Lew, Hyung-ki, 184 Liberalism of Japanese Christianity, S7 MacArthur, Douglas, 23, 53 McTyeire Girls' School, 201, 212 Maeda, Tamon, 120-21, 168 Makino, Toraji, 117-18 Manabe, Y oriichi, 78
Manila Tribune, 221-23 Mao, Tze-tung, 216 Matsumoto, Takuo, 127-32 Matsuyama, Tsunesaburo, 214 Meiji, Emperor, 64-65, 103-4 Ministry of Education, Japanese, 29, 34, 36-38, 57, 63, 77-79, 83-85, 94, 103, 108 required size of denominations, 39-40, 76 regulated and nonregulated schools, 105-7, 109-10, 139-40 Ministry of the Interior (Home Affairs), Japanese, 63, 138-39, 143-44 Ministry of Justice, Japanese, 143 Miura,!', 94 Miyagi High School, Sendai, 111-12 Miyagi, 0., 110
251
DARKNESS OF THE SUN Mizuno, Admiral, 165 Mizuno, Rentaro, 63 Mombusho. See Ministry of Education Moore Memorial Church, Shanghai, 201, 206, 212 Murata, Shiro, 88, 120 Nabong, Juan, 225 Nagata, Kanewo, 159 Nakada, Yosh iaki, 223, 233-H Nambara, Shigeru, 168 Nara, Tsutae, 170 Narusawa, Lieutenant-Colonel, 222-23 National Christian Council in Japan, 75 Nihei, Yozo, 170 • Nippon Kirisuto Kyodan. See United Church of Christ in Japan Nippon Seikyokai. See Holiness Church Nippon Times, 28-29, 33, 98, 149-50, 154 Nishiyama, Misao, 108-9 Nonchurch, 168 North China Church Fed.:ration, 208, 210-11 Nosei, Rector, 84 Ochida, Kenji, 88 Omi Brotherhood, 164-65 Ono, T., 223 Onomura, Rinzo, 20, 49 Order No. 12 (banning religious instruction in schools), 103, 106
Pacific Stars and Stripes, 145, 15 5 Pacifism of Japanese Christianity, 56-57 Pack, Ham-hun, 195 Park, Yun-hee, 195 Pascual, Teofilo, 231 Peking Union Medical College, Peiping, 204 Perez, Asuncion A., 228-30 Perez, Cirilio B., 228-30 Perez, Ernesto, 229 Perry, Commodore Matthew c., 55 Philippine Federation of Evangelical Churches, 223-24, 235 Philippine Islands, 14-15, 19, 33, 149-50, 218-36 Japanese attitude toward, 218
252
missionaries in, 219-21 union of churches, 222-26 Americans' return to, 226 Christian resistance to Japanese occupation of, 228-32 destruction in, 232 postwar Christian activity in, 235 -3 8, 244 Police, Japanese, 46-49, 53-55, 70, 13544, 174-76, 229-30 Presbyterian Church in Korea, 186-89, 192 Publishing, Christian, 32, 70 Pyen, Fritz Hongkew, 178, 184-85 Religious Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Education, 36-42, 63, 76, 90 Religious Bodies Law of 1940, 34, 36-43, 7~ 83-85, 94, 9~ 140 Religious Section, Propaganda Corps, Japanese Military Administration in the Philippine Islands, 13-15, 33, 218-23, 226, 233-34 Rhee, Syngman, 174, 192, 194-95 Rikkyo Girls' School, Tokyo, 115 Riverside Fellowship of Japanese and American Christians, 56 Roggendorf, Josef, 43 Rubin, Barnard, 145 Ryang, J. S., 181-83 Sabbath, abolished in wartime, 32, 70 St. John's University, Shanghai, 201-2 St. Paul's University, Tokyo, 30, 102, 107, 113-14, 163 Saito, Haruo, 52-53 Saito, Soichi, 80, 170-71 Sakamoto, James, 213-14 Salvation Army in Japan, 45; in Korea, 189-92 Sanbex, Kinzo, 114 Santo Tomas Intorment Camp, 220, 230 Santos, Catalina, 231 Sasaki, Paul Shinji, 46-47, 83, 122 Schools, Christian, in Japan, 29-30, 47, 72, 101-21 nationalized leadership of, 104-5 missionaries in, 104-5 regulated and nonregulated, 105-7
INDEX militarism in, 110-11, 114, 119 factories on campuses of, 111-12, 115, 118 proposed Christian university, 121 Seventh Day Adventists in Japan, 82-83 in Korea, 187-89 in China, 211 Shafer, Luman J., 96 Shinto Tenrikyo and Omotokyo sects, 38; 60, 61-74 Minzoku (ethnic), 62 literature, 62 Kokka 63 Shuha 63 directive abolishing state support of, 65 -66, 72-74 Shirato, J., 223 Shirayuri, School, Tokyo, 113 Sino-Japanese War, 24, 147-49 Sobrepena, Enrique C., 224, 226-27 Soochow University, China, 202 Sophia University, Tokyo, 36-37, 113 Soshin Girls' School, Yokohama, 112, 116 "Special Wartime Hymnal," 16-17, 31-32, 93 Stagg, Mary, 230, 233 Stuart, J. Leighton, 205-6 Student Mobilization Ordinance, 111 Suekane, Toshio, 163, 170 Suezutsumi, Kazuo, 88 Sugai, Todomu, 84 Sugeno, Toshi, 143 Sumiya, Tenrai, 53 Sunday schools, 32, 47, 71 United Church (Japan) Board of, 2S27,91 Supreme Command for the Allied Powers, 94, 98, 143 Suzuki, Koji, 88, 92, 141-42 Suzuki, Yoshio, 139, 142 Syncretism, Shinto and Christianity, 2729,67 Taguchi, Y oshigoro, 33, 219 Takamatsu, Takaharu, 114 Takase, Tsunetoku, 25 Takeiri, Takashi, 143
Tanaguchi, Masakazu, 89, 94 Tanaka, Kotaro, 163, 168-69 Tang, Paa-ju, 206 Toda, Tatewaki, 20, 49 Tohoku schools, Sendai, 58, 109-10 Tokita, Nobuo, 127 Toku, Noriyoshi, 92 Tokugawa Shogunate, 54-H, 64 Tokunaga, Y06hi, 107, 163 Tokyo Imperial University, 23, 160, 166, 168-69, 177 Tokyo Women's Christian College (Tokyo Joshidai), 113, 115, 169 Tomita, Mitsuru, 35, 41, 43,48, 78, 87, 88-90, 94-96, 127, 142 Tomoi, K., 94 Toogijuku, boys' school, Hirosaki, 30, 112-13, 171-72 Torisha (executive officer), United Church, 34-35, 78, 84-87, 99 Toyama, Ikuzo, 113 Tsukamoto, Shoji, 33 Tsukamoto, Toraji, 168 Uchimnra, Kanzo, 168 Uemura, Tamaki, 51, 88, 127, 163, 171 Union sentiment among Japanese churches, 75-77 United Church of Christ in Japan, 20, 2S, 31, 34, 38-40, 71, 75 -100 size of denominations required, 39-41, 76 blocs in, 77-78 laymen in, 80-81 constitution, extracts from, 85-86 catechism of, 8S-86 bureaus of, 87-88, 91-92 resistance to, 80, 90-92 prescribed church calendar of, 93 committee revising constitution of, 9495, 99 first postwar general assembly of, 99100 destruction of churches, 124 rebuilding of churches, 126-27 Holiness Church and, 134, 141-42 Kobe Union Church and, 92-93, 156 Kagawa in, 158, 161
253
DARKNESS OF THE SUN as model for Chinese church union, 211 Bishop Abe in, 212 United Church of Christ in Korea, 190-92 United Evangelical Church of the Philippines, 225 -27 Universalism of Japanese Christianity, 5556 University of Nanking, 202-3 University of Shanghai, 200 Van Kirk, Walter W., 96 Vories, William Merrell. See Hitotsuyanagi, Merrell Watanabe, Zenta, 141 Whang, Hyung-sbu. 195 Wilk, Helen, 230 Women's Christian Temperance Union, 165
254
Xavier, Francis, 54, 125 Yale-in-China, Changsha, 203 Yamada, M., 223 Yamaka, Motojiro, 171-72 Yamamota, Tadaoki, 88 Yamamuro, Tamiko, 88 Yanaihara, Tadao, 19, 53, 163, 166-68 Yano, Tsuraki, 108 Yenching University, Peiping, 203-5, 208, 211, 216 Yi, Eui-sik. 195 Yoshida, Koichi, 37 Young Men's Christian Association, 126, 164, 170-71, 176, 194,204 Young Women's Christian Association, 126, 176, 188 Yu Uck-kyum, 177, 194 Zia, Z. S., 206, 213
Darkness of the sun : BR 1305 .B3 1947 RHC
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