Silenced by Torture

 

Silenced by Torture

This is an extraordinary life-story of a few missionaries who followed the path led by St. Francis Xavior to evangelize Japan.[1] Christianity first arrived on the shores of Japan via Xavior in 1549 AD. The Society of Jesus or Jesuits, of which St. Zavior was a foundational member, was quite active thereafter and from Portugal missionaries were sent and some three hundred thousand Christians came to be in Japan. In the hierarchical society of the then Japan, the landlord sat on the top of the pyramid, under whom worked the Samurai (the warrior classes), and then came at the bottom the poor peasants. The peasants readily accepted Christ and the message of his love and redemption, for they were under heavy burden of taxation and were considered as filthy insects crawling on the ground, who could be crushed any time by those on the top. During the glory days of evangelism in Japan, even Samurai and the landlords accepted Christ and took baptism.

After the outburst of the Shimbara rebellion in 1637-1638, in which the peasants rebelled against the heavy taxation, led actively by Christian village leaders, and some Christian Samurai, things changed. A terrible persecution of Christianity was launched and kept raging for a long time. In Nagasaki some 26 priests of the Jesuit order were punished and priests all over Japan were evicted, tortured and put to death. Expulsion of all the missionaries from Japan was ordered 1614, because of their alleged role in stirring rebellion among the peasants. Some 70 priests were exiled to Macao, then a popular port in China. For the next 250 years Christianity was banned in Japan and its priests were outlawed.  

The church went underground and some 37 priests secretly remained in Japan, including Father Ferreira, sent from the Society of Jesus in Portugal. He had worked for 33 years in Japan; but he was betrayed, arrested, put to torture of ‘the pit’ at Nagasaki and he apostatized. He had to take a Japanese name, marry a Japanese woman, dress like a Japanese and stayed in Nagasaki under the magistrate’s supervision. His letters to the Society stopped after 1632. Uneme became the magistrate in Nagasaki in 1629 and ever since torture and killing of secret Christians became worse.

In 1635, three priests from Portugal, who were the students of Ferriera, took permission of the authorities in Rome and Portugal, to undertake a secret mission, to go to Japan and investigate whether Ferreira really denied his Master Christ, and what had happened to him. These priests were Rodrigues, Juan Marra and Garrpe, all friends, studied in the seminary of Campolide in Lisbon, where Ferreira had been their teacher once. They departed in the Indian fleet that left the shores of Lisbon in 1638, sailed around Africa, circumventing the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Goa, their destination, after seven months, braving violent storms and turbulent sea on the way.

The next year they proceeded to Macao a base for trade between China and Japan. Portuguese had been forbidden to enter Japan. The Jesuit leader in Macao refused to permit to send these three Jesuits to Japan, on their secret mission, as it was very dangerous, with Dutch and English warships enroute, who were opposed to the Jesuits. In Macao they met a Japanese, named Kichijiro, who promised to put them in touch with the secret Christians in Japan, and after mustering a vessel, captain and sailors, they left for Japan. As Santa Marta was very sick, they left him at Macao and only Rodrigues and Garuppe journeyed further. After a terrible storm, they reached the shores of Japan, somewhere near Nagasaki. Kichijiro led them to a village, Tomogi, where the two missionaries received favorable welcome but in secrecy, and were lodged in a dilapidated hit in the nearby mountain in hiding.

The magistrate of Nagasaki was not aware of the existence of the secret Christians and the villagers feared that they will all be killed if the authorities came to know that the villagers were hiding Portuguese priests. The priests had to hide in that ramshackle hut for the day and in the nights, they could not light a fire. Rainy season started in June and it poured buckets of water. Confined to the hut, it was a miserable existence, dangerous not only to the peasants, but also to the priests. They had some dry rice for food and may be a potato or so brought up by the villagers. Still the priests conducted prayers, heard confessions and instructed them in catechism, for the Christians there were like sheep without a shepherd. The rewards for their heads fixed by the Japanese government were highly attractive: anyone informing on a priest will get 300 pieces of silver; if a Jesuit brother was informed on, one will get 200 pieces of silver and for a Christian, one will get 100 pieces of silver. It was quite an attractive sum for the starving peasants.

Very soon troubles erupted. In spite of all precautions, someone had informed the authorities and the officials descended on the village, searched their houses and in their second visit took the villagers in a procession, made them stamp with their feet on a metal frame with Christ’s face embossed on it. As a true Christian they cannot bear to put their foot on the face of their Savior. I remember the incidence of St. Polycarp, the Bishop of Symrna, before being burnt on stake, was asked just to say, “Caesar is the Lord.” But he refused saying, “for 86 years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong, and how can I call another person as my Lord?” And as a reward, he was burnt on the stake. That was in 155 AD. The poor peasants of this village, clenching their tooth, stepped on Jesus’ face, but the authorities identified two villagers who cringed while stamping on the picture. Then they brought out the picture of Mother Mary and the infant Jesus in her lap and asked these two to trample on it. As Catholics they had a special regard for Mother Mary and it was too much for them to do and both refused to stamp on it.

These two unfortunate Christians were taken to the beach and bound on wooden beams, which were planted in the sand and left to stand on the shore. At low tide the sea water came up to their ankles, but during the high tide water came up to their neck. Within three days they both died in great agony. Warned of the officials third swoop, which would be to search the mountain where they were staying, the priests decided to separate and run from their mountain hut. Again some one seemed to have informed on them to the authorities. Rodrigue continues the narrative. He ran amidst bushes and brambles and tore the peasant dress he was wearing and his body. With no food to eat, he plucked the grass growing on the sides and ate it. He met Kichijiro on the way and he took him to another Christian village. The priest had his doubts that Kichijiro could be the informer. Still, he went to the village and walked straight in to the ambush of the authorities, was caught and taken to Nagasaki, where he was imprisoned separately. A group of Christian villagers had also been taken prisoners.   

The magistrate Uneme came with a band of Samurai and tried to convince the priest to deny Jesus and recant. He refused to trample on the face of Christ in the picture. They treat him gently and let him conduct prayers for the villagers in captivity. Then one day, they took him to Nagasaki to meet the priest Ferreira, the priest whom they had come to sees. But he tried to convince the young priest to recant. He himself had denied Christ realizing the innocent peasants were being killed one by one, until he recanted. Also, he was suspended in a pit upside down with legs tied up, and a small insertion made behind the ears from which blood oozed out slowly but persistently, which will lead to a slow, but painful death after a few days. Not able to stand these he recanted. The intension of the magistrate was to remove the leaders, the priests, for once that was done, the people, even if they were secret Christians, the authorities did not bother, for there was no one to lead them.

Rodrigues was brought back to his cell. In the night he heard someone constantly snoring. He raised his voice not able to bear this sound. Ferreira came to him and explained that was not the sound of snoring, but the rasping of two men who had been suspended in the pit and dying. As long as he refused to deny Christ, such torture of the innocents will continue. He cannot kill himself as it was against his religion. Finally, Rodriques relented and trampled on the face of Christ. It seemed to him that Jesus from that picture, with compassion, called him to trample on him. The torture stopped, but the priest was held captive, made to wear Japanese dress, given the name of a dead Japanese, made to live in a house under house arrest. He refused to marry the widow of the dead man, whom they offered. His food was supplied twice a day. He was a captive, never could he dream of returning to Portugal. Many times, during those agonizing days, Rodrigues questioned the Lord, “why are you silent?” He got his answer one day, “I was not silent, I suffered beside you.” In this isolation and agony, he lived for another 30 years and died in Japan at the age of sixty-four. His mortal remains were cremated and the little money he had covered this expense.

In the sixty years that followed St. Zavior’s visit, Christianity flourished in Japan. But things changed after 1605. From 1614 to 1640 some six thousand Christians were killed. First the offenders were burnt, but when they died a martyr’s death, glorified by the others, they resorted to torture by dipping them in hot water or made to stand tied to the pole in the sea or suspended upside down in a pit with a small insertion behind the ear. In 1632 Ferraira apostatized. A few years later, Rodrigues also apostatized. The other priest died. It was not until another 250 (1603-1868) years that doors will be opened for Christianity in Japan. But even today as of 2023, there are only 8,98,921 Christians in Japan, a meagre 0.73% of the population.

 

I remember countries like Turkey, which was for 1000 years a Christian nation under Byzantine Roman Empire, today is totally Islamic, with the change taking place after the capture of Istanbul by Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. Christianity was wiped out from northern Africa, where most famous Christian teacher, writer and philosopher, St. Augustine was born and lived in the fourth century AD.  Today, in the whole of Muslim Arab world there are hardly any Christians. In India, the RSS, and its political wing BJP, that is governing the country today, would love to wipe off the two and a half percent Christians from the face of country.

Why is this hatred towards Christ and his followers? What makes them want to exterminate an enlightened community that is in the forefront of education, health and social services in the country they reside? It dawned on me suddenly that they are scared and worried about the power that is behind the Christian people – power to transform the society, bring education, teach ethics and help the poor and the needy with their services. It is not the Christians doing it, for they are as fallible as any other but, it is the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God through His Son Christ, that changes a person and transforms a people, if only given the willingness. Yes, in that power and glory the Lord Jesus Christ will come again to claim what is lawfully His, the Kingdom of heaven on earth. Till then, persecutions will continue, and may the grace of God strengthen them who go through it, and let the hope of eternal life with Christ, the Beloved, bring them peace. Praise God.   

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[1] Shusaku Endo, “Silence,” 1966 in Japanese; translated version in English, 1969.