Christians and the State in Early Twentieth Century Japan: from confrontation to collaboration and back again

Abstract

This article challenges the frequent assertion that there is a static relationship of inherent incompatibility between Christianity and Japanese culture. The alternative interpretation presented here is a dynamic, mutually influential relationship between churches, as the institutional bearers of Christian thought, and the state, as the institutional upholder of Japan's identity. To illuminate the oscillating relationship between Christians and the state in modern Japan, the article draws on historical evidence, particularly with reference to government attempts to pass religious legislation in the period between 1899 and 1933. At least two factors support the suggestion that confrontation between Christianity and Japanese culture is neither immutable, nor an inevitable outcome of something inherent in Christianity. The first is that representatives of other religions and indeed of the wider society joined with Christians in opposing legislative initiatives intended to allow the government to monitor and regulate religious behaviour. The second is that at times during the period examined, Christians and the state enjoyed a relationship of mutual benefit and support.

¹I am grateful to Associate Professor Sandra Wilson of Murdoch University for organising the Fourth Murdoch Symposium on Modern Japanese History in November 2003 at which I received significant feedback on an earlier version of this paper, and to two anonymous reviewers whose comments have also helped shape this final version. I also acknowledge support from the University of Sydney Faculty of Arts School of Languages Research Incentive Scheme which assisted me in writing this paper.

Notes

¹I am grateful to Associate Professor Sandra Wilson of Murdoch University for organising the Fourth Murdoch Symposium on Modern Japanese History in November 2003 at which I received significant feedback on an earlier version of this paper, and to two anonymous reviewers whose comments have also helped shape this final version. I also acknowledge support from the University of Sydney Faculty of Arts School of Languages Research Incentive Scheme which assisted me in writing this paper.

²See, for example, Aikawa, ‘Why the gospel has failed to penetrate Japanese society’; Fujita, ‘ “Conic” Christianity and “donut” Japan’; Ishii, ‘Some problems in the relationship between Japanese culture and Christianity’; Kobayashi, ‘The resurgence of nationalism and old religions in Japan’. Particularly well known is Catholic novelist Endō Shūsaku's portrayal of Western Christianity as an exotic variety of plant that has failed to take root in the mud swamp of Japanese culture, in novels such as Obakasan, translated by Francis Mathy as Wonderful Fool; Umi to Dokuyaku, translated by Michael Gallagher as The Sea and Poison; and Chinmoku, translated by William Johnston as Silence.

³For a succinct summary of Inoue's criticism of Christianity, see Yamaji Aizan, Gendai Nihon kyōkaishiron, 163–170.

⁴The trilogy consisted of Wagakokutai to Kirisutokyō (Our National Polity and Christianity) (1907), Meisōteki uchūkan (An Illusory Worldview) (1908) and Kirisutokyōto kyūsu (Christians in Quandary) (1909), released under one cover as Kirisutokyō no gaidoku (The Evil of Christianity).

⁵See Clammer, ‘Sustaining otherness’, 178.

⁶Kipling, ‘The ballad of East and West’, 234–238.

⁷Minato, Kirisutosha to kokka, 126. Minato is currently President of Tokyo Woman's [sic] Christian University. All translations are my own except where otherwise specified.

⁸Minato, Kirisutosha to kokka, 126. Minato is currently President of Tokyo Woman's [sic] Christian University. All translations are my own except where otherwise specified, 125.

⁹See Dohi, ‘Kyōiku to shūkyō no shōtotsu’, 377. Kashiwagi continued to be a thorn in the side of the government until his death in 1938, being particularly critical of government religious policy in colonial Korea and in the wake of the Manchurian Incident of 1931.

¹⁰The forms of expressions of Christian belief in Japan are as varied as in other parts of the world. They range from the kakure kirishitan, descendants of the Catholics who hid their faith from the authorities for two and a half centuries from the early seventeenth century, through more orthodox Roman Catholicism and the full range of Protestant denominations, as well as Eastern orthodox traditions, to the home-grown products well covered in Mark Mullins, Christianity Made in Japan. However, the purpose of this article is not to elucidate the differences between denominations, but rather to clarify the relationship between the Japanese state and Christian responses to it. The issue of the variation in the degree to which different Japanese Christian leaders distanced themselves from Western organisations and the related issues of the independence of Japanese churches from missionary organisations and questions of ownership, and of the authenticity of ‘Japanese’ Christianity, likewise are beyond the scope of this article.

¹¹In the initial decade after the first Protestant organisations arrived in Japan in 1859, all of the Protestant mission organisations which began work in Japan originated in the United States, and even at the turn of the century 32 of the 43 Protestant organisations in Japan were from North America. See Mullins, Christianity Made in Japan, 14.

¹²See Mombushō, Ishin igo ni okeru Kirisutokyō, in which the government summarised its own handling of Christianity since the Meiji Restoration. Relevant government documents did not name particular Christian organisations, but saw Christianity in general terms as a monolithic entity.

¹³Citing Abe, ‘Religious freedom under the Meiji Constitution’, Hardacre asserts that ‘only a few Christians resisted the bill’; see Hardacre, Shinto and the State 1868–1988, 125. However, the level of opposition was clearly sufficient to warrant a government response directed specifically at Christian criticisms.

¹⁴Izawa, ‘Naimu shōrei daiyonjūichigō’, 972.

¹⁵See Kaneta, Shōwa Nihon Kirisutokyōkaishi, 104.

¹⁶See Uemura, Shūkyō hōan hantai iken, 29–32, 36–47. For a brief discussion of responses to the bill, see Hardacre, Shinto and the State, 124–126.

¹⁸Iglehart, A Century of Protestant Christianity in Japan, 139. Iglehart's periodisation is only approximate: the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873, 20 years after Perry's arrival, and the second ‘quarter-century’, from 1873 to 1912, is closer to 40 years long.

¹⁷Dohi, ‘Sankyōkaidō’, 589.

¹⁹Dohi, ‘Sankyōkaidō’, 589.

²⁰Dohi, ‘Kindai tennōsei to kirisutokyō’, 299–300.

²¹Dohi, ‘Kindai tennōsei to kirisutokyō’, 300.

²²In addition to Ibuka, Kozaki, Ebina and Hiraiwa's successor Uzaki Kōgorō, the Nippon Seikōkai's Motoda Sakunoshin, Presbyterian Uemura Masahisa and Congregationalist Kashiwagi Gien all had input. See Dohi, ‘Kindai tennōsei to kirisutokyō’, 301.

²³Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 132.

²⁴Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 133.

²⁵Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 132–133.

²⁶Lee, Stranger in the Land, 192–193.

²⁷Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 134–145.

²⁸Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 134.

²⁹Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 135.

³⁰Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 140. The description comes from Joel 3:15.

³¹Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 140. The description comes from Joel 3:15, 146.

³²Dohi, ‘Tennō no daikawari to Kirisutokyō’, 140. The description comes from Joel 3:15, 148.

³³See Kaneta, Shōwa Nihon Kirisutokyōkaishi, 104.

³⁴The relevant regulations are Home Ministry Order 57 of 1878 and Home Ministry Decree 397 of 1886. See Bukkyō rengōkai honbu, Shūkyōhō no hitsuyō naru riyū, 10–15.

³⁵Kaneta, Shōwa Nihon Kirisutokyōkaishi, 105.

³⁶These are the three section headings given in Nihon Kirisutokyōkai shūkyō hōan hantai jikkō iinkai, Shūkyō hōan hantai ikensho. Note also the discussion in Kaneta, Shōwa Nihon Kirisutokyōkaishi, 106–107.

³⁷See Nihon Kirisutokyōkai shūkyō hōan hantai jikkō iinkai, Shūkyō hōan hantai ikensho, 1–8.

³⁸See Nihon Kirisutokyōkai shūkyō hōan hantai jikkō iinkai, Shūkyō hōan hantai ikensho, 9–13 (Section 5), entitled ‘jidai sakugoteki kanshō’.

³⁹Mombushō, Ishin igo ni okeru Kirisutokyō, 4–5.

⁴⁰Mombushō, Ishin igo ni okeru Kirisutokyō, 4.

⁴¹Uchimura Kanzō, Shūkyō hōan ni tsuite, 1.

⁴²Yamamoto Hideteru, Shūkyō dantai hōan hantai kankei shiryō, 2.

⁴³Yamamoto Hideteru, Shūkyō dantai hōan hantai kankei shiryō, 3. Significantly, two of the denominations with the largest number of objectors to the bill were the Salvation Army and the Holiness Church, which suffered the worst repression during World War Two because of their continued opposition to government policies.

⁴⁴When the 1929 bill was under debate, the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun ran a critical editorial on 14 February 1929, headed ‘Reincarnation of the Religions bill’ while the Kokumin Shimbun of 17 February called it a ‘re-tabling’ of the Wakatsuki bill ‘with minor amendments’ and ran an article on 20 February entitled ‘A wolf in sheep's clothing’. The Hōchi Shimbun of 19 February called it ‘self-defeating’ and on the following day warned that there was ‘no room for optimism about the Religious Bodies Act—it won't get through parliament easily, and amendments are inevitable’.

⁴⁵Bukkyō rengōkai honbu, Shūkyōhō no hitsuyō naru riyū, 2.

⁴⁶Young, The Two Empires in Japan, 99.

⁴⁷Sasahara, ‘Shūkyō dantaihō’, 650.

⁴⁸For a detailed account of the impact on individual churches and their leaders, see Ishihara, Kōyō no kage ni: aru bokushi no senjika no kiseki, 1999, a 280-page record of the experience of one pastor of the Japan Holiness Church who was imprisoned for refusal to refrain from statements considered political by the government.

⁴⁹Woodard, The Allied Occupation of Japan 1945–52 and Japanese Religions, 210; pages 210–226 provide a reasonably detailed description of the relationship between the Occupation and the Christian movement.

⁵⁰Christians argued, along with others, ‘that it was preferable to make no changes in the constitution rather than allow revisions that might weaken or remove what the constitution had to say about crucial matters such as human rights, religious freedom, and the renunciation of war’—see Phillips, From the Rising of the Sun, 25. For an overview of Christian involvement in politics after the war, see Chapter 2, ‘Christians and politics in Japan: dealing with the nation's experiment with “peace and democracy” ’.

⁵¹For a contemporary monograph-length account of the defeat of the Yasukuni bills of 1969–1974, see Yasukuni jinja mondai tokubetsu iinkai, Magarikado no Yasukuni hōan.

⁵²For a brief analysis of this confrontation, see Noble, ‘Showa to Heisei’, 83–101.

⁵³Clammer, Japan and its Others, 168. Clammer offers no specific evidence in support of this assertion.