Thread by @Rjrasva

Early Japanese Isolationism
Author(s): Gustav Voss
Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar., 1945)

She broke off nearly all foreign relations so as to put a stop to every contact with Christianity. That was the only reason

a question about the motives for the persecution of Christianity, but the problem, because of its ulterior implications, is of vital interest both to the student of profane history and international relations

We can have no better testimony asserting the motives, inclinations, and aims of the official Japanese circles regarding Christianity and foreign policy

Since Japan, too, cannot be conquered easily by means of war, he sends the padres to teach Christianity, a religion referring always to the life to come. As soon, however, as Christianity will have gained a sufficient foothold, they will form an army and fight against the other

The Inquisition, moreover, was interested in learning how these schemes were to be financed, and Inoue, in his Memorandum, reports the following information

Inoue would do it differently. He would try a more "scientific" procedure and employ methods that were as rigid and cruel as before, but moderately tempered by psychology. Torments were to be inflicted only after all other means of persuasion and of obtaining information had

The interpreter informed us why the apostate had to accompany them. Juan is supposed to give evidence that the Pope has given the authorization to dethrone non-Catholic kings. And he is to narrate, as an example generally known by everybody, the story of Queen Elizabeth of Englan

priests did not undergo just one trial, but were repeatedly brought before the court. At each appearance the same two crucial questions seem to have come up for further investigation, namely, the Christian doctrine and the secret designs of the Catholic countries regarding Japan

Japan was on her guard. The "Report of the Council of the Indias" to Felipe III, dated Valladolid, May 3o, 16o6, states explicitly that Tokugawa Ieyasu "continues in the same suspicion that the predecessor had of the Spaniards, ... that they are people looking for conquests.'"

if the Dutch traders want to continue their trade relations with Japan, "they must report upon arriving at Nagasaki to the governor of that city whenever they shall have learned anything new about the Catholic religion."" What kind of news Japan was anxious to learn is clearly

Even the Christian observance of Sunday was forbidden, and the residents of Deshima were ordered to work on that day. But less fear was felt of them, because they had come to Japan to make money, not to Christianize.

The Japanese statesmen were well aware of the danger, as the documents convincingly show. But the same documents also show the presence of other motives among which the strictly religious opposition to the imported religion ranks first.

This letter has its repercussions even today. Cf. the article "Orient and Occident," by Professor Tetsuzo Tanikawa in the November issue of Chuo-Koron (Central Review), LIII (November, 1938), 16 f., as quoted by Cahiers d' Information, No. 3 (January, 1939)

The idea that Japan is the nation of the Shintoistic deities and the land of Buddha recurs in almost every subsequent pronouncement against Christianity.

but it is certain, as someone has said, that "the sacred fires of the great Shintoistic tradition were far from being extinct." They smoldered beneath the ashes and helped to forge the weapons intended to erase everything Christian and Occidental from the face of Japan

The opposition of the heretical and evil teaching of
the West to "the way of the gods" and "the true law" is set forth as the decisive reason for the absolute repudiation of the Western religion."

Almost all of his advisers were Buddhist, Confucian, and Shinto scholars, and the edict itself was drawn up by Suden, a well-known Buddhist monk

They desecrated, damaged, and destroyed temples and shrines which were dedicated to the family gods and the ancestors of the Japanese race, and "their acts were scathingly criticised as prejudicial to the national virtue of filial piety."

The officers of the Inquisition are shocked to note that, according to the Christian teaching... that it is not a crime but rather a meritorious act to do away with pagans, "even though these should be one's own lord or parent."