Pope Francis visited Japan for 4 days and 3 nights, scheduled to meet with the victims of the 311 earthquake in Tokyo on the 25th. (Photo/Reuters)
Reporter Zhan Yating/ Comprehensive Report
Pope Francis, the second pope in history to visit Japan, followed in the footsteps of John Paul II in 1981 and appeared on the 24th in Nagasaki Prefecture, which was bombed by the atomic bomb during World War II, and many believers burst into tears. It is worth mentioning that the "hidden Christians" who survived the 250-year ban and combined their faith with elements of Buddhism and Shinto have also become another focus, and Francis earlier visited Nishisaka Park, where 26 Catholics were executed in 1597, to pay tribute to those who were persecuted religiously.
According to the BBC and Reuters, Buddhism and Shinto are large sects in Japan, and only 1% of the people of Japanese society of 126 million people believe in Christianity, and the Christian community in Nagasaki is one of the largest strongholds in Japan.
▲ Japanese "hidden Christians" are called "hidden Christians" or "Kakure Kirishitan". (Photo/Reuters, same below)
Turning to the history of Japan, Christianity was introduced to Japan as early as 1549 under the propaganda of Portuguese missionaries, and at its peak, the number of Christians in Nagasaki exceeded 500,000. Over time, however, the Edo shogunate recognized the rapidly expanding Christianity as a political threat, and eventually in 1614 issued a nationwide ban on the suppression and expulsion of missionaries, which followed the lockdown era. It is estimated that about 2,000 people became martyrs for refusing to renounce their faith; one of the major events was the "martyrdom of twenty-six people", when 6 foreign missionaries and 20 Japanese believers were executed, known as the "Twenty-six Saints of Japan".
However, the crackdown did not eradicate Christianity in Japan, when a group of believers were reluctant to give up their faith, combining religion with Elements of Buddhism and Shinto to form a unique mix of beliefs, until the 19th century, when the port border was opened for trade, and when the missionaries returned to Japan, they were surprised to find that there were still about 60,000 descendants of Mo who still followed the traditions that had been handed down.
This group of "hidden Christians" secretly baptizes and celebrates the birth of Jesus, Easter, etc. Mark Mullins, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Auckland, said, "Bread and wine in the Christian Communion, they (hidden Christians) may replace bread with rice." The Japanese scholar Martin Ramos notes that "during this period of more than 200 years, they did not have any contact with foreign missionaries, so they eventually evolved into a localized religious belief and passed it on from generation to generation."