The Evening Star (September 3, 1945)
Editorial: Christianity in Japan
One of the questions about the occupation of Japan which necessarily must be of interest to thousands of Americans and Europeans is that of the resumption of Christian missionary activity. In Rome, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith already has indicated a desire for starting its work at Tokyo anew. Similar intentions undoubtedly are entertained by members of the Franciscan, Benedictine and Salesian orders as well as by representatives of other religious groups which had been active among the Japanese from 1858 until the beginning of hostilities on December 7, 1941.
Protestant churches also long have been concerned for the Christianization of Japan. The Methodists especially have maintained missionaries in the islands for generations. Meanwhile, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist, Lutheran and Church of Christ churches, schools, hospitals and social settlements in considerable numbers were built and possibly have survived in the areas not bombed. The Greek Church particularly may have emerged from the conflict unimpaired. It was served exclusively by clergy of native Japanese birth and allegedly had 80,000 adherents before Pearl Harbor. The Roman Catholic community had for its leader Archbishop Pietro Tatsuo Doi, a Japanese in nationality. If he still is alive, he will be a natural contact for mission personnel arriving in Japan after the articles of capitulation have been signed.
There is, as it happens, ample precedent for a rebirth of Christian idealism among the Japanese. Saint Francis Xavier and two Portuguese priests landed at Kagoshima in 1549 and from that date onward, despite incredible difficulties, the light of the teaching of Jesus never completely has been extinguished in Japan. Thousands of believers were massacred in the early part of the seventeenth century. Under the so-called “exclusion policy,” the very mention of Christianity was forbidden. Yet soon after Commodore Perry appeared at Yedo in 1853, it was discovered that Christian ritual and liturgy still were known to whole neighborhoods of people who had been “driven underground” but who never had ceased to worship in accord with Christian formulas and customs.