Christianity’s Bloody History in Japan
Japan has had a vexed relationship with Jesus ever since European missionaries arrived on its shores. Banned until 1873, successive leaders have asked whether love of the ‘two Js’ is compatible.
Early in 1638, Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate found itself mired in a combination of embarrassment and crisis. Requests were coming into its headquarters in Edo – present day Tokyo – for troops to lay siege to a castle on the coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island. The castle had been captured by rebels, and to make things worse they were not even samurai. They were peasants – Christian peasants.
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