Jesus Freaks: Revolutionaries (by dc talk & The Voice of the Martyrs)

No Greater Honor

Twenty-six Christians

Japan

1596-1597

On August 15, 1549, Francis Xavier and two other priests from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) brought the Gospel to Japan. He called Japan "the delight of my heart ... the country in the Orient most suited to Christianity."

Though Christians and missionaries (mostly Jesuits from Portugal and Franciscans from Spain) had been allowed freedom in the nearly fifty years following this, the rulers of Japan had a growing concern that Christianity was a threat to local religion and culture, and therefore to the security of their rule. On July 24, 1587, an edict was issued stating that all Jesuit missionaries must leave Japan in twenty days. Though some churches were destroyed, no missionaries left Japan permanently.

The incident of the cargo ship San Felipe brought this to a head. When this ship ran aground on Japanese soil on August 26, 1596, the cargo was seized by the local shogun, or military leader. The captain, upset over the loss of his cargo, threatened Japan with a Spanish invasion (something he had no power to bring about) if his cargo was not returned. He said that Spain would easily overrun Japan with the information they had from the Franciscan monks. The Franciscans were immediately labeled as spies for this, and the tide of opinion that was already unfavorable for the Christians turned in favor of annihilating them.

So on November 23, 1596, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the absolute ruler of Japan, better known by history as Taikosama, ordered the Christians of Kyoto arrested. This began a period of persecution called the Kirishtan Holocaust, which would see as many as one million believers executed for their faith. In fact, the Christian church of a nation has never been so thoroughly decimated as it was during the persecution that began on this date and did not truly end until over 260 years later.

The twenty-six prisoners taken on that day were made up of Franciscan monks, Jesuit priests, and their converts, ranging in age from twelve to sixty-four, and were from various nations: twenty Japanese, four Spaniards, one Portuguese (born in India of a Portuguese father and an Indian mother), and a Mexican. Though they had committed no crime, it was soon decided that they would be crucified like the God they proclaimed near Nagasaki, roughly a thirty-day march away by foot. Just before the prisoners were sent on their journey under the guard of soldiers, each prisoner's left ear was cut off, though the original sentence had been that their noses and both ears would be amputated.

Nagasaki, Japan

1597

On the morning of February 5, the day appointed for the execution, Terazawa Hazaburo walked hesitantly through a wheat field outside the city gates as the men under his command prepared the crosses. It was around ten in the morning. A crowd was gathering in the morning mist, and there was a distant rumble of thunder coming from the direction of Mount Kompira, which towered over the village of Nagasaki.

Terazawa had been chosen for this task since he was the brother of the regional governor, but he did not look forward to it. One of the men he was to execute, Paul Miki, was a close friend, and Terazawa had often listened to his sermons. However, he so feared Taikosama that he dared not disobey his commands. In his sympathy for the prisoners, though, he allowed two Jesuit priests to remain close-by so they could minister to those men when they arrived.

About ten-thirty the long procession they had been awaiting finally reached the fields. The soldiers pushed their way through the crowd, and for the first time since he had seen them appear in the distance, Terazawa got a good look at the prisoners. Their hands were tightly bound and their feet were raw from the forced march. Each footstep colored the snow with blood. Most were pale and emaciated. They had divided into three groups, each led by a Franciscan who was praying as they made their way forward. Though physically they showed the toil of the journey and the rough treatment they had received along the way, their faces glowed with an anticipation Terazawa could make no sense of.