The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-12-04
4 PLACE OF DEATH.
An Episode in the Japanese Prosecutions of
Christian Converts.


An Episode in the ia panese Prosecutions of
Christian Converts.
Every visitor to the beautiful harbor
of Nagasalli, Japan, in the south of the
Japanese peninsula, is shown, as the
steamer moves slowly up to the aachor-
age beneath the foreign settlement, the
lofty rock of Pappen berg, near the en-
trance, with one enormous cliff descend
ing sheer for some hundreds of feet into
deep water and in external appearance
not unlike the huge cliff known as Gal
lantry bower near Clovelly. From the
top of this cliff the traveller is told in
every book referring to the subject
thousands of Christian converts were
cast into the sea or dashed to pieces in
the fall, during the bloody prosecutions
about the middle of the seventeenth
century and the place has, therefore,
acquired a gloomy notoriety all over
the world. The late Laurence Oliphant
told a story in his Narrative of Lord
Elgin's Mission to China and Japan"
and described Pappenberg as the Tar
peian rock of Japan. Every writer in
Japan has accepted the story to this
day and the tale of human cruelty and
human sufferings, of which this frown-
ing precipice has been the witness, has
excited the awe and pity of persons to
whom Japan itself is no more than a
name. 1t appears now, however,
that Pappenberg had nothing to
do with this tragedy DR.. Riess,
a professor of the university of
Toxic, has recently investigated the
course of the Christian rebellion in
Shimabara in southern Japan in 1919,
one of the most interesting episodes in
the history of European relations with
Japan. 1t was after the suppression of
this rebellion that the executions at
Pappenberg are alleged to have taken
place. In paper read before the Ger
man Asiatic society of Japan, Dr. Riess
shows that the rock was not used for
the purpose; no mention of it is made in
any of the contemporary records, and,
seeing what the course of the rebellion
was, it would have been absurd to have
dragged the prisoners there. What hap
pened, however. was far worse, though
the scene was different. Shimaba is
peninsula near n agasalli, the interior
of which is occupied by a volcanic
mountain mass called Onsen, which is
said to have one of the largest craters
in the world, and which is about 1890
feet high. Its slopes and base are full
of boiling sulphur springs in IL constant
state of cffervcsencc The frightful
prosecutions of the Christians in the
peninsula which led to the rebellion are
referred to by DR. Riess:
THE new lord of Shimabara," he
says, "Matsukura ShigemaSu, and Mat
sulIara Shigetsugu, who succeeded him
in 1890, are held up in the reports of
Christian witnesses as exceptionally
cruel prosecutors of their Christian SUBJ
jects, The peninsula became the scene
of an organized inquisition, with the
noblest of martyrs for its ever-persist-
cnt confessors of faith. Pages has care
fully reproduced the pathetic martyr
ologies of these heroes from the reports
of the fugitiveS who gave evidence be-
fore the commission of missionaries es-
tabliShed at Macao and Manila. | have
selected but one, the most note worthy.
of these torturings and that which
eXacted the greatest nun Der of victims,
as an example. In this case the Jealous
Christians were led to Onsen, one of the
massive rock barriers that precipitonsly
overhang the ever-seething sulphur
springs, and from thence were hurled
into the boiling depths below. Japan
csc sources coincide with the mission
airy reports that this was form of exc
cution most commonly employed, and
that it remained in use for a long
period. The irony suggested by the
name, in that those who awaited Heaven
should be cast into depths known as
the nethermost hell (Oji-go-ku, liter
ally greatest held, gave this method of
inhicting punishment special charm
in the eyes of the prosecutors.
1t remained fresh in the traditions of
the Europeans resident in Japan, and
has given rise to the legend that Pap
penburg was the scene of the tragedy.
Chicago Times.