The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-12-05
A Aor nE DEATH.
An Episode In the Japanese Prosecutions oi
Christfan COnyerta.


Christian Converts.
Every visitor to the beautiful harbor
Of Nagasald, Japan, in the south of the
Japanese peninsula, is shown, as the
steamer moves slowly up to the anchor
age beneath the foreign settlement, the
lofty rock of Pappenberg, 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 gloomy notoriety all over
the world. The late Laurence Oliphant
told 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 n
name. 1t appears now, however,
that Pappenberg had nothing to
do with this tragedy Dr. Riess,
professor of the university of
Toxic, has recently investigated the
course of the Christian rebellion in
Shimabara in southern Japan in 1878,
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 havs
dragged the prisoners there. What hap
pened, however. was far worse, though
the scene was different. Shimabara il
a peninsula near Nagasalii, the interior
of which is occupied by II volcani,
mountain mass called Onsen, which il
said to have one of the largest crater
in the world, and which is about 43O
= feet high. Its slopes and base are full
of boiling sulphu. springs in a constan
, state of effervesence. The frightfu
prosecutions of the Christians in tn,
peninsula which led to the rebellion ar
referred to by DR. Riess:
THE new lord of Shimabara," h
says "Matsukura Shigemasu, and Mat
, sukara Shigetsugu, who succeeded hin
in 1880, are held up in the reports O
, Christian eye-witnesses as exceptional.
cruel prosecutors of their Christian sui
jects The peninsula became the seen
= of an organized inquisition, with tn
noblest of martyrs for it's ever-persist
$ ent confessors of faith. Pages has care
/ fully reproduced the pathetic martyr
: Ologies of these heroes from the report
I of the fugitives who gave evidence be
fore the commission of missionaries eE
: tablished at Macao and Manila. / hav
+ selected but one. the most note worthy
of these torturings and that whic
, eNacted the greatest number of victims
as an example. In this case the zealou
2 Christians were led to Onsen, one of tn
massive rock barriers that precipitousl
. !
, overhang the ever-seething sulphu
+ springs, and from thence were hurle
). into the boiling depths below. Japar
ese sources coincide with the mission
= ary reports that this was a form of exc
cution most commonly employed, an
that it remained in use for Ion
period. The irony suggested by TIL
: name, in that those who awaited Heave
: should be cast into depths known q
6 the nethermost hell (Oji-go-ku, lite
;. ally greatest helD, gave this method {
t intiicting punishment special char
t in the eyes of the prosecutors"
G 1t remained fresh in the traditions {
t the Europeans resident in Japan, an
has given rise to the legend that Pa
penburg was the scene of the TRACED,
s Chicago Times.