Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1904-02-18

went forth strictly forbidding any
japanese subject to worship the God
of the Christians. p sters containing
this decree were put up all over the
country, and also Offering large re-
wards to infor or any mi who
should use the Christian ritual. The
japanese converts stood firm and re-
fused to deny their faith, the result
being that thousands of them were
beheaded. / have frequently stood
by a little stone monument, not more
than three # ct high, black with age,
in the city Of Nagoya, that marks
the spot where one thousand Japa-
nese Christians were beheaded in a
single day, and some scraggy sprouts
growing up from the roots of a cat
alpa tree nea by are pointed out as
growing from the roots of the tree in
which the headsman hung up his
sword after its bloody work had been
finished. Less than thirty yearsago,
some time after Christian mission
aries were again permitted to enter
Japan, numbers of these notices for
bidding the people to worship the
God of the Bible were still standing.
/ have seen some of them kept as
souvenirs since they were taken
down by order of the present En-
nnrny~ Thnxy UvnIsn hoo r6c ah1I1t ono
foot wide and two feet long On which
the decree was written in India ink,
in Chinese Geographic script. They
were put up on posts and trees along
the highways like signboards and
advertisements in this country.
Having been exposed to the weather
for generations, the India ink pre-
served the wood along the face of the
letters, while the rest of the face of
the board was worn away by ain
and decay, leaving the letters raised
like characters which the blind read.
In fact, in later years, it was due to
this raised form that the wording
could be deciphered, all color having
long since faded out Of the ink.
Notwithstanding the drastic meas
ures resorted to for the purpose of
annihilating the Christian faith, and
Notwithstanding three hundred years
interviewed before missionaries were
again permitted to enter Japan, the
Catholics claim that on their return,
some forty years ago, they found ten
thousand japanese who through all
those years had clung to their faith,
handing it down from generation to
generation by tradition, and risking
their lives for what they believed.
Whether or not Catholic mission
aries were conspiring against Japan
as charged by Hideyoshi, there is no
doubt Of the fact that that shrewd
politician and able leader made good
use Of the charge to promote his own
purposes. By this means he welded
Japan's hitherto warning clans into a
compact nationality and exalted
himself to be the real head of the
Government, and made this suprem-
| acy hereditary in his own family for
three hundred years, down to the
time of the instruction which placed
the present Emperor in real author
| ity, an interesting epoch which will
be described at some length later on.
Up to within the sixties, during
all the past, as already stated, Japan
had been a loose congeries of warning
clans. Under Hideyoshi she became
a military feudalism. Although II
is claimed, and may be true, that the
Imperial House of Japan has come
down in an unbroken line from time
immemorial, yet neither during the
earlier ages nor during the three
hundred years of feudalisn, did the
Emperor, except in rare instances
exercise any real authority in mat
tiers pertaining to the government
In the former period, whatever clar
obtained supremacy for the time be-
ing, issued its edicts and DEGREES in
the name of the Emperor. So also
in feudal times, the last three hun
dred years of japanese history, up te
the opening of the country, fifty years
ago, the Shotgun Chief military com
mander) used the Imperial seal as 6
talisman. Sometimes a child was or
the throne. If an Emperor exhibited
too much sense, or undertook tt
smeddle," he was taught to abdi
cate, and a more pliable personality
| ascended fha fhr0na II ia even said