The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-22

The S. S. Kasado Maru, well known
in Honolulu. on April 2S left Kobe for
Brazil with 7S3 japanese laborers.
They were the first batch of 5000 con,
tracted by the Imperial Emigration Co.
SSSSSScSSSSSsSScSSSS SSSSSs
progress of modern times. The mis-
siOnary gave him education, gave him
medical attention-before the adoption
of Occidental medical science by the
Japanese-and instructed him in the
ways of the outside world whether
the particular Japanese who received
these things did or did not accept the
religion preached by the missionaries.
he was always grateful and always
considerable. The missionaries and the
Japanese live together on terms of sIch
close fellowship that neither will per-
NIT criticism of the other as a class.
1t is interesting as a historical study
to look into the early Christianity Of
Japan. In 1549, more than $50 years ago.
that prince of missionaries, St. Fran
els Xavier and his companion Kasper
arrived in Japan. They came on the
advice Of a Japanese refugee whom
| they had met at the Portuguese colony
of Goa in India. They preached the
faith with all the fervor of that great
age of missions and with such success
that within forty years there were
100000 Christians in the land, jiist
twice as many as have been gained in
the last forty years. The daimyos or
feudal lords of one portion Of the coun-
try espOused Christianity and it be-
came the popular religion among the
higher classes Of Central Japan.
But the Jesuits could not refrain from
mingling with politics, for a separation
between the spheres of Church and
State was wholly incomprehensible to
Europeans of that epoch. Their activ-
ity in political affairs became so great
that the ruling Shotgun, who was the
first of the Tokugawa family whose
last deposed scion is still living, began
to suspect them. The Protestant Dutch
traders who had obtained a slight adj
vantage with the government did not
fail to embrace the opportunity to deal
a blow to their rivals, hated both be-
cause they were Catholics and because
they were Portuguese. They told the
Shogun that the Jesuits had plotted
to overthrow the government and at
tach Japan to the dominion of Rome.
mat Infatuated the Shotgun and he
began to prosecute the Christians and
prohibited the profession of the faith
on pain of death. In the years that
followed Christians were Slaughtered
wholesale and in 1898 the religion was
wholly stamped out.
1t was 235 years afterwards that the
present Emperor in 1873 removed the
prohibition then placed upon Chris
tlanity, but it is said that when the
nrst missionaries slipped into the coun-
try after Perry opened it. they found
a Few persons who kept I'D the ritual
Oh the Church Of Rome. handed down
10 then IN secret by their forefathers.
contrast the persecution OF that elder
uay with the tolerance of this. Just
after the outbreak Of the war with
RUSSIA there was a meeting in Toxic
OF the Association OF Japanese Relig-
lonlsts' which passed a resolution ms
titying Japan's position in the war.
sac by side in this association were
Shlntoists, Buddhists. Confucians and
christians. The organization was made
permanent under its comprahensiya
ute and meets annually. When nohs
damaged some Christian churches .,
TOXIC this association made good the
losses intending thereby to emnbas;zs
the faet that the riots were NOT rsIig- !
ious and that the Shintos and R,,d-
Christians. WIN TIC