Las Vegas age. [volume] (Las Vegas, Nev.) 1905-1947, 1928-07-28
BUJDDHA'S POWER
IS UNSHAKEN
TN JAPAN
Rd VICTOR EUBANK
Associated Press Correspondent

ihNNUtEiAtNl AitSS WI
TOKYO, July % APPETITE
mosJ recent religious statistics
show that Christianity has failed
to make important progress against
Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan.
The worship of Buddha is pro-
fessed by 48,5OO,O00 japanese, ap-
proXimately 81 per cent of all re-
ligious believers in the island en-
pire. Christianity has made some
headWay but the number of Chris
tians is estimated at only slightly
more than 100000.
Shintoism, a form of ancestor
worship, has about 100000 ad-
herents.
All japanese historians and pub
licists stress the debt that the ma
ton owes to Buddhism. Without
this religion in the early develop
ment Of the empire accompanied
as it was by the superior civiliza-
ton at that time of China, Korea
and India, it is generally believed
that Japan never would have at
tanned the high degree of refine
ment and culture which amazed
visitors from the western world
when the doors of the country
were thrown open to foreign in
tercourse.
At present there are 1877 Bud
dhist temples in Japan, according
to governmental statistics, in ad-
dition to 35,O79 Buddhist chapels.
There are about 141 900 Buddhist
priests associated with the temples
in various capacities. The richness
of this organization can be sur
missed when it is known that these
temples own or have appropriated
about $4,000 acres of land. And
land in Japan, growing ever more
crowded with its millions of pOpu-
lation, is the costliest thing in the
empire.
Christianity came into Japan
sometime between 1549, when St.
Francis Xavier landed at Kagos-
hima, and 1887 when the rebellion
of Shimabara was suppressed. AS
represented by the Roman Catholic
missionaries. the new religion was
unusually well received by the
Japanese and was not long before
some of the leading military COM
manders were using it to fight the
growing political power of the Bud
dhiSt forces. But Hideyoshi and
Ideyasu succeeded NObunaga, who
was the great influential friend of
the Christians, and they adopted a
campaign of persecution which
drove the Jcsuits from the country.
Thereafter, the death penalty
and other severe penalties were
inflicted upon any one convicted of
being a Christian Buddhism, shin
toism and ConfucianiSm were the
only religions permitted in the
country with Buddhism then as
now the most popular.
1t was not until Commodore
Perry raped on the doors of the
Shogians domain that Christianity
again secured a foothold. Following
the signing of the treaty between
the United States an dJapan, four
American Protestant missionaries
located missions at NagaSaki and
Osaka.
The adventures of these mission
aries have filled numerous volumes
To revive the cause of Christianity
which had faded with the Jesuits
was an almost superhuman task;
for. although the laws against the
Western religion had been revoked,
the natives had become imbued
with such antagonistic propaganda
that they viewed the missionaries
and their faith with something like
horror.
Perseverance, however, eventual
" won and the converts, although
not especially enthusiastic, became
numerous. But there was a seces-
sion of the believers some years
later which was caused principally
by theological controversies which
arose among the Christian men,
bers themselves. Since then the
Christian advocates have been
travelling an uphill road although
even the BuddhiSts and Shintoists
admit, they are achieving steady
and sound progress. There are at
present some 1.600 Christian chur-
ches or chapels in the empire.
Mrs. Henrietta Brockman ano
grandson George Ullom left
A L.. Il. .rNwsF