The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-25
Interpreting
The News
BY JAMES D. WHITE

-. Nov. A,-s
Japan is ripe for christjsni.,@ !"
IN the reported opinion Of w.,
prominent protestant Ans,; i'a'
ehurchmen who recently lan5.s
here after a trip to Japan rs.
included officials of the Fed.s.'
Council of Churches. the wo,,s
Council of Churches, the Fors;.N
Missions conference and the lnts o.
national Missionary Council,
These churchmen q r reno,..,
to believe that shintoism the s.s'
religion Of Japan which militsr; aS
used as an instrument of regimsss
tatlon, will ''wither'' without u.
fetal support, and that budsh t us'
has lost ground. 'D'
The Japan year book for 1Qsso
gives the following figures an y.
ligions in Japan at that finn.
shintoism - 100000 adherents.
buddhism - 100000, Christian
ty-about $4,000; including gns.
900 protestants, 1900 catholic,
and about 10000 Greek orthodo,
catholics.
| The year book notes that Nh.
hammedanism came to Jan.n
some time back, but the faih
could not obtain many adherent,
simply because it did not com. n
Japan with any political or eco.
nomic elements accompanied"
Freedom Guaranteed
l. The Potsdam declaration gla,
antees Japan religious freedom
but Allied authorities have left M
doubt of their intention to craze
the aspects of shintoism used nv
the militarists 10 further their own
interests in the fomenting and
waging of war. These aspects in
clude teaching the nationaHstjc
part of shinto in the schools, com.
pulsory shinto shrines in homes
and schools, and state support Of
the shinto priesthood. (The nation.
al budget set aside more than
1000, 1000 yen in 1899, according to
the year book, to maintain shirN)
Such measures were intensified
during the war. Christian organ.
cations were forced to unite in
single japanese Christian
church to facilitate government
control.
| Occupational authorities are
changing such things, and the
great shinto shrines OF the nation
are reported virtually deserted
one theory being that the Japa.
nese want to forget the war and
all that caused it.
Divested of its ma tionalistc
aspects, shinto presumably would
revert to the primitive animism-
worship of fox-fairies, trees, and
so on-from which it sprang orig.
nally. If Japanese really abandon
shinto, their religious bent might
welcome something else-this ap.
parently is W h ere christianity
might come in.
| Its history in Japan, briefly, is
this:
| Catholicism gained a firm foot.
hold in southern Japan late in the
10Th century, but the isolationlst
Tokugawa government came to re-
gard it as a threat to its control
over the people, according to Jap.
anese historians who note that at
about the same time protestants
arrived, but the japanese did not
consider tn m Christians. As
Christianity was being prosecuted,
the protestants did not disilluslon
the Japanese.
Persecution was centered on the
Catholics, and thousands OF these
Japanese converts are said 10
have become willing martyrs 70
their faith as the government took
violent measures to stamp 1t out
but never entirely succeeded.
Japan's religious isolation ended
when the country was reopened 10
the world in the middle of the
last century, and both Catholic
, and protestant missionaries en-,
tered the field to build up tolal
of roughly half a million Chris
tians by 1341.
The emperor now is said 10 eS
press interest in Christianity as d
means of making Japan a demo
cratic nd progressive nation; any
General Macarthur is sad 10 lee,
Christianization would be sooa
thing but thinks it may be oil
ficult because of japanese ma'ei
alism and aloofnesS.
The japanese can choose Oily
=, faith free of militant natlonail''A'