The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-02-14
Impressive But Tragic
impressive Dut AIdSIC
Spiritual Void Strikes
At Base OF Structure
BY Erik Won KvehneIt- Leddihn

Impressive as the political, economic, and intel
lectual problems of Japan may be, these are small in
comparison with the spiritual void which makes it.
self felt especially among the youngsters. We have
mentioned the LeftiSts proclivities of the university
students.
There is also an unheard of rise in juvenile crime
especially among the highFschool youngsters, crimes
of curiously collectively nature. Three weeks ago
a whole class of students from Kawasaki City on an
excursion to Kyushu robbed and demolished a rail-
road candy store and the accompanying teachers were
unable to prevent it. Two weeks ago some students
attacked a group of girls in a suburban train and tore
their clothes to shreds. Of course, you still see old
people praying before shrines and clapping their
hands and ! have encountered young Buddhist monks
with shaved heads and most impressive faces. Yet the
fact remains that the old paganism is rapidly evapor-
ating and that Christianity is by no means able to
keep pace with the religious vacuum of this country.
Less than one out of a hundred Japanese is a Christ
ian and only one out of three hundred is a Catholic.
What makes Europe and America tick is the fact
that the West has a large body of practlcing Christ
ianS and as we now know, huge m~ajoritieS believing IN
the basic tenets of Christianity such as a personal God,
survival after death, personal responsibility to the
Creator. There is nothing OF this sort IN Japan which
is now living predominantly on. Western skeptical
notions which in our countries were fashionable forty
or fifty years ago. If only our missionaries would have
received a fraction of the aid extended in the past
by our governments to businessmen, military mis-
sions, cultural institutions etc, the situation might
now be different indeed.
1t is true, though, that the japanese religious
antedates the impact of modernity. Buddhism is a
philosophy and a way Of life rather than a religion,
ShintoiSm is a national ritual rather than a coherent
faith. The phenomenal inroads made by the Catholic
religion in the 10th and 18th century have to be ex-
planned by the beginning void. Undoubtedly the count
ny would have become Catholic had not Dutch intrlgueS
in conjunction with the rise Of the nationalist Shog-
innate brutally destroyed the wonderful development
started by st. Francis Xavier. When Christianity re-
sumed its activities in the 10Th century Europe--in
the words of Douglas Jerrold-was just about to be-
come 'the apostle of its apoStasy."
The Japanese, for a hundred years, had been
fed by us with chronological tricks, gadgets, and in
tellectual alterations and, as a result, they are more
hopelessly confused than we are.
AT present there is little anti Christianism in
Japan. In religious matters the Japanese have become
tolerant and Christianity after all, to them is a pro-
duct of the much admired West. buddhism, we ought
not to forget, is an equally alien Chinese import OF
Indian origin.
1t is difficult to evaluate the fact that the Chief
Justice of Japan is. a good Catholic, something which
would hardly do in the United States. CA Catholic
Prime Minister for Japan? Well, why not. But it
might well be that we have here a case of indiffer-
ence rather than of intolerance.
At the moment a tremendous prosperity tends
to obscure many basic facts concerning Japan. The
prosperity hinges on exports and these are to a GER
tain point unpredictable. An economic crisis would
~highlight the spiritual problem of these islands which
cannot be called happy. There always has been a high
suicide rate in Japan and one sees many tragic faces,
a sad meekness among the women, a desperate fero-
city among the men. And there is also a great deal
of drunkenness. 1t is highly questionable whether
the proposed reintroduction of ethics courses in the
schools will remedy this situation. Ethics without a
religious basis are bound to hang in the air.
On the other side of the ledger we find the
PLANNED Parenthood' drive of the Ministry of Wei
fare, an Americaninspired affair. The Japan Times of
December 4h wrote that under this plan an assert
ment of contraceptives placed in a box called 'Casket
of Love- will be circulated from door to door in order
to give the housewives a chance to choose freely any
thing they like
That's precisely what the West offers them j..
a caSket!