Christianity in Japan

CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. BY DR. J. M. TANNER, SUPERINTENDENT OF CHURCH SCHOOLS. There is no concealiilg the fact that there was a general expectation throughout Christendom that Christianity would take on a new and enlarged growth in Japan when the war was over. During the struggle, Russia aimed to create throughout Europe a spirit of alarm over what it was pleased to style the ''yellow peril." To counteract any disadvantages that Japan might receive, in consequence of the professed alarm on Russia's part, especially in the financial world, the Japanese hastened to express the most friendly consideration for Christianity and the Christian nations. The Roman Catholics are the most numerously represented, having in the country of the Mikado about sixty thousand converts. The Pope, therefore, delegated Bishop Connell, of Portland, Me., to bear the Pope's autograph letter to the Mikado. Just what the letter contained, and how it was viewed by the Mikado, it is not easy to determine. Of course, much cordiality would be expressed toward the Pope's representative who, in turn, would manifest special solicitude for the religious welfare of Japan. The Protestant phase of recent events in Japan is more significant. The most numerous sects of Japanese Protestants are the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists. For upwards of twenty years, there has been a strong feeling among these Japanese Christians that they were able to take care of themselves, and carry on the mission work in a better manner than the missionaries from abroad could do it for them. They have, there-

CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 391 fore, simply said, give us the money expended by your missionaries, and we will accomplish a great deal more good with it. But the missionaries were loath to give up the keys to the money-box, and likewise their employment, and so they have disregarded the wishes of these Japanese Protestants. The result has been that the Japanese Presbyterians and Congregationalists — and there are some very able men among them— have determined to carry on the work of the special churches, independent of missionary aid, and have resolved that, "No church receiving aid from foreign missions shall be recognized ac a church after 1907. " This does not mean that the foreign missionaries in Japan must seek passage homeward after that date, but it means that the organized church of Japan will be under local control, and not under the control of the missionaries. Of course, scattered missionary efforts may be made, and if there is a persistent determination to enforce missionary control, there may be serious ruptures and a pronounced hostility between the native Presbyterians and Congregationalists and the missionaries. The Japanese seem more and more determined to put their own interpretation upon Christianity. There is an important difference in the mental and the spiritual constitution between the Japanese and the Christians of Europe and America. The Japanese have a respect and reverence for the dead that is wholly unknown among Europeans. The latter, interpret religion exclusively from the standpoint of the living, while the Japanese, in their Shinto religion, are excessively influenced by what they consider their obligations to the dead, and the power which the dead have over them for good or evil. The trouble with these divergent views is that both go to the extreme. Christianity is the gospel both for the living and the dead. That men living in the spirit v/orld may be judged according to men in the flesh, was one of the objects of Christ's preaching to the spirits in prison. On the other hand, the Japanese are troubled by a kind of fatalism, by the perverted teaching that the influence of the spirits is paramount to that of men in the flesh; that the important thing is what the spirits do for us, rather than what we do for the spirits. The key to the relative position between men in the flesh and men in the spirit world is found in

392 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Apostle Paul's question to the Corinthians: "Why, then, are ye baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?" Japan, however, at war is not what Japan is as a victor; and the important factor to be counted upon, hereafter, in every fareastern question is Ise, the Mecca of Shintoism throughout the Japanese world. The recent pilgrimage of the Emperor to its shrines, and the enthusiastic praise of the pilgrimage by the Japanese press, are all notes of warning to the Christian world that Japan is by no means ready for anything like a general adoption, in that country, of Christianity. A very prominent journal, the Nichinichi, remarks: The present imperial visit to the Great Shrine, when viewed in parallel with the numerous rescripts in which his Majesty has attributed the victories of the imperial hosts to the virtues of his ancestors, and to the efforts of his people, make clear how truly and boundlessly the Emperor is devoted to the living spirits of his forefathers, and how deeply he loves his subjects. In other words, the Emperor aspires to be the embodiment and living example of universal humanity, fi lial piety, and humility. The Asahi, in its indirect praise of Shintoism says: The modern Japanese are luckier than all our forefathers, in living to see so grand an event as the present imperial pilgrimage to Ise, as the like of it, with all the glories it implies, has never before occurred in the history of the empire. Our present Emperor is the rejuvenator of Japan, and has given her a new history. Furthermore, his Majesty intends, no doubt, to renew in us the spirit of traditional faith and worship, as this his fourth visit to the Great Shrine clearly indicates. All this does not look as if any considerable number of the Japanese were ready to accept Christianity. The effects of the war seem to be rather in the opposite direction. The heroic deeds of the Japanese on the battlefields of Manchuria are singularly calculated to awaken within the people of Japan renewed interest in hero worship. Salt Lake City, Utah.