In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, Secrecy and Survival by John Dougill
reviewed by Tim O'Connell
11 June 2013 — Just eleven years after Commodore Perry had pried open Japan's doors in 1854, Father Bernard Petitjean was surprised to spy a small group of Japanese men and women loitering near his newly consecrated Nagasaki church. Despite the opening to the West, conversion to Christianity remained a capital crime, strictly enforced in the centuries since a wave of persecution and martyrdom swept southern Japan from the turn of the 17th century; in fact, Petitjean's church faced Nishizaki Hill, where 26 Christian priests and converts were crucified in 1597.
The French priest's surprise turned to astonishment when one of the women later approached the altar, put hand to chest and said, "All of us here have the same heart as you," followed by, "Where is the statue of Santa Maria?" To the wonder of the Christian world, Japan'sKakure Kirishitan, its "Hidden Christians", had come in from the cold.
How had what would turn out to be 50-60,000 largely illiterate Japanese villagers from throughout the region managed to orally preserve their faith through 250 years and seven generations, without recourse to priests or Bibles and at unceasing threat to their lives?...