Christianity’s Bloody History in Japan

Japan has had a vexed relationship with Jesus ever since European missionaries arrived on its shores. Banned until 1873, successive leaders have asked whether love of the ‘two Js’ is compatible.

Japanese Christians re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, c.1880s. Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo.

Early in 1638, Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate found itself mired in a combination of embarrassment and crisis. Requests were coming into its headquarters in Edo – present day Tokyo – for troops to lay siege to a castle on the coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island. The castle had been captured by rebels, and to make things worse they were not even samurai. They were peasants – Christian peasants.