Nagasaki - The faith that survived the persecution

Nagasaki · Kyushu · Ja castration · Centurys XVI–XX

Catholicism in Japan: the first mission

San Francisco Javier arrived in Japan in 1549. In a few years, Christian faith spread through Kyushu. The daimio (Lord feudal) Ōtomo Sōrin was baptized in 1578; in 1580 he gave the city of Nagasaki to the Jesuits as the base of operations. The city became the center of Japanese Catholicism.

The persecution and the 26 martyrs (1597)

The Shogunate Toyotomi Hideyoshi, fearing the political influence of Catholicism, began the persecution. The 5 February 159726 Christians - including the Spanish missionary Pedro Bautista and several Japanese, including the 12-year-old Luís Ibaraki - were crucified on Nishizaka hill in Nagasaki. They are the Martyrs of Japan, canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1862.

Los "kakore kirisitan": los ristianos ocultos

After the total persecution of the Tokugawa shogunate (1597-1873), Catholicism was banned in Japan for 250 years. But the Catholics of Nagasaki - the kakure kirishitan (hidden Christians) - they kept faith secret, generation after generation, without priests and Bible, transmitting prayers and rituals of memory, disguised as Buddhism. When in 1865 the French priest Bernard Petitjean opened the Church of Oura, groups of villagers approached him and said, "Our heart is the same as yours." It was the result of 250 years of clandestine faith.

The atomic bomb and Urakami (9 August 1945)

On August 9, 1945, the "Fat Man" atomic bomb exploded 500 metres from the Urakami neighborhood - Japan's most Catholic neighborhood. The cathedral of Urakami (Immaculate Conception) was completely destroyed. Between 8,000 and 12,000 of the 12,000 Catholics of Urakami - almost the entire community - died. Father Nagai Takashi, a doctor and Catholic who survived seriously injured, interpreted the tragedy of Urakami as a redeeming sacrifice.

The Shrine of Oura

La Church of Ourabuilt in 1864-1865 by the Fathers of the Foreign Missions of Paris, it is the only Western Gothic building declared National Treasury in Japan. It is dedicated to the 26 martyrs. In 2018 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of the "Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region."