5.4 Confronting a Painful History#

However, this harmony has not always existed. Japan also possesses a “dark history” of anti-Christian sentiment, during which vast numbers of believers were brutally massacred under the ban on Christianity. While most of the world knows Nagasaki was a focal point of this persecution, Yamaguchi—once hailed as a “center of missionary activity”—was not spared either (witness the 1605 martyrdom of the family of Kumagai Motonao, a senior retainer of the Mori clan).

To truly understand the value of peace, we must not shy away from these cruel chapters of the past. Only by bravely facing the darkness of history can we truly perceive the radiant light of rebirth that this white church emits today.