26 Martyrs of Japan

I was reminded by a friend that today is the feast day of St. Paul Miki and the 26 Martrys of Japan.  It's a date that often slips my admittedly feeble mind.  Moreover, it's a feast day of which relatively few in the West are aware.  I myself didn't learn of it until I travelled to Nagasaki, the city in Japan with the largest Catholic population, many years ago.  After visiting the atomic bomb museum, I rather accidentally ran into a stone wall memorial honoring 26 executed Christians that included three Japanese Jesuit priests (Paul Miki being one of them), four Spaniards, one Portuguese, one Mexican, and 17 other Japanese converts (including three young altar boys).

When Christianity first arrived in Japan with St. Francis Xavier in 1549, it was generally tolerated because the Shogun saw an opportunity for trade through Portuguese and Spanish ships.  It was also seen as a way to potentially offset the influence and power of Buddhist monks who often were at odds with the imperial forces.  But the unexpectedly rapid spread of the new religion gave cause for alarm, which included a perceived threat of colonialization.  Toleration would eventually turn to hostility, and an example was made of St. Paul Miki, who refused to renounce the faith, and his companions.  They were arrested on the orders of the Shogun, tortured, physically mutilated, and paraded through villages across Japan.  On February 5, 1597, they were crucified, impaled with lances, and martyred on a hill that overlooks Nagasaki city.

The persecutions continued, missionaries were expelled, and Christianity eventually banned altogether.  In the 1630s, Shiro Amakusa, a young samurai and convert, would lead a rebellion of persecuted Catholics living in the very region where it was first introduced.  I saw a statue of this graceful looking man the last time I visited and, along with the story of the prior martyrs, it inspired me to write a book on the subject of the history of the faith in those islands some seven thousand miles from my own home.

Since many factual accounts have already been recorded, I decided to write in the mode of historical fiction -- using actual events and people from history, while also having the creative freedom to weave into the story my own life experiences, including those from the four years I lived and worked in rural Japan.  The result was a novel called Masaru (a word meaning "victory" that also happened to be a term of endearment my Japanese grandmother had for me).  The book was published by Arx Publishing back in 2021, and it won an award the following year from the Catholic Media Association for best inspirational novel.  The publisher, with all good intentions, released an audio version of the book that was narrated by AI.  I absolutely hated it, and resolved to record another version using my own voice.  (I'm no professional voice artist, but at least I possess a human soul!)  This audio version was recently released and is available on Google Play.  (We're hoping it will also soon be made available through Audible.)

There is one chapter in the book in which the aforementioned event of the martyrdom of the 26 Christians is described, in the manner of an eyewitness account by one of the main characters.  Below is a link where one can listen to that entire chapter, entitled "An Old Friend Returns," as well as a link for the Google Play version of the entire audio book.  For those (like myself) who prefer good old fashioned paperbacks, there is a link to the Amazon and Arx Publishing websites.  I hope you will at least explore the fascinating history of the faith in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Chapter 5 of Masaru (audio version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSAy1ZjgCu0

Entire audio book on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAEBSuzn7eM

Masaru on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Masaru-Michael-T-Cibenko/dp/1935228234

Arx Publishing website
http://www.arxpub.com/literary/Masaru.html

And feel free to come visit the Facebook page for Masaru.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088873297060