A disturbingly brutal and shocking account of religious persecution.
The short prologue to this truly shocking story gives an account of more than a dozen badly beaten and tortured prisoners, heads shaved and painted red, being led through the streets of Nagasaki City in June 1626, prior to being tied to execution stakes and then burnt alive. This “death march” comprised two European priests, five lay Portuguese prisoners, and two ships’ captains, all found guilty of aiding Japanese Christians; the final few victims were Japanese individuals who had sheltered priests. The Governor in charge of the executions had ordered all to be gagged in order that they wouldn’t be able to inspire any Christians in the crowds lining the streets, he was determined that the fate of these prisoners would instil fear in all onlookers. The descriptions of the torture the prisoners had undergone during the year they had been incarcerated, and of the precision with which the executioners had learnt to position the stakes from the fire in order to maximise suffering, set the tone for the brutality which ran through the story.
The main story starts a month earlier, in Hizen Province, on Kyusha, Japan’s southernmost island, and covers a two-month period. Father Joaquim Martinez, sent from the Portuguese Society of Jesus many years earlier to spread the Word of God, now lives in a small village where, in exchange for his teachings, he is taught the Samurai “Way of the Sword”, a skill which will come in useful many times during the story. Although there had been times following the arrival of the first Jesuit priests in the middle of the sixteenth century when Christians were reasonably well-tolerated, soon after the first Shogun came to power at the start of the seventeenth century, he became suspicious of all foreigners and suspected that priests and their converts were, in reality, foreign agents and religious freedom was outlawed in 1614. As more and more Christians were tortured and executed when they refused renounce their faith, those remaining lived in fear of their lives and Christianity necessarily became a covert movement.
In his author’s note that this story is “inspired by real history and real characters in history”, in his final sentence Shaun Curry asks the question “Who am I to soften the edges of history to create a more gentle story?” Well, there is nothing in the least gentle about his brutally graphic descriptions of the relentless persecution of Christians, and of the barbaric tortures inflicted upon them by the Shogun and his officials. At times I found it almost intolerable to read about the systematic torture which was designed to cause as much agony as possible, for as long a time as possible. However, he did very effectively capture the ever-present fear Christians experienced and the lengths they were forced to go to in order to escape discovery and, equally effectively, evoked a vivid picture of life in Japan during the period being described.
Through the character of Father Joaquim, full of love, tolerance and compassion, it was very easy to identify with the heroic bravery of those who were not prepared to recant their faith, as well as the non-Christians who were prepared to risk their own lives to help them. As a character filled with hatred, rage, suspicion and intolerance, the Shogun was an easy to hate “baddie” but, with the author’s descriptions of the challenges he was wrestling with to both gain more powers and retain those he already had, I felt that some of the reasons for his behaviour, whilst totally abhorrent and unacceptable, were ego-syntonic and therefore credible within this context.
Told in very short chapters, this is an action-packed, fast-moving story but there were moments when I had to suspend disbelief at some of the “miracles” which enabled the characters to escape what appeared to be situations which it would be impossible to survive – but maybe that’s just a reflection of the fact that I don’t share that absolute faith in a God who rewards faith with miracles! I enjoyed the amount of background detail about the historical period in which the story is set; this definitely increased my knowledge of the history of Japan and the influences which shaped its development as a country. Consequently, I now feel stimulated me to do some more reading around this subject – always a satisfying bonus to a reading experience.
As this is the first book in planned trilogy there was, inevitably, a sense of something “unfinished” when I reached the end of the story but, although I would in many ways like to discover the eventual fates of the characters who survived all their many trials and tribulations yet somehow managed to retain hope, I’m not sure that I would want to expose myself to any further graphic detail about the brutal treatment meted out to them, so it’s unlikely that I’ll continue with the series.
With its central themes of persecution because of religious faith, for being in any way different and for being prepared, whatever the odds, to fight against oppression, and reflections on how the influences of politics, trade and immigration can create a background against which such persecution can flourish, this is as much a contemporary story as an historical one and, for this reason this is a book which would make an interesting choice as a group read.
The main story starts a month earlier, in Hizen Province, on Kyusha, Japan’s southernmost island, and covers a two-month period. Father Joaquim Martinez, sent from the Portuguese Society of Jesus many years earlier to spread the Word of God, now lives in a small village where, in exchange for his teachings, he is taught the Samurai “Way of the Sword”, a skill which will come in useful many times during the story. Although there had been times following the arrival of the first Jesuit priests in the middle of the sixteenth century when Christians were reasonably well-tolerated, soon after the first Shogun came to power at the start of the seventeenth century, he became suspicious of all foreigners and suspected that priests and their converts were, in reality, foreign agents and religious freedom was outlawed in 1614. As more and more Christians were tortured and executed when they refused renounce their faith, those remaining lived in fear of their lives and Christianity necessarily became a covert movement.
In his author’s note that this story is “inspired by real history and real characters in history”, in his final sentence Shaun Curry asks the question “Who am I to soften the edges of history to create a more gentle story?” Well, there is nothing in the least gentle about his brutally graphic descriptions of the relentless persecution of Christians, and of the barbaric tortures inflicted upon them by the Shogun and his officials. At times I found it almost intolerable to read about the systematic torture which was designed to cause as much agony as possible, for as long a time as possible. However, he did very effectively capture the ever-present fear Christians experienced and the lengths they were forced to go to in order to escape discovery and, equally effectively, evoked a vivid picture of life in Japan during the period being described.
Through the character of Father Joaquim, full of love, tolerance and compassion, it was very easy to identify with the heroic bravery of those who were not prepared to recant their faith, as well as the non-Christians who were prepared to risk their own lives to help them. As a character filled with hatred, rage, suspicion and intolerance, the Shogun was an easy to hate “baddie” but, with the author’s descriptions of the challenges he was wrestling with to both gain more powers and retain those he already had, I felt that some of the reasons for his behaviour, whilst totally abhorrent and unacceptable, were ego-syntonic and therefore credible within this context.
Told in very short chapters, this is an action-packed, fast-moving story but there were moments when I had to suspend disbelief at some of the “miracles” which enabled the characters to escape what appeared to be situations which it would be impossible to survive – but maybe that’s just a reflection of the fact that I don’t share that absolute faith in a God who rewards faith with miracles! I enjoyed the amount of background detail about the historical period in which the story is set; this definitely increased my knowledge of the history of Japan and the influences which shaped its development as a country. Consequently, I now feel stimulated me to do some more reading around this subject – always a satisfying bonus to a reading experience.
As this is the first book in planned trilogy there was, inevitably, a sense of something “unfinished” when I reached the end of the story but, although I would in many ways like to discover the eventual fates of the characters who survived all their many trials and tribulations yet somehow managed to retain hope, I’m not sure that I would want to expose myself to any further graphic detail about the brutal treatment meted out to them, so it’s unlikely that I’ll continue with the series.
With its central themes of persecution because of religious faith, for being in any way different and for being prepared, whatever the odds, to fight against oppression, and reflections on how the influences of politics, trade and immigration can create a background against which such persecution can flourish, this is as much a contemporary story as an historical one and, for this reason this is a book which would make an interesting choice as a group read.