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Japan 1945-1962

The Reopening and Foundation Years

Most Americans think of the Japanese as a deeply religious people-indeed, saturated with religion for both national and personal reasons. In truth, however, this conception needs explanation and interpretation. Although most Japanese claim to have religious beliefs or affiliations, Japan is a secularized society, one wherein religion plays a minor role in the lives of most of the people. In his book The Japanese, Edwin O. Reischauer, highly regarded scholar of Japanese history, says: "If this book dealt with a South Asian or Middle Eastern people, it might well have started with a consideration of religion. Even for most Western nations, religion would have required earlier and fuller treatment. But religion occupies a more peripheral position in Japan. Before the seventeenth century it did play much the same role in Japan as in the West, but the trend toward secularism that has recently become marked in the West dates back at least three centuries in Japan."1

Reischauer then explains the role Confucianism has played in Japanese religious and social life. Confucianism stresses a rational natural order and a social system based on strict ethical rules. But it has no concept of a personal deity, no priesthood, and very little religious ritual. Although few, if any, contemporary Japanese would consider themselves Confucianists, most Japanese are more strongly influenced in the way they live their lives by Confucianism than by Buddhism, Shinto, or the so-called new religions (Shinko-Shukyo) of the postwar era.2

The Japanese, like the Chinese, have seen little conflict among religious persuasions. For hundreds of years it has been traditional for a Japanese to be blessed at birth and married by a Shinto priest, to live his or her life according to Confucian ethics, and to be buried or cremated by a Buddhist priest. Buddhism, it should be noted, is the only religion (or philosophy, in the case of Confucianism) of the three that has a well-developed concept of mankind's destiny after death. When asked regarding their religious affiliations, most Japanese answer that they are Buddhist.

The history of religions in Japan during the twentieth century has been one of general decline punctuated by periods of upheaval, suppression, government misuse, and spectacular growth. Though it is beyond the scope of this book to review all of the major developments during the past nine-plus decades, it is appropriate to touch on a few events and trends that have had an effect on the history of the LDS Church in Japan.

Following the closing of the early mission in 1924, Japan moved steadily into the period of ultranationalism that eventually resulted in the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. During the 1930s the Japanese government required all citizens to visit Shinto shrines and to worship the emperor. The government took the position that "bowing to the portrait of the emperor was simply a patriotic gesture and that attendance at the Shinto shrines was devoid of religious significance."3 This was hard for the Christians to accept, but in 1936 the churches were forced to submit to the government's position.4