Persecution Theme Analysis

Rodrigues, a Portuguese priest illegally working in Japan, initially imagines that the Japanese persecute Christianity out of a sense of religious animosity or hatred—and must themselves be monstrous or evil people. But he discovers that the Japanese officials are ordinary men, the same as himself, and that their motivation for eradicating Christianity are primarily political. Through this realization, Endō suggests that religious persecution, though still brutal, may be as much a pragmatic issue as an ideological one.

Rodrigues, Garrpe, and the Roman Catholic Church imagine that the Japanese magistrate Inoue, the “architect of Christian persecution,” is a demon or a devil, demonstrating their initial belief that the forces that oppose Christianity must necessarily be evil and hateful. Before Rodrigues and Garrpe arrive in Japan, one of their superiors tries to dissuade them from going, telling them of the newly-appointed Inoue, the “terror for the Christians” who makes his brutal predecessors seem paltry in comparison with his own “savagery” and cunning. Inoue has built his reputation on his ability to break even stalwart Christians who were once immune to torture and threats of death. Rodrigues and Garrpe memorize Inoue’s name, and he becomes a devilish figure in their imaginations. During the first persecutions that Rodrigues witnesses, Christian villagers are commanded to apostatize and “spit on the crucifix and declare that the Blessed Virgin [Mary] was a whore.” If they will not, other villagers will be seized, forced under the same trial, and even executed, though if they will disgrace Christianity, the officials will leave their people alone for a time. When Rodrigues realizes that such a grotesque scheme was devised by Inoue, it confirms the man—whom he has never met—as an evil, hellish figure in Rodrigues’s mind, suggesting that his persecution is enacted out of a sheer hatred of Christianity and Jesus Christ himself.

However, Inoue, though his policies are brutal, is oddly kind and even compassionate, which contradicts Rodrigues’ expectations of a devilish figure and suggests that those who persecute others may themselves be rather ordinary people, not evil incarnate as was once believed. When Rodrigues is captured by the Japanese government, he is interviewed by several officials, one of whom is a portly old man with large ears and a gentle manner who discusses Christianity with him and reassures the defensive priest that the officials will not punish any missionaries “without reason.” When Rodrigues learns that this mild man is Inoue, he is taken aback, feeling that this “understanding, seemingly good, meek man” has “utterly betrayed all his expectations.” Rather than the devil Rodrigues imagined Inoue to be, he instead finds him to be a decent man, suggesting that even those who enact religious persecution may themselves be ordinary, even kind, people. The contradictory nature of Inoue’s policies and his character are even reflected in the manner in which he oppresses Christians. Several times, after torturing peasants to push them to apostatize, Inoue’s men order for a doctor to care for their torture injuries and fires to be built so the victims can warm themselves. When Christians are pained by the idea of apostatizing and placing their foot upon Christ’s face, Inoue and his men reassure them, “I’m not telling you to trample with sincerity and conviction. This is only a formality. Just putting your foot on the thing won’t hurt your convictions,” hoping to ease their conscience so they can end their own suffering. They let imprisoned Christians continue their prayers, sacraments, and even allow for Christian burials of the executed, rather than burning the bodies as Buddhists do. While Inoue and his agents certainly oppress Christians, their motivation does not seem to be devilish animosity or sadistic glee, further suggesting that they themselves are not the embodiment of evil Rodrigues once supposed.

Inoue’s conversations with Rodrigues suggest that the ruthless persecution of Christianity he orchestrates is not based in religious animosity, but national interests, which demonstrates that religious persecution may not be a matter of good versus evil or even one religion versus another, but rather an understandable fight to maintain one’s own culture and sovereignty. Inoue gently explains that he has “never thought of Christianity as an evil religion” but opposes the leverage its presence gives Holland, England, Spain and Portugal in Japan, since foreign missionaries tend to try to turn the Japanese people against the priests from other countries and expand their own countries’ influence. When Inoue slyly draws the parallel of one husband (Japan) plagued by four jealous mistresses (Holland, England, Spain and Portugal), Rodrigues agrees that perhaps the man would be better off alone before he realizes he has just agreed with Inoue’s argument. Inoue thus considers Christianity’s aggressive missionary work as “the forcing of love upon someone” or the unwanted but “persistent love of an ugly woman,” casting Christianity as a force which doggedly thrusts itself at Japan, even when Japan does not want it.  Inoue’s arguments imply that, rather than fearing the spread of a religion, he fears the loss of Japan’s sovereignty and identity, that it may be threatened by the foreign influence established by the missionaries. In light of the colonization of various other countries by European powers, often beginning with the arrival of Christian missionaries, Inoue’s fear seems very reasonable.  Although the story’s protagonist, Rodrigues, is Christian and its antagonist (Inoue) is Buddhist, Endō depicts the oppressive conflict between them as political, rather than religious, and draws the reader to be sympathetic to both parties, creating a difficult but well-nuanced dilemma that questions both the righteousness of evangelization and the evilness of religious persecution. However, by emphasizing Inoue’s brutality, Endō delivers no simple answers.

As a Japanese Christian, Endō seems sympathetic to both sides of the conflict in his novel, caught between his desire to see Christianity carried onward as well as his desire to protect Japan’s cultural heritage and national sovereignty, resulting in a far more balanced depiction of religious persecution and Christian suffrage than is usually seen.