IN ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

BY ABU BAKR MORIMOTO

TRANSLATED BY ISKANDAR CHOWDHURY

PREPARED BY PROF. DR. SALIH SAMARRAI [email protected]

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االسالم في اليابان بقلم أبو بكر موريموتو

إعداد أ. د. صالح مهدى السامرائى [email protected]

الدكتور السام ارئي وأبو بكر موري موتو في حج عام 1978 م Abu Bakr Morimoto with Dr. Salih Samarrai 1398 AH - 1978

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ISLAM IN JAPAN: ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER I Religious Environment in Japan and Islam……... 1 CHAPTER II Advent, Growth and DevelopMent of ………………………………………………………..…. 8 PART ONE 1. Historical Background 8 2. Lack of Historical Records of Muslim Contact with Japan.. 13 3. Who Was the First Japanese Muslim?...... 14 PART TWO 1. Establishment of ……………………………….... 18 2. TranslatiorKof the Holy into Japanese ...... 29 3. Growth of Islamic Organizations…………………………. 38 4. Leaders of Islamic Movement…………………………….. 57 5. Relations with Foreign …………………………... 73 6. Muslim Students Community……………………………... 76 7. A Dialogue' among Japanese Muslims……………………. 79 8. Pilgrimage to Mecca: Experience of a Japanese Muslim…. 83 CHAPTER III Present Condition of Islam in Japan……….. 90 1. The Problems……………………………………………... 90 2. A Dialogue with Indonesian Muslims……………………. 92 3. An Interview with Prof. Ali Hassan EI-Sarnny………….. 102

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4. and Islam………………………….. 109 5. The problem of Muslim …… in Japan……………………… CHAPTER IV Future Outlook of Islam in Japan…………... 119

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Introduction By Abdulrahman Siddiqi [email protected] Prof. Dr. Salih Samarrai [email protected]

Islamic Center Japan has been receiving requests for information on Islam in Japan, from almost all over the world show in the progress of Islam in Japan. The center therefore decided to publish this collection to apprise the about Islamic scene in Japan. Here, in the following few papers, our respected Japanese scholar Br. Abubaker Morimoto, has collected the articles and comments which give us a fairly broad idea about Islam in Japan. Br. Alhaj Abubaker Morimoto is a Muslim in its true sence. His love for Islam keeps him busy writing, talking and successfully guiding those who stand in need of it. This booklet is an attempt to draw attention of others who may be willing to do some service to

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the cause of Islam but could not do so due to lack of knowledge about the past, present and the prospects of Islam in Japan. Also it is hoped the book may serve as a guide for further research. Islamic Center Japan though realising that improvements are required here and there presents this work with the hope that it will serve as a fore runner to many other works on this subject. It is hoped that the readers and the leaders of Muslims would go through the book and forward their comments and suggestions to Islamic Center Japan. This would greatly help us when revising the book or reprinting the same. Though this work has our bleassing, it is opinions expressed here in.

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مقدمة الدكتور عبد الرحمن صديقي [email protected] األستاذ الدكتور صالح مهدي السامرائي [email protected]

هذه محاولة لرصد تاريخ اإلسالم في اليابان من قبل أحد أعالم الدعوة اإلسالمية من اليابانيين. ورغم أنها لم تشمل جميع النواحي إال أنها تغطي جانباً مهماً من وجهة نظر عالم ياباني قضى جهده في تقديم اإلسالم لبني قومه. وهذا الكتاب يستحق الترجمة إلى اللغة العربية ، ونسأل هللا العلي القدير أن يوفقنا لذلك.

أ.د. صالح مهدي السامرائي

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PREFACE Japan is perhaps one of those countries of the world where Islam found its way last of all and, finally, it is now about to spread in this country. Its course of events is being watched not only by the Japanese people but also by the people of the world, specially those of the Muslim countries. But is spread of Islam in Japan really possible? There are numerous difficulties and obstacles standing in its way. In order to overcome them, what must the Muslims of Japan as well as of the world do? For that purpose, first of all, the most important thing for them to do is to study and understand the history and the people of Japan, its national character and religious situation. Only chronologically arranged historical knowledges, as seen from outside, have no meaning at all. They have to learn from various things and events as well as from the hidden truth found in the expressions of human feelings. And taking this fact as a clue, one can find out the process of thinking about future outlooks and policies. I have made an attempt here to collect my articles on Islam in Japan, which have so far been published in the FORUM magazine and other journals, and arrange them in this book in an orderly sequence, by adding some recent points of view. But not all about Islam in Japan is told in this small book. Japan today is one of the economically most advanced countries of the world. Also spiritually, in the field of in particular, Japan has become a saturated melting pot of existing . In order for Japan to establish the most friendly relations with all the countries. and all the people of the world and co-exist with them, at the same time, in order to seek for spiritual equilibrium of each individual Japanese, acceptance of

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the truth of Islam is indispensable. With that end in view, I have prepared this humble report by the will of and shall be very happy if it becomes useful to its readers. Ramadan 1400 H August 1980 Abu Bakr MORIMOTO

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CHAPTER I Religious Environment in Japan and Islam We often hear from visiting foreigners in Japan or from people we encounter in the foreign countries that the Japanese people have io religious . It is true that at gatherings, specially at meetings which have something to do with religion, it is a common practice among prominent Japanese people or scholars to begin their speeches with apology for having no religious belief. At this time, we, the Japanese Muslims should ponder anew about .the significance of the expansion of Islam in this country, the 'religious atmosphere vis-a-vis Islam and its future prospects. Religious Vacuum? An eminent foreign Muslim who is well-known to the Muslims of Japan wrote in an article after visiting Japan a number of times in which he made a remark that Japan is a land of "religious vacuum." If this remark were made from the point of view that Islam is the only religion in the world, then the prospects, so far as Islam in Japan is concerned, can be said to be almost zero. Hence, if we think that there has been no achievement at all socially, there may be truth in it. But, in fact, Islam is not the only religion on earth. There do exist many .different religions among different races or regions, and looking from that angle Japan cannot be called a land of religious vacuum for it has.so many religious, indigenous or imported. Any foreigner who has travelled across Japan must have seen numerous shrines, Buddhist temples, Christian churches and prayers halls of sanctuaries of many other new religions all over Japan, whether in cities or in villages. In the early morning of the New Year, millions of adherents of these religions visit

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their holy places and offer prayers. If we see the religious statistics of Japan, we can find three main religions in this country: Shintoism, and . According to a survey of the Japanese Ministry of Education published in 1979, the following figures concerning religions and their adherents can be found: 1) Shintoism 98,545,703; 2) Buddhism 88,020,880; 3) Christianity 950,491, and others 13.729,376, total becomes 201,246,450. But, on the other hand, the actual total population of Japan in 1979 was only 115,170,000. The figures shown against each religion above were based on the reports submitted by the religious legal bodies registered with the Government of Japan. Therefore, it is clear that the figures are not based on any census on the believers of religions. Even so, leaving aside the child population crf the present-day Japan, every Japanese adult adheres to at iglast two different religions, that is, syncretism. In the eyes of the believers at a single religion, such as the Muslims, this fact may seem impossible or absurd to its extremity, or even despisable. But the figures show a reality of religious relationships in this country. Therefore, the figures may provide a key toward understanding the religious environment in Japan. Judging from this fact, Japan is not at all a land of religious vacuum, it can rather be called a country which has reached the point of saturation religiously. ipso, why then the Japanese people are looked upon by many foreigners as irreligious "economic an To answer this question it is imperative to explain a few problems. Firstly, we should deal with the problem as to) what kind of characteristics have the religions which have so far been spread among the Japanese people and how are their influencing powers. Secondii„ the question of the social environment in which the Japanese people are living today, the relationship between their religious thinking and their religious life by to be looked through.

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Shintoism To deal with the first question, we have to see what is Shintoism that has had a very deep impact upon the life of the whole race throughout the long history of the Japanese people. From a very ancient time when the Japanese people started their community life as a homogeneous race on this Japanese Archipelago, Shintoism took its root in the life of the people and spontaneously took the form of a natural religion of the race. Sometime animistic, sometime shamanistic, Shintoisrn has the vital characteristics of ancestor worship with a very close relationship with the Emperor System and has long played a vital role as the national religion of Japan through a long history. Shintoism has no founder or holy book, the Shrine is its symbol but has no idol. Its sources are found in the two rnytho-historical books KOJIKI,.compiled in 7-12 AD. and NIHON-SHOK1, in 720 A.D. In course of time, Shintoisrn was divided into many sects. As a result, elements of any common doctrine is obscure, there is no leadership , it is conservative in nature, and sometime played a retreat for the nationalists and perverted patriots. But the Grand Shrine of Ise, the head shrine of Shintoism which, once the national religion of Japan, played a great role as the place of worship of the Japanese people throughout the long history of Japan and even now we cannot ignore its great influence upon the people. Some teaching of Shintoism were adopted from Confucianism which was introduced to Japan from in the 5th century. Buddhism The second religion that exerted great influence on the life of the Japanese people is Buddhism. As is well-known, Buddhism was taught and spread by Gautama Buddha in India during the 5th century B.C. In a hundred years after the death of Gautama

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Buddha, Buddhism spread to other countries, divided into two major schools. One school, the Hinayana, spread over Ceylon, Burma, , and so on and even today it is widely practiced in these countries. The other school, the Mahayana, spread toward the Far East through China and Korea and during the 6th century AD. it entered Japan. In the original teaching of Buddha, there is no mention of and there is also no existence of any scripture written by himself. Through experiencing himself the truth of Nature, Buddha taught the ethics of human life and about the emancipation from various sufferings of human life. in this respect, Buddhism has a sharp difference as compared to the monotheistic teachings of Islam or Christianity. Buddhism may be considered anti-religion or non- religion from the viewpoint of worshipping a single God as taught by the great monotheistic religions of the West. In any case, after entering Japan, Buddhism again split into a number of factions and some of these factions have penetrated into the religious life of the people with their somewhat near- monotheistic doctrines such as Jodo-Shinshu sect which emphasises on a single absolute Truth. Early Buddhism in Japan sometimes took the place of the Court religion, In course of time, through the efforts of prominent priests, it spread to the length and breadth of the country and became a people's religion. At the same time, it established a concord with the local Shinto. Through diluting with Shintoisrn, it took a feature very special to Japan and became a main stream of the Japanese culture and is still cultivated by the Japanese people as a national culture.• During the feudal age, some two hundred years ago, all the people of the country at one place or the other had to belong to a Buddhist temple as parishioner. About one hundred years ago, Japanese people never ate food from the four:legged animals because of Buddhist precept. Even today we cannot ignore the fact that in the hearts of the most of the

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Japanese people, there exists a Buddhistic religious view of the world. Christianity The third great religious group in Japan is the Christiaits. 'Fite number of as may be found in the present statistics is much smaller than those of the Shintoists and the Buddhists. Christianity was First brought into Japan in 1543. The famous Roman Catholic Jesuit priest Francisco Xavier started his missionary activities in Japan in 1549. At the beginning, the feudal lords of the time received the Christians quite well. Some feudal lords even accepted Chris-tianity and through their patronization the number of Christians, for a time, increased with great speed. It is said that their number reached upto a million, that is, about 4% of the total Japanese population of 25- million in those days. But the interest of these feudal lords was not in the religion itself, their main interests were in the European civilization and in the trade, specially weapons, that flourished along with the importation of the Christian religion. At a later stage when the rulers saw that religious preaching of the Christians was only a camouphiage for conquering lands in various part of Asia by the European countries like , Spain and others, their policy made an absolute turn. They imposed a total ban on the Christian missionary works and persecuted the missionaries as well as the believers of Christianity. For a time, it appeared at least on the surface that there was not a single Christian in the land. The persecution of the Christian missionaries and martyrdom of the Japanese Chris- tian.s give ample proof of the sincere and strong belief of the Japanese people in religion. The ban on Christianity continued until 1873 when Japan was undergoing a revolutionary change in the wake of Restoration on the ruins of feudalism. But during those 300 years, a number of Christians secretly

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maintained their faith even under-suppression. When Japan adopted the policy of modernization, Western culture, science and other modernistic elements entered Japan in a rapid pace and along with them Christianity also made its way into Japan in great stride. This time not only Catholicism, but also other Christian denominations including Protestanism were added and all of them together marked a great influence on the modernization of this country. Al present, the Christian population in Japan is only a little over one million in a country of nearly 115 million people. Although their number is not great, the number of the Bible printed in Japan has steadily continued to rise, the 1975 figure being 6.2 million copies, It means either there is a latent influence of Christianity in this country or its propagation is nonetheless in great scale. Or at least it can be said that "consumption" of the Bible is great. But there has been a controversy on the limit of the Christian approach toward Japan. The most vital point of this problem is that there is a fundamental gap between the Japanese people's attitude toward the world and life generated from their syncretistic religious faith as mentioned earlier and the attitude of a monotheistic religion toward the universe. This is a problem of Christianity and Islam alike so far as Japan is concerned. New Religions In modern Japan; aside from ihe abo-ve-mentioned three great religions, there are also many other new religions which have millions of adherents and whom we cannot overlook. In many cases, these new religions are affiliated as Shinto or Buddhist religious streams or factions, but they are usually founded and led by some kind of charismatic people who promise their adherents of relieving them of their poverty. Particularly during. the great confusion of World War II, most of these new religions sprang up with the promise of overcom-ing poverty or relieving

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deseases, and so on, taking advantage of unhappiness of the individuals. The aspects of sublimity of religious philosophy or pure and spiritual devotion as well as of humanism has little to do with their thinking and approach regarding others. The most representative example of the new religions is Sokagakkai. This new religion has taken Mandara, written by Nichiren, the founder of a Buddhist sect about 700 years ago, as their object of worship and through dashing activities has increased its membership to as many •as 7.65 million households among the total of 2 millions, which means about 27% of the whole Japanese households. Going through the facts given above, it can be understood that Japan has passed through a long history of complicated impact of religious relationships and that even today the country is passing through an atmosphere of religious melting. If so, we cannot say that the Japanese people are religious in their social life or in their individual thought and action. It is extremely difficult to recognize the religious base or the fruits of religious morality in their way of thinking and action. In spite of that the Japanese society is not unjust or reckless because it is aptly controlled by the constitution of the State as well as by their highly developed educational culture. But the base of morality here is human and temporal. Therefore, we feel that this morality is weak and not dependable because it is not based on the eternal foundation of the Truth of God, Even though science and culture may make progress and people's material life may become prosperous, yet the special feature of this morality is that it has no religious backbone and in the flux of the present world such a morality without an.eternal and spiritual backbone cannot last long. Today, the Japanese people are yearning for some new guiding principles. One of such new guiding principles may be a new religion. But the conventional religions which have existed through history in Japan are not able to satisfy this new urge. People are not satisfied with the

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performances of these religions and do not trust them. A hundred years ago Japan changed greatly through looking forward to its modernization. But Christianity, which flowed into Japan with all the elements of modernism, on which great expectations were laid, however, failed to build itself as a pillar of the Japanese culture. Now there is prospect. of its increasing the number of its believers. Any religion which may want to provide the spiritual vitality to Japan, has no possibility of meeting a success through its conventional approach or exactly in the same way as in. the past or in other places of the world. There is no exception in it, whether it is Shintoism, Buddhism, Christianity or Islam, In the case of Islam, if it comes to Japan in its original form and principle, leaving aside the peculiar manners and customs as may be found deep-rooted in the Muslim countries mix-id with the local traditions which are their national ones, then Japan is a rich soil for the culture of Islam. Unfortunately, Islam was not generally very much welcome in Japan in the past. Nor is it now upto the expectations. One of the reasons for it in the past was that Islam was almost unknown to the Japanese people until about 70 years ago. Moreover, the modern culture which is mostly Western came into Japan almost wholly from the Christian world. Therefore, the bits of knowledge about Islam that found their way through this channel were greatly distorted for obvious reasons. For example, the image of Prophet (SAW) portrated in the DIVINE COMEDY of Dante or the picture of Islam drawn in the writings of the Japanese Christians like Kanzo Uchimura (1861 — 1930) were taken blindly by the Japanese intellectuals as well as the laymen to be the real face of Islam. Similarly, in recent times also, a great many Japanese people identify Islam with the guerilla activities or plane-hijacks with some of which Muslims are associated. One such example, quite unpleasant to the Japanese Muslims, is the labelling of the events in as the acts

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of "Kaikyoto (Muslim) Rebels" in contemptuous sneer by the Japanese press. And the common Japanese people are prone to believe the press. These Japanese people never see these incidents from historical perspectives, their simple notion is that these incidents represent the volatility of Islam. Again, as may be .seen from the case of economic development of Japan, the Japanese society takes extremely great interest in money and material. In this respect, the society is open-door. But towards poverty the society is hard-cold, it guards itself from it shutting all the doors. There is no exception about it in this society —in its individual, enterprise or even the government. They show a great deal of interest toward the prosperity of the oil-producing countries of the Muslim world, but never think even about the poverty -stricken Muslim countries. They make enormous profits through trade with the Arab and other Muslim countries, but never spare a farthing as contribution to the Islamic activities in Japan because they look upon it as a taboo. Keeping in mind this unfortunate reality of the Japanese society, I think one can amply understand that Islamic preaching in this country is not easy pny way. Then what kind of conditions and postures are necessary to overcome This situation? In my opinion, the most fundamental condition required for this purpose is that the preacher, whether a Japanese or a foreigner, must possess a very strong character both in faith and morality. He must be a personality who is loved, trusted and respected by any body that he may come across in this country through his mission. Added to this is that a foreigner who wants to engage himself in the Islamic activities in Japan must be well- equipped with the , a knowledge which can be called a passport to enter the people's heart • Recently, a foreign brother said that because Islam was revealed through and because understanding of Islam has to be

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done through Arabic by mastering it, there is no necessity of reading a khutba in English or Japanese and that not knowing Arabic language and Islamic manners the socalled embracing of Islam by a few hundred Japanese is just a nonsense. Will such comments help understanding and spreading of Islam in a place where Arabic is not spoken? The Japanese people, throughout their history, borrowed and absorbed many foreign cultures and also materials accompanying them, and cultivated them as their national cultures. Even today the Japanese people show avarice towards any valuable things, both physical and metaphysical, which are considered useful to them. Therefore, in matters of religions also there is ample room for borrowing and absorbing. In that respect, it can be called an endless vacuum. Be that as it may, how will be the Islamic situations in Japan in future? Will Islam in this country grow and develop in the same manner and characteristics as other Muslim societies did in various parts of the world? How will Islam be able to penetrate into the hearts of the people of Japan which is most highly indus-trialized, whose general educational standard is at a very high level, and where life is materialistic to the extreme? Would Islam really be accepted by the Japanese and does [he Japanese really need Islam? We must contemplate the matter taking all the relevant realities into consideration. The key to fundamentally resolving this matter lies in the answer to the questions: "What is Islam?" and "What is the Truth that Islam contains?" There is another question to answer, Can we see the true Islamic image in the present-day socalled Islamic countries of the world? If a society or a country is to accept Islam, then what it would be like? If there is to be an Islamic World, then would all other existing religions vanish from the earth? Will there be a time when Islam must oppose, come in conflict with

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and subju-gate other beliefs? Can anyone imagine such a time will come? The Japanese people definitely have some common religious concepts from ancient times. In the course of history, many foreign religions came to Japan, intermixed with the local ones, influenced as well as was influenced by the traditional Japanese religions and by and by fostered the present religious concepts of Japan. The Japanese outwardly do not show any negative response toward any religion. They believe that God, Karni and Buddha co-exist, and this belief is deep-rooted. Though the roads leading up the mountain are many, the moon we see is just one. With this concept, the Japanese view all religions. As a religion, Islam has some specified codes and tenets. in the view of outsiders, it has_ also many vexatious precepts. However, "LA--ILABA ILLALLAH" (There is no god but Allah) declared by Prophet Muhammad. (SAS), is a teaching of the only Truth for the whole mankind. The salvation of mankind lies in the obedience to the Supreme Lord and His fundamental principles which are spread far and wide throughout the universe. There is no religion opposing this fundamental Truth and our country, Japan, has a need to realize this Truth.

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CHAPTER II Advent, Growth and Development of Islam in Japan PART ONE 1. Historical Background As is said earlier, Islam's relation with Japan is quite recent as compared to those with other countries of Asia, Africa and . In order to describe these relations systematically, it may be convenient to study the history of Islam in Japan by dividing it into a few periods. Pre-Meiji (1868) History of Islam in Japan In the two thousand years' history of Japan, one of the most remarkable historical event was the Meiji Restoration in 1868 when the power of the Emperor was restored from the Tokugawa warlords. This was the turning point. when Japan came out from the medieval feudalism and isolationism and became a modern state. There is no recorded chronicles of any relation between Islam and Japan before the Meiji Restoration. There are also no historical traces of Islam's coming into Japan through religious propagation of any sort except for some other forms of contact between individual Japanese and individual Arab or other foreign Muslims. This fact has-. been made clear by the late Professor Hajime Kobayashi*, a renowned historical sociologist. *See 2 of this Chapter

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The Period between the Meiji Restoration and the End of World War II With the advent of a new era upon the Isleiji Restoration, Japan rapidly began to adopt and absorb Western knowledges and techniques. Through these Western knowledges and techniques the Japanese people also began to have free contact with Western religions. Of course, Christianity was almost the only religion which, in a few decades, marked a strong influence culturally on the Japanese people through vigorous activities of the Christian missionaries. It was only in 1877, a little more than one hundred years ago, when Islam came to be known to the Japanese people for the first time as a pan of Western religions thought. Again, when a life history of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the founder of Islam, was translated into Japanese, Islam found a place in the intellectual image of the Japanese people, but only as a knowledge and a part of the history of cultures. Another contact was made in 1890 When Ottoman despatched a naval vessel to Japan on a goodwill mission which heralded a new era of exchanges between the two countries, on the one hand, and between an Islamic people and Japan, on the other. This mission opened the way for establishing diplomatic relations between Japan and Turkey. However, while returning to Turkey the naval mission met a shipwreck* in the neighboring sea of Japan. Through this otherwise unfortunate event, the people of the two countries found an opportu-nity to establish and deepen human relations at the people-to-people level by way of rescue works by the Japanese side. This is an account of the Japanese people's earning goodwill and friendship of a foreign Muslim people as well as corning in close contact with Muslim life.

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*Also see 3 of this Chapter But it was only in 1909 that Islam stamped its first religious impact on this country through the conversion to Islam of Mitsutaro Yamaoka and his Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in the same year as Omar Yamaoka. About the same time, another Japanese, Burnpachiro Ariga, who went to Bombay, India, for trading purposes, became a Muslim under the influences of the local Muslims there and became known as Ahmad Ariga. These two Japanese are said to be the first evidentially known Muslims of Japan After coming back to Japan, both Omar Yarnaoka and Ahmad Ariga star;ed propagation of Islam in this country. Also, in course of time, many other Japanese came ;rt close contact with Muslims of various countries of Asia including China and Southeast Asia, locally in those countries, and, under their influences, a number of those Japanese embraced Islam. However, Muslim community life in Japan was first started with the arrival of several hundred Turkonian, Uzbek, Tadzik, Kirghiz, Kazak and other Turko-Tatar Muslim refugees from Central Asia and Russia in the wake of Bolshevik Revolution in that-area through World War I. These Muslim refugees were given asylum in Japan. They started their life anew after settling down in the cities of , , and other main cities in Japan. They also started their religious life by forming communities in each area of their settlements. Also contact between these Muslims and local inhabitants led the way to conversion of a number of Japanese to 'slam, thus, increasing the number of Muslims of Japanese origin. But the most important element of the Muslim religious and community life was wanting: the building of a . The Turko•Tatar Muslim immigrants began to establish contacts with the resident Indian, Chinese and Southeast Asian Muslims living in their areas and made efforts to build mosques in right earnest. Finally, the

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present was built in 1935 through active efforts of the late Mr. M. A. K. Bochia and with financial help from the late Mr. Ferozuddin anti other philanthropists. The Kobe Mosque was opened for prayer on 2 lieptember 1935. Similarly, another mosque was built in the capital city of Tokyo through active efforts of the late Mr. Durban Ali, a Turko-Tatar refugee, anti with financial help from the Japanese political and business circles as well as Government leaders, all of whom were non- Muslims. The was inaugurated on 12 May 1938. With the establishment of these two mosques, the most important element of Muslim community life was achieved. However,. one thing should be pointed out here that little weight of the Japanese Muslims was felt in the establishment of these mosques and, as a result, since their estaWishment until today the Japanese Muslims' voice has had little impact on the management of the mosques nor has their any Japanese Muslim come up so far to play the role of imam of any of the mosques. Japan started military movement in China around 1935 and, in 1941, it plunged into World War H. Though Japan fought against the Western colonial powers in most -fronts of the War, yet during this period, the Japanese soldiers got the opportunity of coming in very close contact with the Muslim population spread over the vast areas of China and, Southeast Asia. This military contact also resulted in rapid establishment of research centers and organizations in Japan proper backed by the Military Government for research in Islam and the Muslim World. It appeared then that as if an 'Islamic Boom' was set in motion in Japan. Under the auspices of such 3 or 4 organizations or research centers, many books and journals were published in rapid succession. During the period from 1935 to 1943 over 100 books and journals on Islam were published in this country. One of the organizations, Dai-Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai (Great Japan Islamic Association), had as its President General Senjuro

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Hayashi, the then Prime Minister or. Japan. From this the impetus of its activities can be understood. However, these organizations and institutions in those days were in no way controlled or run by the Muslims themselves nor were their purpose was propaga-tion of Islam whatsoever. As a result, with the defeat of Japan in 1945, these organizations and research centers disappeared in the same rapid pace as they had appeared under the Military Govenunent's patronization. JAPANESE ORGANIZATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS CONCERNING ISLAM BEFORE WORLD WAR II (Disbanded after the termination of the War) Isurarnu Bunka Kenkyu-sho (Islamic Culture Institute), established in 1932 by 17 scholars. Publication: "lsuramu Bunke (Islamic Culture), three issues a year. Kaikyo-ken Kenkyu-sho (Muslim World Research Institute), established in 1937 by Prof. Hisao Matsuda and Prof. Koji Olikubo. Publication: "Kaikyo-ken" (Muslim World), monthly Dai-Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai (Great Japan Islamic Association), established in 1938 with Prime Minister General Senjuro Hayashi as President and Mr. Hajirne Matsushima and, subsequently, Mr. Kentaro Ohmura as Secretary-General. Pub- lication: "Kaikyo Sekar (Muslim World), monthly Tokyo Isuramu Kyodan (Tokyo Islamic Congress), established in 1940 by Hajj Takeshi Suzuki Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Government of Japan), Department of Inspection, "Kaikyo Jijo" (Islamic News), published since 1938 quarterly. Post-World War II Development

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The -period from the end of World War II upto the present day constitutes the third epoch of the history of Islam in Japan. Under the new Constitution of Japan, promulgated after the War, religious freedom of the Japanese people was guaranteed. Accordingly, all government and public offices and institutions have been freed from any sort of special privileges of any particular religion. At the same time all people were given absolute freedom to believe, practice or propagate their religion of choice. Various religious organizations rapidly sprang up. In 1952, an assembly of over 100 Japanese Muslims formed an associ-ation which today is Japan Muslim Association *. With the formation of Japan Muslim Association, Islamic religious propagation in Japan made a fresh start in real sense. Almost at the same time, the post-War independence of Muslim coun-tries of Asia and Africa came one after another and diplomatic, economic and cultural exchanges began to grow rapidly between these countries and Japan. These exchanges also brought about an influx of foreign Muslim government officials, scholars, businessmen, technical trainees, students and others into Japan. rn the reverse direction, there was also the flow of Japanese personnels going to the Muslim countries for similar purposes. In this way, relations between the Japanese people and the Muslims of the world deepened through such exchanges. *Sec chapter 2:111 Moreover, many Japanese began to show interest in the Arabic language and Islamic learni.ngs. Young Japanese began to go to the Arab and other Muslim countries to study Arabic and Islam, some of them to diffuse these learnings in Japan after their returning home. Specially, the Al-Azhar University and other universities of showed immense goodwill by accepting Japanese Muslim students on scholarships given by them for study there for a long time. Japanese Muslim students were also

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provided with free facilities for Islamic study in higher educationai institutions of , , , Iran, , and so on. Within Japan, the embassies of the Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Pakistan, Libya,Turkey, Indonesia and others extended active help and support to the Islamic activities and with their help and support Islamic propagation work in Japan expanded far and wide, facilities for the ob-servance of Islamic religious festivals were provided and various Islamic publications were brought out. Most illustrious among the publications is the Japanese translation of the Holy Quran by 1-lajj Umar MAO, a devoted octo-generian Muslim Japanese scholar, and sponsored by the Rabitatul Alam Mecca, in 1972. *See Chapter 2:11 and 1: IV: 2 In Indonesia, too, some young Japanese Muslim students were provided educational facilities free of cost for a long time. Their activities in Japan in future are expected to mark a new era of Islamic brotherhood between the Muslims of Indonesia and Japan, on the one hand, and of goodwill between Indonesia and Japan, on the other. Libya, through its Islamic Call Society, has been greatly contributing to the Islamic activities in Japan by both providing with facilities to young Muslim students from Japan to study as well as sending Islamic workers to Japan for Da 'wail works and also by other means. Three Japanese students received Islamic education in that country for quite a long time making them well-versed in Islarninife and future Islamic assets in Japan. The Islamic Call Society despatched four Islamic workers to Japan in 1974, some of whom have been doing fine works here. In 1968, Japan Muslim Association was registered as a religious juridical person in Japan, thus attaining

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the legal foundation and status under Japanese law. From the ruins of the War, as condition stood in 1945, Japan naturally devoted its entire efforts to its reconstruction through industrialization of the country in order to revive its national strength. Most of the energy required for fuelling the industries depended on oil and 99:8% supply of the imported oil came from the Middle Eastern and other Asian countries. Incidentally, most of these oil-exporting countries were predominantly Muslim nations and this fact unexpectedly provided a good opportunity to the Japanese people in general to take deeper interest in the Muslim World, thereby in hiam. Particularly, as a result of the 4th Middle East War in 1973, the oil-producing countries of the world cut back their oil supply as well as raised the prices of their oil. Widely known as the socalled "oil shock", this action hit hard the Japanese ecoliomy which is yet to overcome the recession that came with the oil shock. On the part of the oil-producing countries, their economic power has rapidly grown and, aiming at the potentials of markets, industrialized Japan began to move toward closer relations with the oil- producing Arab and other Muslim countries in particular. Since then the Japanese mass media: newspapers, magazines, radio and television set the socalled "Arab Boom" in motion. Many articles on Islam and the Muslim World have been published in the newspapers and magazines and many programmes about the Muslim World and Islam have been broadcast on radio and television in this country. Thanks to this publicity, even those great many Japanese who were never interested in any such thing as Islam got the chance of seeing the scene of flab in Mecca or hearing the call of Azan or Quranic recitations. In the business arena, too, knowledge of Arabic has become a necessary qualification. Arabic language classes began to flourish in many places of Japan. So to speak, there is an "Arabic Boom" now.

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In June 1976 when Sheikh Tawfiq Oweida, Chairman of.the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs of Egypt, visited Tokyo, he advised the Islamic organizations in Japan, numbering about 10, to unite under a federation in order to make the Islamic activities more effective. Under his advice, the Coordinating Council of Islamic Organizations in Japan was formed with Prof. Abdul Karim Saitob as its Coordinator. One of its components, the Islamic Centre-Japan, has been conducting propagation activities with the support from Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami, Mecca and King Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia, which are represented by Dr. 5. M. Samurai and Mr. A. R. Siddigi, respectively, and also from various other philanthropist organizations and individuals of the Muslim World. There is no doubt that the activities of foreign Muslim brothers are extremely beneficial to the Japanese Muslims. But what is more important, the responsibility for the propagation of Islam in Japan should be taken over by the Japanese Muslims themselves who are now capable of doing the job, as pointed out by Prof. Ally Hassan EI-Samny* of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, who devoted himself to Islamic activities in Japan for the about fifteen years. *see Chapter 3:11 2. Lack of Historical Records of Muslim Contact with Japan We have no clear records of the historical facts as to when, how and by whom was the religion called Islam was first introduced in Japan. Generally speaking, the spread of Islam has never taken place by concerted propagation efforts by missionary groups supported by the states or religious organizations. It can be assumed that it was rather through trade and other exchanges by common people who stamped the influence of heir religious belief on the heart of the people, which was the natural process

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everywhere in the world. Looking from this angle, I think it is correct to say that the advent of Islam in Japan, too, was carried out by the very temporal process of trade ex-changes by unknown Muslims. Some research materials regarding the contact between the people of Japan and the Muslim world during the period before Meiji Restoration in the latter half of the 19th century were published by a few Japanese scholars. Among them, the "History of Cultural Exchanges between Japan and the Muslim World before the Meiji Era" by the late Professor Dr. Hajime Kobayashi, published in 1940, is the most detailed and is evaluated as an authentic document of academic research. In this book also, there is no historical evidence of Islam's being propagated in`lapan with the support of any state authority. As the reason for it, Prof. Kobayashi cites in his concluding remarks: "Also in the case of the Japanese' coming in contact with the Muslims, the two sides mainly carried out economic negotiations and had no new for talking religion between them." With Meiji Restoration, Japan gave up its former Isolation Policy and began to introduce in great stride western knowledges through such means as translation of books and other materials. In this process, the knowledge about Islam also found its way little by little. But almost all of this knowledge and information was introduced by the Christian Civilization. As a result, it was very difficult to know and understand Islam by the Japanese by direct contact with the Muslim world for quite a few decades. 3. Who was the First Japanese Muslim ? Regarding the question as to who was the first Japanese to become Muslim, the question has so far not clearly been answered with authenticity though Ahead Ariga and Omar

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Yamaoka became well-known figures as early Japanese Muslims through their writings and other activities. But now it has come to light that before them there was another Japanese Muslim who also probably had performed the Flab. This is a new fact in the history of Islam in Japan, which I am going to explain here. The name of this Japanese was Torajiro Yamada who also adopted the pen-name of "Shingetsu". In 193, he visited the then Turkish Empire, thereafter, lived there for 1,8 years and played an important role in the exchanges and good- will between Jkpan and Turkey. It has now become known that during his stay in Turkey, he had wide contacts with the government and people of that country and studied Islam as a Muslim. This fact has been traced out by Yoshinobu Nakada, a director of National Diet Library of Japan by his study through the newspaper articles published during the early Meiji Era. But what led young Yamada to visit Turkey? In this respect, it is necessary to recollect the visit of the Turkish navy vessel "ERTUGRUL" which carried a goodwill mission from Turkey, the first event in establishing relations between Japan and a Muslim country on state level and the capsize of the vessel off the cape of Kii Peninsula south of during a typhoon and the friendly relations between the two countries following this incident. The Turkish Battleship "ERTUGRUI.'"s Goodwill Visit and its Shipwreck In 1889, Abdul Hamid II of the of Turkey sent a mission on board the battleship "ERTUGRUL" under the command of Admiral Osman to Japan which was then transformed as the Japanese Empire in the Far East, for the purpose of establishing diplomatic relations. Seen from today, the "ERTUGRUL" was a rather small wooden vessel of 2,344 tons which was carrying 609 persons including Admiral Osman,

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other officers and petty officers as well as crews. The ship set out from Conitantinople in 1889, sailed through the Suez Canal, touched at and finally, on 7 June 1890, reached the Port of Japan. The Turkish mission was received by Emperor Meiji and the Government and people of Japan. After staying in Japan for about three months, they sailed for home leaving the port of Yokohama. But when sailing through the Western Pacific along the southern coast of Japan, the ship met with the typhoon, which usually blows over the Japanese Isles during September, while it was passing by the Cape Kashino Lighthouse of Oshima Island off the southern coast of Kii Peninsula. It was 16 September 1890. The ship collided with undersea reefs, was broken and capsized. Out of the 609 people on board only 69 survived. The rest including the leader of the mission, Admiral Osman, commanding officer of the ship, Captain Ali, all together 540 people, were drowned in the sea. After this sudden incident in the thick darkness of night, all the villagers of Oshitna Island came out together to the rescue of the wounded and gather the dead bodies and shown ixnmeasurable and examplary in friendship and humanistic spirit. The Government of Japan took the incident seriously, did its best to cope with the situation and sent bick the survivors and the dead bodies to Turkey in two specially-deputed cruisers. The governments and people of both countries highly appreciated this goodwill and friendship of the local people of Osith-na on the occasion of that unforeseen incident and it became a strong base of bilateral goodwill and mutual understand-ing. And, in order to commemorate this incident, a "ERTUGRUL Shipwreck Memorial Ivionument" was erected at a site near the place of the incident in the following year. This monument was reconstructed in 1929 and since then a memorial service has been taking place every year on the anniversary of the incident and it has become a symbol of the bonds of friendship between

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Japan and Turkey for the last over 90 years. This was not only an incident involving the two countries of Japan and Turkey, it was also the first opportunity in history for the Japanese people to have the bonds of international goodwill and friendship with the people of a Muslim country. Torajiro Yamada's Voyage Ko Turkey Torajiro Yamada was born in. Tokyo in 1866 as the sonof a principal retainer of samurai Numata Clan. in his boyhood, he had the opportunity to receiv.,.. the most modern education of the time and mastered such international languages as English, French, German and Chinese, besides his mother tongue, Japanese. in his youth, he also had the opportunity to associate with the well-known Figures of the intellectual world of Iapan in the early Meiji period and made a debut as a writer contributing in ae Sapanteso newspapers which were in the pioneering stage in this country in those days. At the age of 16, Torajiro Yamada was nominated the heir to the headmaster of Sohen-ryu School of Tea Ceremony, one of the richest traditional . The shipwreck of the "ERTUGRUL" in September 1890 became a turning point in the life of 24-year old Torajiro Yamada. Fie felt great sympathy for the families of the Turkish soldiers who died in the accident and carried out a cam-paign all over Japan to collect donations for relief of those families. He called on the Government and public leaders as well as other intellectuals for help explain-ins to -the r; the plight .of those people and also made appeal to the people for help throu71-1 lectures on the matter. Then he took the money thus collected to the Foreign Minisaer of Japan and requested him to send the money to families of the cysizt:- victims. The Foreign Minister greatly appreciated young. Yamada's selfless devotion and enthusiasm for the service to international friendship and askec: T•raiire Yan,ada to take the relief money to Turkey himself. The

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Foreign Minister explained the. situation to Ministry of Navy. Fortunately, just at that time, about 300 officers and men of the Navy were going to Toulon Port of France to navigate a newly constructed vessel to Japan. Tura Jiro Yamada was given permistion to accompany them upto Turkey in a British ship. Torajiro Yamada sailed from Yokohama Port in Januar), 1892. . He landed at Port Said and visited Cairo and Alexandria and then safely reached . He immediately went to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and delivered the relief money. There he was received with tremendous gratitude and appreciation. It was then the holy month of Ramadan. He was given a big ovation and a party in the presence of great many people. In their presence, the relief money was delivered to the Navy Ministry of Turkey. In this way, the mission of his visit to Turkey achieved its end. A few days later, Sultan Abdul Hamid II received him in audience, honoured him for his meritorious service, and then through the Foreign Minister, requested him to stay in Turkey for two years and teach Japanese to seven officers of the Turkish Army and Navy taking the opportunity of his visit to that country. (Among these officers was a young man who later became the founding father of the Turkish Republic. He was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This was disclosed by Kemal Ataturk himself when Torajiro Yamada again visited Turkey in 1931 and met the President.) Torajiro Yamada accepted the request of goodwill of the Turkish Government and stayed in Istanbul for two years. Along with teaching Japanese to the Turkish officers, he himself studied the Turkish language as well as Islam. The members of his family have said that when he wrote letters from Turkey in those days he added his Muslim name with the name of the writer. From this, it can be assumed that while living in Turkey he embraced Islam and associated with people of the Muslim society of that country. Moreover, even after his returning to Japan that he used the name

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"Shingetsu", which means the Crescent, also gives an indication that he became.Muslim. After the expiry of the contract for two years, Torajiro Yamada came back to Japan for a time, but left for Turkey once again after a year. He became. engaged in trade between Japan and Turkey and devoted' himself to the cultural as well as economic exchanges between the two countries. During World War I, he again returned to Japan. All together he stayed in Turkey for nearly twenty years and played a big role in strengthening friendship between the two .countries. Among his achievements was the construction of the "ERTUGRUL Shipwreck Memorial Monument" and his service continued until his death in 1957 at the age of 91. In 1978, Mr. Yoshinobu Nakada, a director of National Diet Library of Japan, discovered an article entitled "A Japanese Study's " in the "Collection of Newspaper Articles of the Meiji Chronicles, Volume 8, July-August" which was published in 1893. This article appeared in the Mainichi Shinbun of 4 August of the same year summarizing another article from a European newspaper, which was entitled "Islam Penetrates into Japan". The Mainichi Shinbun article says in essence: "It seems that Islam is now trying to extend its influence to Japan. Two years ago (1891) a young Japanese of high birth went to Istanbul where he was cordially welcome by the Sultan who found it was a good chance for Ttirkey to have the leadership in extending influence of Islam to Japan through teaching Islam to this young Japanese. Therefore, the Sultan arranged a teacher for him for special care in his learning Islam. After some time, this young Japanese was given the Muslim name, Abdul Khalil. Now this Abdul Khalil has returned to Japan after completing his study. Itis to be seen with great interest whether Abdul Khalil can spread Islam in Japan." Now the vital question is: Who is this Abdul Khalil? It is unfortunate

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that in the above-mentioned article the Japanese name of Abdul Khali] was not given. However, the following inference can be made: Firstly, the above-mentioned article appeared in 1893. Torajiro Yamada visited Turkey in the beginning of 1892, which means almost the same time of the visit of "young Japanese of high birth" to Turkey. Secondly, when it says that "a young Japanese of high birth" went to Turkey, the term can be applied to Torajiro Yamada who was then a youth of 26 years of age. Moreover, when the article says that he was "a young Japanese of high birth", this also tallies with the fact that Torajiro Yamada belonged to a noble family and associated with the top class people of Japan. Moreover, even in Turkey, he received appreciation from the Sultan and had dose .connection with the noble elite of that country. From this fact it can be presumed that Torajiro Yamada was not an ordinary traveller. Thirdly, when we see the photo of Torajiro Yamada during his stay in Turkey, we find him in the Muslim dress which the Turkish pe5ple usually wore. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, terF was a Muslim name in the letters he wrote to his family in Japan. Finally, there is no other record of a Japanese staying in Turkey at the same time of Torajiro Yamada. of Yamada of Ka,mai-aira city, south-west of Tokyo, who is the 10th headmaster of Sohen-ryu School of Tea Ceremoney, is the son of Torajiro Yamada. He is also continuing his father's work for promoting friendship between Japan and Turkey. He supports the assumption that his father also visited Mecca for pilgrimage. The above-mentioned fact is already more than 90 years old. There are a few problems in the way to confirm them. But one thing is clear that there was a Muslim in Japan nearly a century ago. But in the general knowledge of those days, the place of Islam was almost nil. There is no record to hack up the inference. We expect that some day evidences will come out to shed light on our inference.

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PART TWO 1. Establishment of Mosques

The First Mosque in 1905? I it June 1977, I attended a World Religionist Peace Conference in Moscow. After the Conference was over, a group of 20 Muslim representatives from an over the world were given an opportunity to visit the Muslim majority areas of the Soviet Union. The first place for the trip was an city on the bank of the Volga about 700 kilometers to the east of Moscow. Kazan is the capital of the Tatar Autonomous Republic within the Soviet Union. This is the northernmost Muslim majority area in that country and out of the 2-million population of the Republic about 65 per cent are Muslims. On 16 June, our group visited the Government office of the Tatar Autonomous Republic in Kazan where we were given a reception by the Governor of the Republic, Mr. Bat ien Salikh, himself a Muslim. When he found me, a Japanese, in the group, he asked: "Are you a Muslim from Japan?" I said, "Yes, I am!' "Do you know when the first mosque was built in Japan?" "As far as I know, in 1935, the Kobe Mosque was built and then, in 1938, the Tokyo Mosque which was built by the efforts of the Tatar Muslims." "No. That is not true. The first mosque in Japan was built in 1905 and this was reported in the official letter by the Emperor of Japan to the Government of Russia," To this, I replied, "I do not know this as yet. However, I 'shall enquire about the matter after returning home." After returning to Japan, I began to enquire about the -matter from various people and checked many reference materials, specially, those of the old achives of the Japanese Foreign

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Ministry through the courtesy of Dr. Chishu Naito, But no such record was found. I concluded that there was perhaps something wrong somewhere, Yet I could not throw away the thought. Thereafter, one day Mr. Abdullah Ivioroz, and old Turko-Tatar resident of Japan, paid a visit to my house. During our gossiping, he said that in a place called lzurni-Ohtsu in he saw long ago a few old graves with Arabic inscriptions. Hearing this, something flashed in my !ninth I decided to confirm it by myself. in February, 1978, when I went to attend a lecture meeting at the Osaka Mosque, 1 decided to go to lzuini-Ohtsu to enquire about the. matter depending only on the words, "The graves of Izumi-Ohtsu". When reached the city, first of all, I called on the city office and asked the officer concerned about the existence of any cemetery of foreigners. He confirmed that there is an area in the common cemetery where foreigners were buried_ I visited the place then and there. This cemetery is situated in a large area along the National Highway leading from Osaka to . Its area is nearly 11,342 square meters which is located at 114 Kasugacho, lzurni- Ohtsu City. Many old and new graves were lying closely. In one corner of the cemetery, a number of graves were lying in several lines which were different from the Japanese ones and anybody could understand that those were graves of foreigners. Moreover, the area is well-maintained and in front of the tombstones were varieties of colorful flowers and branches of "Sakaki" trees (le era ochnacea) dancing together. And near the entrance of this area, there is a monument, about 2.5 meters high, in which is engraved the original story of the graveyard in the Chinese Characters. The area of the foreigners' cemetery is 561 square meters. This is the grave-yard of the Russian soldiers who were taken prisoner during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 -- 5 and sent to various detention camps in Japan. A

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detention camp was also built at lzumi-Ohtsu which was then known as Harnadera-mura or Takaishi-mura. In the detention camp of lzumi-Ohtsu, 28,000 prisoners of war were accommodated. During their life in the camp for about a year, together 89 Russian soldiers died and their dead bodies were buried in this cemetery. Outside the monument engraved with inscriptions in the Chinese Characters, in the front part of the entrance there is a memorial cenotaph constructed by the Russian Government. An iron pole is standing on the stone base of this ceno-taph and the base of the iron pole has a surface surrounded by five edges. On the stone surface between each two edges are engraved the words of prayer together with the symbols of the religions of Russian Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam. On the surface plate for Islam is inscribed the quotation from the Holy Quran: "Inna addina indal-lahil Islam" (111:19) in Arabic which means: "The Religion before God is Islam", under the symbol of Islam, the Crescent. Moreover, on the iron pole in the central part of the base, some Russian inscriptions can be seen and within these Russian inscrip-tions the figure 1905 clearly confirms the year. The Russian inscriptions mean in English: "Here is the graveyard of ,the heroes who fought at Lu-shun (Port Arthur) in 1905." I thought that there must be graves of some Muslims among these lines of tombstones. Because of weathering of the stones for the last 75 years, it was quite difficult to decipher the writings on the stones. After careful and pains-taking cleaning of the stones, I found that out of 89 graves three had Arabic inscriptions under the Crescent. It made me certain that they were the graves of Muslims. Each tombstone is 90 cm in length, 50 cm in height and 15 cm in thickness and lying horizontplly. Below the Crescent in Russian, below Russian in Arabic and

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below Arabic in Japanese Katakana syllabury the name of the decreased is engraved. The three names* are: 1. Utur Hashmatov (Tombstone No. 56) 2. Shakirov Alishan (Tombstone No. 65) 3. Zakir Havliv (Tombstone No. 73) *Their Roman spelling is unconfirmed. But the question remains as to: What is the connection between the graves and the mosque? In order to find out the answer to this question I went to the city office again. When I asked if there is any recorded evidences regarding the foreigners' cemetery, I was shown a fde. In that file the names of the 89 Russian soldiers and order of the graves were recorded, which confirmed the names of the Muslims as well. Just that moment another thought flashed in my mind. The number of prisoners of war in the detention camp at Izumi-Ohtsu was 28,000. Among them 89 died there. This figure is about 0.32 per cent of the total flurnber. If we calculate at the 3-in-89 ratio of Muslims who died, then we can find that there were 944 Muslims among the total of 28,000. This ratio may not be correct. But one can easily presume the possibility that there were 4 — 5 hundred Russian Muslims in the detention camp of lzumi-Ohtsu. The fact that these presumed 4 — 5 hundred Muslims lived in one place for a year leads us also to presume that as Muslim they performed their collective prayers, specially the Friday ones together, led by an /main. No matter how the type of the building of the mosque was, it is beyond doubt that there was a mosque which was built for their prayer. And the very year of the establish- ment of the mosque can easily be taken as 1905. With this presumption I came back to Tokyo. But in order to find a conclu-sion, I needed some materials to establish it. Therefore, in February 1979, once again I visited the cemetery. I went to the city office and looked through the file once again. Looking through it, I found a booklet published by the Takaishicho

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Education Board and Takaishicho District Historical Research Committee_ With the title of "Prisoners of War Detention Camp", this booklet was written on the basis of the memory of the villagers who frequently visited the camp. The booklet 'contained descriptions on the life-style of the inmates of the camp, their contact with the Japanese living around them and various other episodes. In the description, what draws particular attention is the construction of prayer halls for the Russian soldiers, the style of prayers after their death in the prayer halls, carrying the dead bodies on the shoulders of their compatriots to the graves after the prayers and so on. It is also written in the booklet that these compatriots were the Russians, the , the Segans (Gypsy), the Jews, the Turks and the Mongolians. Even seen from this booklet, it can be said almost certainly that there was a mosque in the detention camp along with the Russian Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches and a Jewish temple. And it can also be presumed that the Japanese Government informed the Russian Government that it has been treating the prisoners of war according to the International Convention on the Prisoners of War. All these facts support that the claim of the Governor of Tatar Autonomous Republic was not fictitious. But this Izumi-Ohtsu (Hamadera) was not the only prisoners of war camp for the Russian soldiers of the Russo- Japanese War. All over Japan, 26 such camps were built and the total number of the inmates was 71,947. Among these camps, lzumi-Ohtsu was the largest in size. This fact was recorded in the document called "The 38th Year of Meiji: The Details of the Treatment to the Russo-Japanese War POW's" dated 10 November, 1906+ According to this document, the Japanese Government treated the prisoners of war with great care. Particularly in respect of freedom of religion, the maximum

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guarantee was given and sympathy shown to the POW's. it is also recorded in the document that to meet the requests from various religious groups among the prisoners of war, Japanese - and foreign co-religionists as well as missionaries were allowed to visit the camp. Moreover, a Society for Consolation for Religious Belief and an Association for the Relief of the Prisoners of War were organized in an effort to provide them relief from their spiritual agony. Finally, the thing which surprised me most after my visit to this cemetery is the continued manifestation of goodwill through service given voluntarily upto today by the local people in order to maintain the graves of the soldiers of an enemy country. According to records, in the case of the dead prisoners of war belonging to various Christian denominations, every year . representatives of those groups visit the cemetery and offer prayers for the deceased and express their gratitude to the local people for their service and goodwill. But it is very unfortunate that there is no record of any Muslim in Japan visiting the graves of the three Muslims in the lzurni-Ohtsu cemetery to offer prayers for the souls of those Muslims lying in the three graves.

The Kobe Mosque 1935 Muslim traders from India in insignificant numbers have long been established in Japan, but it was only during and after the World War I that their numbers here increased to such an extent that it was considered desirable to have a place of worship of their own in Kobe. No definite move towards this end appears to have been made until after the arrival of Mr. M. A. K. Bochia in 1928, who with the assistance of a chosen group of devoted workers took up the work in right earnest and started collecting

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funds for the project. The late Mr. S. A. Ahmed was deputed to travel and collect funds in India, and the thanks of the Muslim community are due to him for the trouble he took and the time he divoted to the advancement of this project. It is a matter of great regret that he did not live to see the completion of the good work, which he helped to inaugurate. At the time of the projected Mosque in Kobe, the Muslim community here was augmented by the arrival from Russia of a large number of Turko-Tatars who had fled the country on account of religious intolerance and came here to make a home for themselves in tolerant Japan. Contact between the Turko-Tatars and the Indian Muslims was soon established through the good offices of Mr. G. Gafar, who soon after joined the Mosque Committee and has ever since worked as the Joint Secretary of the committee and has performed his duties to the satisfaction of all concerned. The credit for originating the idea of the present mosque, mustio to Mr. M. A. K. Bochia, to whose courageous and optimistic outlook the Muslim Mosque in Kobe must ever bear testimony. More than half the financial burden of the undertaking fell on the broad shoulders of Mr. Ferozzuddin of Calcutta but for whose lion-hearted generosity the Muslim community here would not have been able to afford the artistic and magnificent building, which without fear of contradiction, may now be said to be adorning the city of Kobe. In this connection special mention must be made of the untiring efforts of Mr. \tally Noormohamed, in supervising the construction of the Mosque. The thanks of the Muslim community are due and are hereby respectfully tendered, to His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan, for the permission graciously granted to an alien people for the unrestricted exercise of their faith in His Majesty's dominions.

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Headlined as "THE FIRST MOSQUE IN NIPPON" Ayas Shaky Bey, Membei of the World Muslim Association and President of the Central Executive Committee of the Idel-Oural Turko•Tatar Muslims in the Far East wrote at the time of building the Kobe Mosque: "At the present time when political conditions in Muslim countries are rather strained, when all the world is giving a secondary place to religion, when Russia makes its fundamental policies on the basis of Atheism and anti.religious principals in general, the Muslims here are to be congratulated on having built, without arty outside assistance, this first historical Mosque in Kobe. The Muslims from various parts of the world living here for the purposes of trade, having worked hand-in-hand over this project testifies to their unity and augurs well of the future. "This Mosque, being built in a great Asiatic country, Nippon, shall be the.first stepping-stone to pave the way of friendly relations of various Muslim countries with Nippon. Therefore,. this Mosque is not only a place of worship but the first historical fact before the beginning of understanding. of Muslim countries with Nippon. To fulfil this historical fact, by Muslims of India and Muslims of Idel-Dural; is naturally a matter of great pride and may well be looked upon as an inspiration from Providence. My Islamic Brethren of India, I congratulate you in taking the leading part in this great undertaking. Larn also very proud that my own countrymen of Idel-Dural are taking part in this united work. "Our connections with Indian Muslims were not started in these days only, but it has a long history of its own. For example; the Sultan of Turkey avlahmud Ghaznaui) has rendered a great service in the spreading of . The sons of Turkish Tirnur and sons of Bab it Mirza are also the people who made it possible to put Islam in this great position in India. The leaders

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of Turkestan have always worked hand-in-hand with Indian Muslims on the road of Ighlai Kalimatulla. The leaders of Turkey and India always have done their very best for the sake of the unity of Islam. "The history of Idel-Oural Muslims is full of brotherly relations with the Muslims of India. In the periods of Altura (Golden Horde) and Khazan Khans (IChazan Dukedoms) our have been in intermarriage with the children of Sultans of India. In the period of Khazan Khans of Mohammed Amin, the leaders have been visiting. one another very often. Also in recent times there were very good friendly relations between the Muslims of India and the Muslims of Idel-Oural. The Idel-Oural Muslims have been greatly inspired by reading "lzharulhaq," a book written by Mr. Abdulhai, a Muslim scholar from India, whose powerful exhortations have been of great assistance to the Turbo-Tatars in calmly resisting the terrible religious oppression of Russians. The delegates of Indian Muslims and Idel-Oural Muslims have worked together hand-in-hand to save the religious rights of thirty-five million Muslims in Soviet Russia, at the Kudduk Congress in 1931, and together they have signed, a protest against the Soviets' oppression of these thirty- five millions of Muslims in Soviet territory. "This Mosque of today is the fruit of joint efforts of IdeI-Oural Muslims, and the Muslims of India. It shall be a solid foundation to work together in the spreading of Islam and Its philosophy in this great Asiatic nation Nippon; from this very building we shall do our best to save innocent people from the terrible germ of Communism by injecting Islamic medicine. In conclusion, I pray that Allah may grant us unity and may disclose to us the machinations of the enemies of Islam."*

*Courtesy "THE KOBE MUSLIM MOSQUE", A Souvenir Booklet issued in Commemoration of the Opening Ceremony in October 1935,

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The Tokyo Mosque 1938 Many foreigners expressed surprise knowing for the first time that there are Muslims in Japan and that there are also mosques in this country. Perhaps this surprise originates from the fact that although Japan is very well-known as an economically advanced country to the people of the world, its spiritual image among them is apparently one of non-Islamic, even anti-Islamic. In the past, Japan had a very thin or no relation at all with Islam. Until about seventy years ago most of the Japanese did not have any clear idea of the existence of a religion called Islam. Only recently that many of them came to know about the Islamic world. And the oil crisis gave them the opportunity to know quite well that a large number of the people of Asia and Africa are believers of Islam because the shock came mainly from the Middle Eastern Muslim countries from where Japan must have most of its oil requirements. Yet, though the Japanese people have shown great interest in the oil-producing Muslim countries, their lands and their people, very few have shown any interest in these people's religion, Islam. At the same time, the number of the Japanese Muslims is so negligible that they are also not in a position to exert themselves and impress upon their non-Muslim compatriots so far as the religion of Islam is concerned. Before World War II, many organizations sprang up for the purpose of study and research on Islam, as has been mentioned earlier. One such organization was "Dai-Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai" (Great Japan Islamic Association), supported by the then Japanese Government with Prime Minister General Senjuro Hayashi (1876 — 1943) as its President. But almost all of them were organized by non-Muslim scholars or people interested only in its cultural study. None of them, thus, could be called a part of Islamic call movement by any means. But there were also a few Islamic establishments meant for the religious

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activities of the Muslims. Among them were the Kobe Mosque established in 1935, the Tokyo Mosque in 1938 and another small place of worship in Nagoya city about the same time. However, since then more than forty years have passed and during this long period great many Japanese can in contact with the Muslims or acquainted with Islam. Yet the number of Muslims has not increased remarkably. Why? What were the difficulties that stood in the way of spreading !slam in this country? To answer this question, I want to have a close look into the situation some forty years ago when the Tokyo Mosque and other mosques were built, and into the role of the Tokyo Mosque, in particular, in spreading Islam in Japan. At present, the Tokyo Mosque is situated in the Oyama quarters of Ward of Tokyo. It was first opened for prayer on 12 May 1938 which was also the Prophet's Birthday. On that auspicious day of the opening ceremony, in addition to the foreign Muslim residents of Tokyo, Muslim guests from various parts of the world including China, Southeast Asia, India, Middle East and others also attended the ceremony on invitation. Aznong the distinguished guests were Arnir Saiful Islam Al-Hussein, the third prince of the Kingdom of Yemen at representing the Imam of Yemen accompanied' by Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Gibsi and Hodeida Governor Qadi Ali Al-Hussein Al-Amri; Sheikh Hafiz Wahaba, Minister at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in the United Kingdom, representing the King of Saudi Arabia; and Abdul Wahhab Dawood Bey, Minister at the Egyptian Embassy in Tokyo, representing the King of Egypt and many others from a number of Muslim countries. From the Japanese side, patriotic political leaders like Mitsuru and General Iwane Matsui, the Minister of Education and many other influential personalities attended the opening

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ceremony of the Tokyo Mosque. From the grandee of the ceremony through the participation of so many Japanese and foreign dignitaries, it appeared as if a strong Islamic movement is going to take place in Japan. The fund that was made available for the construction-of the Tokyo Mosque amounted to about 120-thousand in the old Japanese yen currency the present valuation of which could be equivalent to more than 800-thousand US dollars. If looked from the present-day circumstances of the Japanese Muslims, this is an unimaginably large amount. Unfortunately, however, the world-wide conflagration of the World War II and its end through the defeat of Japan, in effect, destroyed wriat appeared to be the start of a strong Islamic movement in this country. All the institutions and organizations which had hitherto been making efforts for the study of Islam or supporting the Tokyo Mosque, were disbanded because they were sponsored or supported by the pre-War Japanese Government or the Japanese military authorities through providing finance or leadership. In spite of all the twists and turns, since more than seventy years ago, Islam made its way into Japan, though in a very slow pace, and the people started to know about Islam little by little through the translations of the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as well as the Holy Quran which found their way along the Western culture. Thus, Islam was introduced in Japan not as a religious belief for the Japanese people, rather as a socio- cultural study. So its diffusion was not possible as a religious belief. Perhaps it was from around 1920 that Islam became a practiced by both the foreign and the Japanese Muslims when a group of Muslims of Turko-Tatar origin migrated from

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the USSR to Japan in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and settled in Japan. The Japanese Government which was strongly anti-Communist showed great sympathy for these uprooted Russian Muslims, numbering about 600, and helped most of them to settle in this country under its protection. Among them, about 400 settled in Japan mainly in Tokyo, Kansai and Nagoya areas and made their living mainly on peddling woolen cloth. At the same time, they were the first people who estab-lished the Islamic life in this non-Islamic land. In other words, Islamic religious life started in Japan with the immigration of these Turko-Tatar refugees from Russia and with this started the intercourse between the local Japanese people and Islam, though in a very insignificant scale. After their settlement in Japan, these Muslims needed to make contacts with the Japanese Government as well as with various other political, economic or social circles for the purpose of improving their situation. Fortunately, they were blessed at that time with a very resourceful leader in the person of the late Muhammad Abdul Hai Kurban Ali. Son of a Bashkirite Imam, Kurban All was born in 1890 in Orenburg, eastern Russia. He came in contact with the Japanese Army in Manchuria when he was fleeing from the Soviet Russia along with other Turko-Tatar Muslims. There he earned sympathy of the Japanese Army. In 1920, when he came to Japan, he was provided with a job of teaching Turkish and Russian at the General Staff Headquarters of the Japanese Army. Kurban Ali was a man of great political and diplomatic acumen and possessed other statesmanlike qualities. He was also sociable and personable, the qualities which could influence people. With iho help of all these qualities and by dint of

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untiring zeal and efforts as well as his convincing arguments, he impressed upon the Japanese Goverment, political, economic and military leaders, like Mitsuru Toyama (1855-1944), Tsuyoki Inugai (1855-1932), Shigenobu Okuma (1838— 1922), Chose' Ogasawara, Tokijiro Jitsukawa, and so on, about the necessity of Japan's having strong ties with the Muslims of the world. By his convincing advocacy, many influential Japanese became sympathetic toward the !shank cause, though in. political sense, and Kurban Ali earned their material and Irma] support for Islamic activities. Thus, in 1931, with their help and support an office of the Turkish Muslims was established in Tomigaya in Shibuya Ward of Tokyo, not very far from the present location of the Tokyo Mosque. In this office premises, educational facilities for the Turbo-Tatar children and an Arabic printing press were established. From this press, Kurban All published a monthly magazine called PANE YAPON in the Tatar language. In 1938, an Arabic print of the Holy Quran was brought out from this press for the first time in Japan. Through the YANE YAPON he succeeded in drawing attention of people from various parts of the world. _Thus, the magazine played an important role in establishing goodwill and understanding between its readers abroad and the Japanese people. As a result, it also earned high esteem and sympathy of many leading personalities in the Japanese political, economic and military circles. And•also, just this was the time when the Japanese militarism was at its peak and when Japan was trying to estabbsh a policy of co-operation and rapport toward the Muslim countries. Kurban All had a long cherished desire for building a mosque in Tokyo. With the help and support from various Japanese patrons, he at last succeeded in collecting necessary funds for the land and building of a mosque. A top shipping magnet of those days, Karnesaburo Yamashita (1867- 1944), donated 1,655 m2 of his own land for the site of the

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planned mosque. For the expenses of construction, the then Mitsubishi Bank President Kiyoshi Seshirno personally donated 20-thousand pre-War Japanese yen. Enterprises such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and many others also made contributions. The total sum thus collected, as mentioned earlier, amounted to about 120-thousand pre-War Japanese yen (the present valuation may amount to more than 800- thousand US dollars). The whole amount was handed over to Kurban Ali to meet the cost of construction of the mosque building. In October 1937, Kurban All •initiated the construction designed by architect YOShimoto and operated by the Ivlorota Construction company. The building v:as completed in May 1938. This is what the present- day Tokyo Mosque situated in the Oyama quarters of Shibuya Ward in Tokyo. When World War II came to an end, a greater part of Tokyo was in ruins due to air raids. Fortunately, the Tokyo Mosque escaped destruction or damage. But the conditions surrounding Islam or the Tokyo Mosque drastically changed. After Japan% defeat in the War, all kinds of organizations associated with the defunct Imperial Japanese military were disbanded or reorganized according to the new situation. So was the fate of the organizations which were patronized by the military for the study of Islamic culture. The new laws of Japan did not permit the Japanese Government to support any particular religious group or to help diffuse religious education as a faith in the government institutions. As a result, all sorts of Islamic activities have had to depend solely upon private support of only the Muslims within Japan and without. The Tokyo Mosque came to be maintained by the Turkish community living in Japan. However, even after the War, the Tokyo Mosque continued to be mainly a place of worship for only those who were already

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Muslims. in the post-War years, when many countries with predominately Muslim population became independent and have had ties with Japan, an increasing number of foreign Muslims both for private or official visits started coming to Japan, and the Tokyo Mosque has since become an important place as a visiting spot for them. No doubt, like any other mosque anywhere in the world the Tokyo Mosque serves the Muslims in performing their social and community activities such as marriage, conversion, funeral, in addition to its religious functions beside the Eid and Jurn'a prayers. And being the only mosque in the capital city of Japan, it is also an important visiting spot for the Muslim dignitiaries from different parts of the world, including heads of states and governments. It is also true that in the Tokyo Mosque, Islamic educational classes have also been conducted. Also, here advice regarding Islam is given to the non-Muslim Japanese who seek such advice. There should not be any language controversy involving a Battuliah. There is also not a single Muslim to raise any question regarding using Arabic in the Sala. But the Khutba given by the Khatib must be understood by all the worshippers present. Specially, the Japanese who generally do not speak or understand a foreign language will extremely welcome the use of Japanese for Khurba and other deliberations in the Mosque. Another point is that the Tokyo Mosque's role also as the pivot of the Islamic call movement among the Japanese people must be stressed. Because the call movement is aimed at the Japanese, they must also have a feeling of participation in all the functions of the Tokyo Mosque instead of merely playing the role of onlooker. Unfortunately, there has not been any scope for a feeling of participation among the Japanese Muslims for various

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reasons. Before the War when the Japanese Government and others supported the establishment of the Tokyo Mosque, they did it for political expediency and meant it for the foreign Muslims. They had nothing do with the diffusion of Islamic education or spreading Islam in this country. In fact, one cannot expect of them any such purpose other than expediency. And as a natural corollary, no one could expect much of the Tokyo Mosque playing a vital role in the Islamic. call movement in addition to its providing a place of worship for the Muslims, mostly foreign, in those days. It is interesting to note that in the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Mosque on 12 May 1938; a large number of non-Muslim Japanese supporters including Japanese military officials together with foreign Muslim dignitaries attended, but it is said that only very few Muslim Japanese attended it. In sum, the use of the Japanese language in the Tokyo Mosque, in the situations where it can be or should be used, will raise a sense of participation among the Japanese and, in effect, it will help strengthening the Islamic call movement in this country. On the part of the Japanese Muslims, they must also play their own responsible role in creating a favourable atmosphere for the Islamic call movement in their country to build a line of generations of Muslims. It is a fact that they did not perform their duties in the past properly, neither are they performing them in the present days. Throwing out any kinds of passiveness, they must come forward and work in a positive manner for the cause in cooperation with their other brethren. Only as a result of their own efforts we an look forward to the day when a Khutba will be given also in Japanese also by a Japanese Imam. The wooden and concrete •structure of the Tokyo Mosque is now experiencing the wear and tear of time. And now is the time to make efforts to build a new modern

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structure with more congenial atmosphere pervading the Mosque as well as with better facilities so that it can play its desired role not only as a mere place of worship but also as the centre of Islamic call movement in Japan.

The Nagoya Mosque 1938? Perhaps in 1938, a mosque was built in Nagoya by the Turko- Tatar settlers there. Ufa-born Abdullah Demir Bey*(1897-1977) was the caretaker of the mosque which was destroyed in the air raid of 14 April (14 May?) 1945. The mosque has never been rebuilt. This mosque was also used for Islamic instruc-tions to Muslim children. It was located at the present 3-16-20 Lmaike, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. The Osaka Mosque 1977 The first mosque in Osaka, the second largest city of Japan, and the third in the country, was inaugurated on Friday, 16 December 1977. In an area of 120 sq.m. with a capacity for about 100 worshippers, the Osaka Mosque was originally established with its formal name of Shukyo Hojin Nippon K2ikyo Jiin, Osaka Mosque and located at Takahashi Building (West Wing 2nd Floor), 157 Umegae-cho, Kita4cu, Osaka, Japan*. Alhaj lvIuharrimad Mustafa Komaru became the first Chief Imam of the Mosque with Mr. Muhammad Amin Akiyama, Mr. Muhammad Salim Tsukiyama and Alhaj Muhammad Khalid Kiba as Assistant Imams. Mr. Muhammad Ali Kobayashi was chosen as the first Secretary General. The Osaka Mosque is the first mosque in Japan established and managed by the Japanese Muslims themselves unlike the Kobe Mosque which was built mainly by the efforts of Muslims from the South Asian Subcontinent and the Tokyo Mosque built by

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the efforts of the Turko-Tatar residents in Japan. The rust Imam of the Osaka Mosque, Alhaj Muhammad Mustafa Komura, who is now in his late sixties, is one of the most veteran Japanese Muslim leaders, having a record of more than forty years. as Muslim. The Mosque has a publicity car for carrying out street propagation of Islam.

*The name of the place where the Osaka Mosque is located has been changed and the new title of the address is as follows: The Osaka Mosque, 38 Sanwa Building, 4-6•16 Nishi-Tenma, Kita-ku, Osaka-530, Japan

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2. Translation of the Holy Quran into Japanese The Holy Quran Translation before World War II Development of Islam in Japan, both from religious and learning point of view, cannot be thought of without the development of a Quranic literature in the Japanese language. Therefore, in this chapter, 1 would like to describe the efforts toward the translation of the lioly Quran into Japanese by various scho-lars. Majority of these scholars translated the Holy Quran for the purpose of studying it from the viewpoint of a comparative study of religions, not for the purpose of any religious preaching except in one or two cases. Moreover, in most cases, commentaries which are extremely important in order to understand the Holy Quran, were not added to the main translation. Japan is surely one of those countries in the world, which have newest contacts with Islam. One reason for this is that for a seabound country like Japan, having no land affinity, cultural exchanges with foreign countries were difficult in the past. Moreover, in its history, propagation of foreign religions had long been prohibited by the feudalistic rulers from around the end of the 16th century and prohibition had lasted as long as 300 years till the second half of the 19th cen-tury. Japan, therefore, had no chance to come close not only to Christianity but also to Islam which spread far and wide during the said period. The First Japanese Translation It can be said that Japan saw the dawn of Islam about 70 years ago. But very few Japanese were converted to Islam, to become Muslims. Among scholars and intellectuals, however, there was au increasing number of people who wanted to learn the doctrine of Islam and read the Holy Quran which forms its founda-tion. In those days, it was, of course, difficult to study

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Arabic in which the Holy Quran is written. In order to meet the demand of the readers who wanted to read at least its Japanese version, the first Japanese translation of the Holy Quran was published in 1920 in two volumes and was included in the 15 volumes of the "Complete Collection of the Scriptures of the World." The set of the two vol-umes entitled "Koran" was 22,5 x 1 5 cut in size. The first volume had 419 pages and the second volume 428 pages. The translator was Ken-ichi Sakamoto, a graduate from the Tokyo University's Department of Literature. Of course, he was not a Muslim and his knowledge of Arabic was also far from being perfect. Therefore, when translating the Holy Quran, he stated that he had used the non-Arabic versions of George Salle (1697-1736), Rev. 3. Medows Rodwell (1808 —1900 ) and Edward Henry Palmer (1840-1882) published from London, as his texts for translation. It seems that translator Kell-iCiti Sakamoto, who majored in World History in the Tokyo University's Department of Literature, had excellent command of English. In 1903, he published another great work called the "History of the World." While studying the history of Occident as part of world history, he noticed the significant contribution that Islam made to world history, and this had increased his interest in Islam and his volition to study it. At the end of the translation of the Holy Quran, lie referred to this problem and related his thoughts on the connection between himself and Islam. He mentioned that, in future, he wishes to write commentaries. on Islam as a religion. In fact, besides the translation of the Holy Quran, he also pubished a biography called "Muhammad" in an extremely beautiful style. It was 60 years ago that this translation of the Holy Quran was first published in Japanese. in those days, Japan had no such things as Arabic or Islamic studies. _ Therefore, because it was

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a translation from the English versions, the Quranic terminology was not clearly explained. Sometimes, terms of Buddhism, which are in common use in Japan as the religious terminology, were employed. In some other places, Biblical terms which had already been translated completely into Japanese and spread far and wide, were adopted. In still other cases, phraseology taken from Confucianism, which had exerted a great influence upon the Japanese culture from ancient times, was used. There are varied problems, therefore, as far as terms for translation are concerned. However, the Japanese of those days, including the above translator, understood little about the mode of living of the residents in. Arabia and the Middle East areas. That is why it could not be helped that there were mistaken and obscure passages in the translation. At the same time, it can not be denied that for the first time in history that the Japanese readers found a clue .to know the outline about the contents of the Holy Quran in this first Japanese version and, in this respect, the .translation has a major significance. During the period from early 1920's to late 1940's, major changes were tak-ing place not only in the Japanese scene-but also in' the' world situation. The changes were: competition to expand market for the sale of industrial products due to the advancement of industrial technology, the rushing into the infor- mation society as a result of progress in communication and traffic networks, the rise of militarism, and so on. Especially, the world powers which had experi-enced World War 1, could not but be more conscious of preparations for another world war. The Japanese people had thus far been interested in Islam only as a subject of world history or of religious geography. During 1930's, political and economic interest in Islamic nations of Asia had grown rapidly among the intellectuals and they also found place in the national policies of Japan. Necessity to study and

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understand Islam deeper and to cooperate with the Islamic people Caine to be em-phasized by Japan, an Asian nation. In compliance with this demand, a number of Islamic study institutions, both private and Government-supported, were established from the beginning of the 1930's. Having gathered many scholars and researchers, considerably largescale study of Islam was started. On (lie other hand, following the first Hajj by Omar Yainaoka in 1909, the number of Muslim Japanese, participating in Hajj pilgri-mage to Mecca, increased gradually. hi addition, numerous books and magazines relating to Islam were published in those days to create an unprecedented boom in the study of Islam. Even at 'present, we can find valuable data on Islamic study among the materials published in the said period. The Second Japanese Translation Also in 1938, as if to keep pace with the building of the Tokyo Mosque, the second Japanese version of the lioly Quran was published. This was a book of single volume under the title of "The holy Quran, the Canon of Islam." As translators of this Japanese version, three names — Goro Takahashi, Bunpachiro Ariga and Mizulio — were mentioned. But, it was Goro Takahashi who was mainly in charge of translation and Bunpachiro Ariga was the person in charge of its printing and publication. Then, what sort of man was Coro Takahashi, who played the leading part in translating this Japanese version of the Quran? Born in 1856, he was well-known as the person helping to complete the tough job of Japanese translation of the Bible. The Bible translation was being done by N. Brown (1807-1886), an American missionary who was living in Japan and engaged in Christian mis-sionary work, and by J.C. Hepburn (1815-1911).

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Incidentally, it was in 1887 when a complete translation into Japanese of the Old and New Testaments was published. The strong influence that these Bibles in the Japanese version exerciset1 in later years upon the worlds of thought, literature and religion of our country is immeasurable. In his prime of life, Coro Takahashi had worked energetically behind the scenes in the propagation of Christianity in our country and left behind many translations and literary works relating to that religion. However, no details are known from when he and Bunpachiro Ariga became known to each other and how the Japanese translation of the Holy Quran was done. As for Bunpachiro Ariga, the joint translator with Goro Takahashi, he went to India as a trader in his youth, as mentioned earlier. While staying in Bombay, originally a Christian, he was impressed by the sublime doctrine of Islam and embraced Islam. In his later years, lie left the business world in which he had long been engaged, to devote his energies for the propagation of Islam in Japan. Thinking that it was necessary to., understand the meaning of the Holy Quran by all means, in order to propagate Islam in this country, it seems that he became extremely entlkusiastic for the publication of an easier and cheaper edition than the Japanese version published in 1920. In fact, in the small size of 17 x 11 cm and light. weight publication, the 114 chapters of the .Holy Quran were completely translat-ed in its 878 pages. But in this translation there was no preface, no commentaries nor postscript, and nothing was mentioned at all about the original texts of the translation. However, as the arrangement of the Holy Quran's 114 chapters in this translation was entirely different from the traditional Islamic editions and as it was identical with Rodwell's English version, it can be imagined that the latter was the text used for the translation.

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Besides, Japanese. translations of the Holy Quran were also carried out by many other sincere scholars and researchers and were partly published in magazines and other publications. For example, there was a translation of the Holy Quan by Koji Okubo, a scholar who had devoted his life to the study of Islam. As I a&ritioned above, during the last about 70 years since Islam was introduced in Japan, it cannot necessarily be said that religious activities of Islam have obtained major results here. However, the two Japanese versions of the Holy Quran were read among the leaders of Japan's political and financial worlds as well as among intellectuals and their role in the Japanese people's understanding of Islam, should not be underestimated. When seen purely from the standpoint of Islam, re translation of the Holy uran from a version translated into a foreign language by a non-Muslim almost entirely loses values of its original contents. But it is also true that these efforts set up a base for a full-scale translation of the Holy Quran in Japan in the days to come. Post-World War II Period Having been thoroughly hit by the defeat in World War U, Japan was forced to make a change unprecedented in history. But Japan was reborn out of this distress and has prospered as a free democratic nation. In the pre-War days and also during the War, Islamic study and research as well as contact and exchanges with the Islamic world were carried out exten-sively as a national policy by using a large sum of funds from the national ex-chequer for that purpose. However, as for the genuine religious understanding • of Islam and the spread of the religion, this study and research had nothing to do in the first place. After the War, not only Islam but also other religions were made free from any political influences unlike the cases in the pre-War days, and various religious groups started their

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purely religious activities. During several post-War years, however, Japan was in utter confusion and the poeple made desperate efforts in search only of food. They could not even afford to think of culture or religion. But the confusion finally calmed down in four or five years and the social order also returned to normalcy. The people again began to move toward something like a trend of searching for thought, knowledge and also religion. Translation by Shumel Okawa The first Japanese version of the Holy Quran published after World War II was "Koran" by Okawa. This was brought out in Febluary 1950, the Fifth year after the end of the War, This 21 on x 15 cm book was a graceful cloth-bound publication of 863 pages with 4.5 cm thickness. Even in the fifth year after the end of the War, although the world was making a big headway for reconstruction, almost all the cities throughout Japan were still in ruins. It was the period when there were still extreme difficulties in obtaining printing materials, specially paper. Publication of the Japanese version of the Holy Quran in such a One can be called quite an exceptional venture, specially when a publi-cation undertaking was not for profit-making or for any other sort of pecuniary gains. lt may be difficult for many people to understand why a non-Muslim named Shumei Okawa took this urn-economic venture unless they know how close was the attachment of Shuniel Okawa with the Holy Quran since his early life Before the War, the condition of Japan was that the militarist regime of Japan was taking decisive action of invading China and Manchuria, and the Japanese people were oppressed under the wheels of militarism in the name of patriotism. The military utilized the popular appeal of Asian of which

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Shumei Okawa was a great advocate. Upon Japan's defeat in the War that followed, Okawa was arrested by the Allied Forces, led by the United States of America, stationed in Japan as the occupation forces, and was put on trial as a war criminal. On the first day of trial at the tribunal(I) on 3 May 1946, Okawa started behaving like an insane person and was ordered to be removed from the court. As a result of medical examinations by physicians of both Japan and U.S., he was diagnosed to have been a case of mental desease, and his trial was postpond for his treatment at hospital and, finally, the case against him was dropped. There was no means at all of finding his whereabouts afterwards except for very few persons close to him. In the post- War confusion, the name, Shumei Okawa, entirely slipped away from the people's memory. The fact that the same name, Shuniel Okawa, became distinguished in five years after the end of the War as the translator of the Holy Quran, the Holy Book of Islam, together with the publication itself, came as a surprise to the people in general. What was the reason that made Okawa dare to translate the Holy Quran? Shumel Okawa was born in 1886 in of northern Japan. Having entered the philosophy course of the Tokyo University's Department of Letters, he majored in Oriental Thoughts and Hindu Philosophy. Later, how-ever, he found a position in the South Manchuria Railway Company which was then a national concern of Japan. Aside from his regular work, he was engaged in various acacernic pursuits and won fame as a theorist of the Japanese Spirit. But, at heart, he was a serious scholar of highest order. He was a Doctor of Law from the , the premier institution of highest learning in Japan, and his doctoral dissertation was on "A Study of Colonial Policy of the British East India Company."

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He once wrote that when he was still a teen-age student, he already studied the life-story of the great Prophet Muhammad (SAW), and also took a course on Islam. But the situation which is generally considered to have led him to Islamic study was that, while studying, German literature in the course of learning the German language in his I iigl i school days, lie came across the works of Goethe(2) and was strongly influenced by Goethe's attachment to Islam as may be found in his collection of poems, "West -East Poetical Works," compiled in his later years. This can he understood also from the fact that Shumei Okawa referred to this in the first line of the preface or his Japanese version of the Holy uran. Since then he continued the study of !slam until his death. When he was 28 or 29, he already started traslation of the Holy Quran and published it serially in a magazine upto Chapter 9, that is, Sura A i-Taubah. At the same time, he is said to have been ardently engaged in the translation of Ai- and the writ-ing of the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Moreover, his INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM, which was published in 1942, contributed greatly to the understanding of Islam as the most standard primer on Islam among the Islam- related books so far published in our country. But when Shumei Okawa was isola led to lead a solitary life at a mental home with his connections with the outside world severed after he had been ruled out of the war-crimes trial, the first the which seized upon him was that he must take this opportunity to materialize his life-long dream, completion of a whole Japanese version: of the Holy Qurait. Fortunately, he had recovered from his mental ciesease soon after he entered the hospital. Having started the translation from the beginning of 1946, he finally realized his dream of his young days by whole- heartedly devoting himself to the work until the end of 1948. He

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felt himself fortunate to have been able to complete his work which was published in 1950. Was Shumei Okawa a Muslim in faith? No, lie was not. in spite of his being a great admirer of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his devotion to the study of the truth of Islam as well as his strong faith in the greatness of the religion, his event-ful life. came to an end in 1959 at the age of 71 without his..becorning a Muslim.. Why did not he become a Muslim? Ile himself confessed that the more he deepen+ ed his knowledge of Islam, the more he became aware that it would be practically impossible for him to strictly perfo m the obligations of Islam in this non-Muslim society, Japan. Although Shumei Okawa possessed profound learning and vast knowledge in a wide range of subjects including Islam and was well.versed in a number of foreign languages, he still lacked confidence so far as the Arabic lan-guage is concerned. He, therefore, left a note of his thought on the matter stat-ing: "It is only a pious Muslim with proficiency in Arabic that can achieve the Japanese version of the Holy uran in the most desirable form."

Translation by Toshiltiko Izutsu Another Japanese version of the Holy Quran was published in 1957, seven years after the publication of Shumei Okawa's work. This 15 cm x 10.5 cm book was a pocket-size publication containing 952 pages and published as a set of three separate volumes.k-') Since it was handy and low-priced, its circulation was also large. Even today, after a lapse of over 20 years since its first publicat-ion, this pocket-size Holy Quran is easily available in the bookstores all over Japan.

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The most characteristic point of this Japanese version of the Holy Quran is that Toshihiko Izthisu, its translator, is one of the Japanese scholars of Islam, who is proficient in Arabic. This Japanese version was rendered directly from the Arabic text (Conani textus arabicus, ed. ustay Rigel, ed. III, Lipsiac 1869). In this sense, it has a special value by being different from the older versions. However, despite his profound learning and culture as an scholar of Islam, this translator also is not a Muslim. Toshiliiko lzutsu was burn in 1914 and studied philosophy and philology at the Kelo University in Tokyo. Ile mastered many foreign languages and also has excellent command of Arabic. As a professor at the Linguistic and Cultural Research Institute of the Keit) University, his alma mater, for a long time, he con- ducted his original study and also trained junior scholars in the field. Later, as a visiting professor at the McGill University in Canada, he made valuable contribu-tions to the study of Islam abroad. Recently, lie played an active role in Islamic research as the chief of McGill University's Teheran institute. Prof. Izutsu's Japa-nese version of the Holy uran is written in a flowing colloquial style and is chara-cterized by its familiarity with the readers, but its demerit of impairing the dignity of a scripture cannot avoid mentioning, In this regard, the translator vindicates his position in the preface of the book saying: "The Quran can be called a scripture when it is written in Arabic. But when translated into other languages it becomes a sort of written explanations and is thus, nothing but an ordinary literature. From the beginning, therefore, this Japanese version is not meant to be a religious scrip-ture?' He also expresses the great difficulty in translating the Holy Quran by saying: "The more we deepen our knowledge of Arabic, the more we feel the

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difficulty in translating the Quran into other languages and we even come to un-derstand that it is rather impossible." Translation by Yasunari Bun and Osamu Ikeda, with an introduction by Prof. Katsuji Fujimoto Thus far, I have described about two Japanese versions of the Holy Quran published during the post-War years. Another Japanese translation of the Holy Quran was published by a well- known publishing house of Japan as a volume of its "Masterpieces of the World" series in 1970. The new translation was rendered jointly by YaStillari Ban and Osamu Ikeda from the Arabic:text of the Stand-ard Quran of the Egyptian Version published in 1923. These two Arabic schol-ars. are professors ut the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. This version is rendered by using standard terminology of the most current Japanese, instead of the literary classic style using difficult religious terms, considering the ability of the general readers in grasping the meaning of a scripture. As a result, no specific stress is placed on the religious position of Islam. And considering the readers' interest, many illustrations arc inserted in this version. From the viewpoint of religion of Islam, some defects can be found in this kind of publication of the Holy Quran. This book is also easily available in the bookstores all over Japan and widely read at school libraries nationwide. As mentioned earlier, during the fifty years from 1920 when the first Japanese translation of the Holy uran was published in Japan to 1970, fiyeiapanese trans-lations were brought out. Aside from good or bad points of these Japanese versions, it is true that each of them has had the significance of its existence in MeCiiitg the needs of its respective time and has been effective, at least to some extent, to provide some knowledge to the Japanese about the Holy Book of Islam. Leaving aside whether

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the translators of these publications were expert in Arabic or not, the fact that everyone of them was unfortunately a non- Muslim cannot be denied. But everyone without exception asserted that: The translation of the Holy Quran into Japanese from the religious point of view of Islam is, after all, the duty which can be better performed by a pious Japanese Muslim. The Latest Translation by Ilaji Uuiar Mita Considering the fact as mentioned above, HO Omar Ryoichi Mita, a pious Japnese elder Muslim, undertook the translation of the Holy Quran into Japanese from the Muslim's point of view with a strong sense of his own responsibility for this important mission. In .1969, he started the work at the age of 69 and had since devoted all energy midi time to this sacred work for a dozen of years. Final-ly, in 1972, his mission was fulfilled with the publication of its first edition. Although the great translation work was undoubtedly the result of Haji Umar ?villa's individual devotion and efforts, it is also a fact that many Japanese and foreign Muslims cooperated with hint with similar devotion to achieve the result. Specially, the assistance and support given by the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Rabitat Al-Alain Al-Isiami, Mecca, will go down in posterity as a great monument of zuoperation in the history of Islam in Japan. Without their assist-ance and support this achievement would have been impossible. The main characteristics, apart from its being rendered by a very respectable pious Japanese Muslim scholar, are iliat every Ayat in Arabic text is juxtaposed with its Japanese translation and that it is the only full-scale Japanese•translation of the. Holy Quran so far with elaborate notes. Haji Umar Mita(5) was born in 1892 in in the western tip of the main Japanese island of Honshu. After

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completing his education, he went to China in his early age lo serve with the South Manchuria Railway Compa-ny. There he came in contact with many Chinese Muslims. While living among these Chinese Musiims, he came under their •strong influence and became Muslim at the hand of the imam of a Peking mosque, who named him Umar. 1-le lived in China for as long as 30 years. During this long period of time he continued his study of Islam as well as living Islamic life while serving the railway company where he held the position of Chief Adviser to the General Federation of Muslims in China until the end of World War II in 1945. He returned to Japan after the War. In Japan, he continued his Islamic activities and joined the Japan Muslim Association. lie became its second President when its first President died in 1958. lie fore his tenure as President, he visited Pakistan to participate in TaNigh. He performed his first Ilajj pilgrimage in 1958. Around that time, the idea of trans- lating the Holy Quian into Japanese took roots in his mind. Later, he went to Mecca again to start the work, at the recommendation of Mama Abdul Rashid Arshad, a scholar of Pakistan. Haji Umar !Alta stayed in Mecca for three years studying and translating and, after completing his manuscripts of the Japanese translation of the Holy Quran, lie returned to Japan in 1964. He was already 72 years of age at that time. Even at this old age, Haji Umar Mita worked hard in order to give the finishing touches in the translation and, finally, fulfilled his long-cherished desire with great devotion. Now he is 88 years old. In spite of his old age, he is still working hard devoting himself day and night to the laborious work of bringing out a revised edition of his translation. NOTE: 1. The International Military Dibunal for the Far East. The trial %112$ held from 3 May 1946 to 16 April 1948.

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Among the 28 A-class war criminals seven were executed by hanging. 2. West-Oesilicher Divan by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 1832), pub-lished in 1819 when Goethe: was 70. 3. Published by famous Japanese publishing company lwanami Sholen in its pocketbook series. 4. Chuo-Koron-Sha Publishing Company 5. See the details about Hajj Umar Mita in Chapter 2:IV:2

3. Growth of Islamic Organizations

Japan Muslim Association With the defeat of Japan in World War II in 1945, many parts of the country were reduced to ashes-and many national cultural heritages perished. Moreover, as stated on earlier occasions, great many drastic changes in the structure and or-ganization of the State were brought about. Yet, in spite of all these changes, one cannot necessarily say that the life-style of the Japanajpeople living in the country was totally broken off. With the change of time, however, gradual changes occurred in their life-style, too. At the same time, Islam in Japan also entered a new phase in the course of other changes. Before and during the War, the Great Japan Islamic Association (Dainippon Kaikyo Kyokai) which was the largest organization bearing the name of Islam was disbanded along with other military-based institutions, In its place, a new private-ly based organization called the Association for Islamic Studies in Japan took over charges. Though it had some religious characteristics, at first

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many of its members were non-Muslims, therefore, it emphasized on academic studies rather than on religious propagation and practices of Islam. Its library with all its properties Was later transferred from the care of its chairman Mr. Kentaro Omura to the care of Professor Hisao Matsuda of Waseda University's Institute of Oriental History in Tokyo and it still exists there. While Association for Islamic Studies in Japan, as an organization of non-Muslim scholar group, was engaged in the academic pursuits of Islam, a new movement was being promoted among the Muslim members of the erstwhile pre-War Japanese Islamic organizations to form a basically religious organization of the Muslims in order to preserve their religious faith. These Muslims were those who, before and during the War, went to continentat China and other coun-tries of Asia where they came in contact with Muslims and became Muslim or those who became Muslim within Japan through their contact with foreign Mus-lims, mainly Turkish and Indian, resident l,i Japan. These devoted Muslims began contact with one another with the Tokyo Mosque or sometimes the homes of Muslims as the places of contact and in this way consolidated themselves. Spe-cially, at the initiative of six or seven dedicated Muslims including Brothers Osman lvlatsubayashi, Sadiq Y. Imaizumi, A bdulinunir M. Watanabe, Kazuto Toriyama, Toshinori Wakisaka and Kentaro Furusuwa a prospectus for a new organization was issued in. 1952 and, in the following year, the Muslim Society of Japan .(now called Japan Muslim Association) was established. This was thelirit -organ-ization comparising solely of the believers of Islam and fOr the purpose of purely religious activities. Late Brother Sadiq Imaizumi was elected the first President of Muslim Society of Japan. According to a Members- list of that time, the total strength was 65 including brothers and

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sisters from Tokyo and its neighborhood as well as from Kansa', , San-in, Kyushu and other various areas of Japan. The Muslim Society of Japan vigorously started its activities from its tempora-ry office at Tanseisha, 625 Kobikikan, 6-7 Higashi , Chuo-ku, Tokyo. In its constitution, among other things, the following articles were included describ. ing the aims and functions of the organization: Article 3: The aims and objects of this Society are: to endeavour for the pro-motion and progress of Islam in Japan based on the teaching of Islam; to make efforts for establishing ties of goodwill and friendship with the countries of the Muslim World; and, thus, to contribute to the peace of mankind. Article 4 In order to achieve the objectives of the preceding article, the Society will carry out the following functions: 1. Propagation of Islam 2. Distribution of materials concerning Islam 3. Sponsoring lecture meetings, classes, research undertakings, etc. 4. Guidance for the new Muslim converts 5. Contact with the visiting us well as resident Muslims in Japan 6. Contact and exchange of information with various organizations, publicity organs, leaders, etc. of Muslim countries 7. Study and research on industrial and economic situation as well as movement of trade and commerce in the Muslim countries 8. Publication of its organ

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9. Estabiishment of an Islamic centre and a mosque 10. Any other works which may deem necessary By 1953 when Japan Muslim Association, the religious organization of the Muslims of Japan, was established, the post- War confusion in Japan was gradual-ly being settled down, the economy of the country was heading for a revival and the life of the people was also gaining sonic affluence. Again, about this time, Japan started establishing diplomatic relations with the newly eme;bing independent Muslim countries of Asia and Africa. Diplomatic missions of various Muslim countries were opened in Tokyo which gave ample opportunity for ex-changes among the people. Moreover, many other people from these Muslim countries started to visit Japan in larger numbers for the purpose of business or governmental duties. Also about this time Tabtigh missions from various countries also started to visit Japan, and more frequently. Through these events the friend-ly relations between. the Muslims of Japan and foreign Muslim visitors became stronger and stronger. Urge for visiting the Muslim countries and study Islam and Arabic there also became strong among the Japanese young people. Japan Muslim Association began negotiations with the Islamic countries for providinA opportunity to the Japanese youth for study in those countries. Egypt, Pakistan and a few oilier countries began to accept some Japanese Muslim youth for education there. But the path of Japan Muslim Association towards its general goal of spreading Islam in this country has not been easy. Although Brother Sadiq lrnaizurni took over the responsibility of leading the new organization, he had to face many hur. dies since the very inception of the Association. It had no property or funds of its own, no permanently established office, no regular office-workers, but many, .difficulties and ordeals. Almost all

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the works of the Association were conducted by the self-less service and contributions front its President and a few other colleagues. But with great fervor and zeal, the members of the Association gladly faced the difficulties unitedly and. with great .hopes. In this way, they founded the base of the Islamic movement in Japan and made efforts to consol-idate the movement for propagating the faith. And, of course, the guiding spirit of this movement was the late Brother Sadiq Irnaizumi, the President of the Association, who dedicated himself wholly for the progress of Islam in this coun-try. Sadiq linaizumi died in 1960. But the Muslims of Japan will long remember his exemplary dedication to the cause of Islam. After the sudden death of Sadiq Imaizumi, the dedicated Muslim leader and the first President of Japan Muslim Association, Haji Umar Mita, another dedi-cated and pious Muslim Japanese elder, succeeded him and took over as the second President of that organization. The membership of Japan Muslim Association of that time was 112, as of July 1959. Almost all of them were Japanese Muslims, which shows the most repre-sentative character of this only Muslim organization of Japan at that time. If we look at its membership list, we can see a large number of the names of those Mushms who earned important achievements in the Islamic movement in Japan and who also played active roles in the later periods and left their marks in the history of Islam in this country. The second President of Japan Muslim Association, Haji Urnar Mita, exerted. efforts to send young Japanese students, who would become essential for Is-lamic activities in Japan in future, to the Islamic countries in order to enable them to acquire Islamic knuwledges and to learn the Arabic language. However, since Ilajj Uniar Mita wanted to devote his undivided attention to the writing of the Japanese meaning of the Holy Quran and

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also to participate in the Tabligh activities in Pakistan, lie resigned from the post of President of Japan Muslim Association after serving only two years. Thereupon, Professor Abdul Karim Saitoli took over and became its third President. As President, the first act of Prof. Abdul Karim Saito] was the acquisition of a land for graveyard for the many foreign Muslims living in Japan. This was because of the fact that cremation of dead bodies was made compulsory for the Japanese by almost all the local sell-governments in Japan according to the Buddhist practice of funeral which is not acceptable to the Muslims. Fortunately, a tract of land measuring 7,585 in' in the hilly region of Enzan city in Yarnanashi, a neighboring prefecture to the west of Tokyo, was procurred for the purpose. It was certainly an important event which needs special mention in the history of Islam in Japan and was wade possible by both moral and material support extended by the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tokyo and many others within Japan and abroad. The tenure of office of Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh continued for nine years up to 1971. During this period, numbers of diplomats, businessmen, scholars, delegates, students, etc, from foreign Muslim countries increased year by year. Through contacts with them, the existence and activities of the Japanese Muslims were highly evaluated abroad and the road toward understanding and cooperation with them was widely opened. With the goodwill visits by President Abdul Karim Saitoh and other directors of Japan Muslim Association to the Muslim countries and their participation in the Islamic conventions and conferences, cooperation with them became deeper. Furthermore, in continuation of the former Presi+ dent's efforts, the number of hipanesc students despatched to the Muslim coun-tries increased to a great extent and we can say that it became the main factor

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which contributed to the great advance made in the Islamic movement in this country, And, filially, Japan Muslim Association was formally recognized by the Japanese law as a religious juridical person in Japan on 12 June 1968, thus achiev- ing the expectation of long years. This recognition bears a great .significance in that Islam which, introduced in Japan about 70 years ago, was always looked upon as a religion of a different race of West Asia, joined ranks with the other religions of Japan and the Japanese people. Also, in June 1969, VOICE OF IS- LAM No. l was published as the organ of Japan Muslim Association with Mr, Abu Bakr Ivlorimoto as its Editor. In June 1971, Mr. Abu Bakr Morimoto was elected President of Japan Muslim Association at its Annual General Meeting. Upon being elected, the new President took decisive actions for reforms of the affairs of the Association since its scope of work expanded as a result of Japan's relations with the Muslim countries including the oil-producing ones became closer in •various directions of inter-national politics, trade, culture, and so on_ lle established an office of the Associ-a tion, giving it a complete shape of headquarters equipped with its own employees and telephones, lie also established a permanent Arabic language class within the headquarters using its nieetiiig room, both for the Muslim and non-Muslim stu-dents alike. But the greatest achievement during Mr. Abu Bakr Morimoto's term of office was the completion of the printing and publication of the Japanese meaning of the Holy Quran, the manuscript of which Hap Urnar Mita had already prepared through strenuous efforts for long 12 years. The President of the Association obtained funds from Rabitat Al -Alain Al-lslarni, Mecca r for the expenses of pub-lication, and cooperation from the Committee for the Publication of Japanese Meaning of the Holy Quran, which was composed of both Japanese and foreign

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Muslims for the revision of the manuscript. After one year of continuous efforts, the printing was completed and, on 10 June 1972, 5000 copies of the new work were brought out, In April 1973, President Abu Bakr Morimoto and three other directors of the Association wen! to Mecca, visited the Rabitat and presented copies of the new Japanese publication to the Rabitat with deep expression of gratitude for it. Then, at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, they were received in audience with the late King Faisal to whom also they expressed their deep ap-reciat ion for the support and requested for continued in future to the Islamic activities in Japan. Unfortunately, some time after their visit, King Faisal was killed by an assassin's bullet. The juxtaposed Arabic-Japanese meaning of the 1-loly Quran was distributed by the Association to those who asked for it far and wide in Japan. During the period between June 1972 and Mardi 1973, out of the total of 5000 copies il published, 2388 were distributed. It is interesting to note, from the special characteristics in the breakdown of statistical figures of the distribution, the interest of the Japanese people in the Holy Quran.

1. Region-wise places of distribution as of 3 E March 1973)

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78

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The membership of Japan Muslim Association is classified into Regular, Asso-ciate and Patron Members. There may have been some increase or decrease in the numbers due to new admissions or withdrawals. But the number of members during the distribution of the Japanese meaning of the Holy uran and its

break-down were as follows (as of 31 March 1973).

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After the completion of the term of office of Mr. Abu Bakr Morirnoto as president of Japan Muslin' Association in May 1974, Mr. Abdul Murtir Watanabe was elected the new President, followed by Mr. Muhammad Omar lokibe in 1977. Mr. lokibe is also the current President of the Association. During the period from the inception of Japan Muslim Association until today, several other Islamic organizations including Islamic Center-Japan were estab-lished. With the trends of change, Japan Muslim Association also has changed its character in course of the time from the unified organization Of both Japanese and foreign Muslims living in Japan to-one looking like an organization of the Japanese Muslims alone. International Islamic Centre Activities of the Muslims as a community in Japan started since the migration of a group of Turko-Tatar Muslims from Kazan and other parts of the Soviet Union about 60 years ago. As a Muslim community, their first concern was to find a suitable place for their collective prayers. Through great efforts these Turko-Tatar immigrants in Japqn were able to get the recognition and cooperation of the Japanese people and Government, which ultimately resulted in the con-struction of the present Tokyo Mosque. This Turko-Tatar community has since been looking after the affairs of the Tokyo Mosque. However, after World War 11, many other foreign Muslims began to come to and live in Japan. Therefore, a need was felt to form an organization on inter- national basis. In order to meet this need, a committee consisting of the re-presentatives of Muslims from various countries and groups was formed with Mr. Moukhtar El-Gawhary of Egypt as its Secretary General. This committee became the basis of the International Islamic Centre.

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After its formation, the International Islamic Centre vigorously started work to unite and coordinate the activities of all Muslims in Japan on a single, central platform. With the number of Muslims increasing, a need was felt to revitalize the organ-iza tion. In a General Meeting which was held in March 1966, a 5-member L.om-rnitee was formed to draft a constitution of the Centre in the changed circum-stances. The committee composed of Mr. Taminidar Muhit, Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh, Dr. Salih M. Samarrai, Mr. Zuhal.and Mr., Husain Khan completed the draft constitution of the Centre and put it for approval by the subsequent General Meeting of all Muslims in Japan on 27 March 1966. The draft was approved of and a reorganized International Islamic Centre came into being. The International Islamic Centre carried on its work until it was disbanded with the establishment of the present Islamic Center- Japan in 1974 as described hereunder.

Islamic Center-Japan

The Center's Basic Characteristics Islamic Center-Japan is actually a continuation from International Islamic Center established in 1966. It is a non- political and purely non-commercial. organization run by a Board of Directors elected by the members. There is one Secretary General, one Assistant Secretary General and a Treasurer with some of staff. The Board of Directors prepares policies and plans. for the activities, and controls the finance. It is really very satisfying to find that Islamic Center is not at all attached with any particular group. In fact, it has successfully

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melted the nationality and individualism in the brood-based pot of (slain. Membership of the Center is composed of its founders and of those who joined to work for the aims and objects of the Center, that is, Dewah islarnia. The mem-bers of the Center are in a way the selected and devoted. Muslims in Japan, who belong to various nationalities such as Turkish, , Pakistanis, Japanese and so on. AU these members form the General Body of the Center, which is its supreme body.

Aims of the Center The objective of the Center, iii a word, is to spread Islam in Japan and acquaint the Japanese people with Islam from its original sources since whatever have so far been published in this country about Islam, belongs mostly to the unauthentic Euro-American sources. It is mainly because the Arabic language has been very little known here._ The Center, after careful study of the situation, decided to organize its activities focussing on two methods: I. Direct Inyitation (Call and Dewah) to Islam by meetings, talks, discussions, symposia, seminars, etc. 2. Providing sufficient, simple and authentic Islamic literature prepared from original sources and published in the Japanese language. This is made available on large scale and free of charges. Activities of the Center Book Publications The Center is introducing Islam and its relevance to various aspects of the modern society in the Japanese language. Main among them are Ibadai (worship), dealings, jurisprudence, economic and social system, etc. Till now the Center has published more than 26 books and booklets on different

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subjects. They are sup-plied to Muslim organizations all over Japan and also to its sister organization in Korea, free of cost. The social and educational institutions throughout Japan are also supplied with carefully prepared and well-presented literature The ASSALAM Magazine This is a quarterly magazine of the Center of over 100 pages. Tifrough this magazine the Center introduces various topics on Islam, its culture and the current affairs relating to Islam. It helps it) feillOVC floubts and misunderstandings which the anti- Islamic elements have created in the Japanese mind over the centuries. The AS ALA educates the Japanese Muslims and introduces to them the Muslim World, providing an opportunity to discuss and know the various problems facing them. Its 5,000 copies of each issue are sent to over two thou-sand libraries, universities, schools, government offices, research centers, asso- ciations, scholars and hundreds of other intellectuals and individuals all over the country. Seminars and Conferences The Center organizes seminars and conferences on different branches of Islamic sciences in order to transfer directly to the Japanese people the Islainic point of view on different topics through talks by specialized scholars. This type of activ-ities are very popular among the intellectual classes in Japan. The Center success-fully organized the First Islamic Cultural Seminar in cooperation with one of the most influential daily newspapers of Japan, the ASAI-11 HI BUN, in Tokyo and a 2nd one in Osaka. Then the Center also organized the First Islamic Law Conference in Tokyo with the cooperation of the Chao University, Tokyo and the Muslim World League, Mecca. Visits for students to mosques are arranged and question and answer sessions are conducted, all in Japanese.

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Dabates and Discussions The Center is very keen to be in direct contact with people of different walks of life in the Japanese society, The Center frequently holds meetings with the Muslims living in various parts of the country as trainees, students, and traders. At its headquarters; the Center receives the Japanese who solicit information and enquire about Islam and time Muslim countries. The Center assists them.by supplying the literature and arranging discussions when necessary. Tabligh The Center is seriously planning to use the mass media in Japan for Islamic Dewah. It may be noted that the media are used by other non-Muslim religious groups on large scale commercial basis. It will take some time for the Center to use them on commercial payment basis because the venture needs large amount of funds. The Center, as a part of its regular Tabligh activities, sends teams and individuals to various cities and country sides of Japan for explaining Islam to common man. Arabic Language Teaching Language teaching is one of the most important methods of reaching the people. Thousands of Christian missionaries are teaching English, German, French and other languages to the Japanese people. Considering the utility of the Arabic language teaching, the Center has arranged Arabic classes at its Tokyo headquarters and also other offices at , , and so on. Education, Training and Research The Center has made a comprehensive plan for the establishment of educa-tional facilities for the Muslims. A

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modest start has been made with opening children's classes. The children are taught 'slam in general in their own languages and aslo the reading of the I loly QL1(211. The Center maintains a library con-taining about 2,000 books which are used by the readers for research, reference ' as well as general learning. The Center also makes arrangement for scholarship& for Muslim students who want to study in the Muslim countries, specially in the Saudi Arabian universities. Cooperation with Muslim Organizations The Center frequently invites members and leaders of other Muslim organiza7 tions in Japan for mutual consultation and understanding and for making joint programs. Every Friday after the Jum'a Prayers such informal meetings are held at the Center with open invitation to all who want to attend. The Center strongly supports the efforts of the Coordinating Council of Islamic Organizations in Japan which is the coordinating body of the Islamic organizations here. The Council is now devoting its mainaefforts to the repair of the Tokyo Mosque, built in 1938, which is now is in a very bad condition. Also, Islamic festivals and other important events are celebrated through mutual cooperation. The Center has the :.advantage that all the workers, local and foreign, are well-versed in Japanese which is essential for success in Japan. Hajj Missions The Center has regularly been organizing Hajj Missions for the Japanese .. Mu-_ slims for the last few years. Every year 10 to 15 Japanese Muslims are sent to pilgrimage to Mecca. This provides a very good opportunity for them to re. discover the universal brotherhood and simplicity of Islam for themselves. Finances of the Center

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The Center does not collect or receive any donation or charity from the Japanese people or any other sources in Japan. The Center is run by the support and help from governmental and non-governmental organizations of Muslim countries. Prominent among them are the Governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the State or Qatar, the Rabitat Al- lslami, Mecca, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Conferences, universities in the Muslim countries, namely, King Abdul Aziz University in Jedda and Riyadh University in the capital of Saudi Arabia. The Center is now housed in its own small building plus a rented building adjacent to it. *Contributed Islamic Culture Society-Japan Islamic Culture Society-Japan was established in May 1974 with its aims to promote understanding of Islam among the Japanese people and mutual understanding between the Muslims of the world at large and the Japanese people through cultural and human contacts and through various publications activities. It is not a religious organization in the orthodox sense but a cultural organiza-tion establishing a forum of discussions among the Muslims as well as between various faiths for the understanding of Islam. It was founded by Abu Bukr Morimoto who is also its present President. Therefore, its membership is not limited to only the Muslims but open to all friends of Islam both in Japan and abroad, who have interest in Islam and like to promote understanding of Islam and also would like to contribute to mutual understanding between them. Anybody anywhere in the world can become its member by application expressing a desire to foster its aims. As

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a result, its nienibershiip is now spread all over the world—in all the six continents as well as in the remote oceanic islands. The Society has been striving to live upto its aims mainly by its publication activities, publishing Islamic books in original in the Japanese language as well as translations from Arabic, English and other languages into Japanese. Its organ, ISLAMIC CULTURE FORUM magazine, is already known far and wide in the world as the only English language magazine of its kind in Japan, and has cont-ributed greatly toward the understanding of Islam in Japan by its overseas readers. Abu Bakr Morimoto is its Chief Editor and Iskandar Chowdhury, Editor. Islamic Culture Society receives hundreds of publications from overseas Muslim organizations and distributes them among the people here. It also receives nu-merous correspondences from people and organizations around ..the .world and ex-changes views and information with them. The Society also arranges lectures and discussion meetings about !slain and Islamic culture for its understanding by the Japanese people. Its members also participate in the Da iwah activities conducted by the local and' foreign Muslims in Japan. Since Islamic Culture Society-Japan has no viable financial resources of its own to meet the expenses of its publication activities, therefore, a publishing company called Hilcrnah Publishers Ltd., which is a commercial concern, was established in 1979 at the same premises in order to help realize the major aim of the Society. Presently, publication of this ISLAM IN JAPAN; ITS PAST, PRE-SENT AND FUTURE in English and of the Japanese translation of ELEMEN-TARY TEACHINGS OF ISLAM by Mohammed Abdul-Aleem Siddiqui is now under progress.

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Japan Islamic Congress Four Japanese declared their faith in Islam on 29 December 1974. They, with their riven Muslim names, were Dr. Shawqi Futaki (74), Dr. Tahir Kawanishi (49), Mr. Kimlid Futaki (41) and Mr. Add Fujise (42). The declaration ceremony was conducted at the Tokyo Mosque•by ii man Ain an Sala and witnessed by Mr. Abu Bakr Morimuto, .President of Islamic culture Society, Dr. S. M. Samarrai, Rabita Representative in Tokyo and Mr. Musa Mohammed Umer of Sudan. Dr. Shawqi Futaki is a well-known medical practitioner of Tokyo and is the Founder-Chairman of the Royal Clinic and the Royal Clinic Health Society. Mr. Khalid Futaki was the SecretarynGeneral of the Society, Dr. Tahir Kawanishi was the Director of Royal Clinic and Mr. Adel Fujise was its Manager at the time of their conversion to Islam. Why become Muslim? On this question, Dr. Tahir Kawanishi and Mr. Khalid Futaki on 20 February 1975 said: "Without any pretension but with all humility, the simple reason is that the Great Sensei (Dr. Shawqi Fut ski: "sensei" means teacher — it is also used as an honorific expressing respect for elderly people) asked us to do so. Ile has always been imbued with the spirit of service to humanity through his skills of a medical practitioner. Ile also instilled the same spirit into our mind. Although this spirit has been spontaneous in himself, he had been looking foi a spiritual founda. non. After considerable observation of ihe life of and discourse with Mr. Abu Bakr Murimo to, the Great Sensei found that his own ideas and principles and the teachings of Islam, specially those in respect of service to humanity, are complete- ly identical. lie also found that Islam is the spiritual foundation which he had been looking for, lie took• die decision .and

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inspired us as well. As we were also instilled with tile same spirit, we found no difficulty In immediately agree-ing with him. We also had quite long talks with Mr. Morirnoto on various aspect of Islam, specially in a country like Japan, and strengthened our conviction." In reply to another question, Dr. Kawanisiii said that after becoming Muslim he does not find any conflict between his daily life and his belief. He has now a wide contact with Muslims in Tokyo and lias the opportunity of studying the Islamic living through such contact as well as through his theoretical study. He also said that he would like to study the medical traditions in the Islamic countries whenever he gets an opportunity. Since then, a new upsurge has been evident in the Islamic movement in Japan through their leadership and efforts, centering the medical clinic and its affiliated society that they manage. As a result, on 21 March 1975,81 more Japanese who are members of that society, embraced Islam after the Jum'a Prayers at the Tokyo Mosque. A t the embracing ceremony, manly Muslims of various countries were present. They included ambassadors and other diplomats from Muslim countries, representatives of foreign and Japanese Islamic organizations and other prominent individuals. All of them heartily congratulated the new Muslims and welcomed them to the brotherhood of Islam. Again, on 4 Apri1,1975, another 225 members of the same organization declared their faith in Islam. The expanded group of die new Japanese leis vigorously started conduct. ing propagation of Islam in theShinjuku district of Tokyo where they live or work. And the result of their sincere efforts was that, on 12 May, 1975,739 Japanese declared their faith in Islam in a ceremony held at a public hall located in the Kabukicho quarters of district. To conduct this ceremony, six Saudi Arabian leaders including Minister of

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Education H. E. Mr. Hassan bin Abdullah AI-Shaikh and Dr. M. A. Yamani, Rector of King Abdul Aziz University. visited Japan. At the same ceremony, another 120 Japanese who could not par-ticipate physically, declared faith by signing a declaration.' Thus, the total number of the new Muslims in Japan has reached to 1,175 in about six months. The Kabuldcho quarters of Shinjuku, where the ceremony of 12 May 1975 held, is one of the busiest places in the Tokyo metropolis. Apart from its being a centre of small and inedium scale commercial enterprises, the Kabukicho quar-ters is also viten-known for its amusement and shopping facilities. Even in such a place, on that day the flags of Saudi Arabia and Japan fluttered in the air on the pole of the hall garden and, for an hour, recitations from the Holy Quran over the microphone echoed around the whole area. In the same evening, a large welcome reception was held at one of the largest hotels in Tokyo where a few hundred Japanese and foreign guests were invited. Among the Japanese guests were many members of the Japanese Parliament and other political and business personalities, all of whom enjoyed the company of the new Muslims. Among these new Muslims whose number was over }OK there were people from various walks of life including company presidents, business proprietors, shop owners, journalists, bank officials, artists, ordinary salaried workers, house-wives, nurses, students, etc., their ages ranging from 80 years to the teen-age. Most of these new Muslims were brought up under the typical national education sys-tem of Japan, which is extremely secular, and lived all their life in similar kind of environment and, th e reby, their life-style also is molded accordibly. This life-style is greatly different from the life and customs of the Islamic

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societies in the Muslim countries. However, these people were very earnestly hoping to acquire the Islamic way of Life as early as possible and as perfectly as possible. With this end in view, under the leadership of Dr. Shawqi Futaki, they established an organi-zation called Japan Islamic Congress. The organization has since been registered as a religious legal body in Japan. At the initial stage, the office premises was rather small. But apart from its other official facilities, the premises also contain-ed a prayer room. This shows their earnestness in molding their new life according to the teaching of Islam. Since establishment, Japan Islamic Congress has grown to be the largest Muslim organization in Japan. It now claims its membership to be 27, 628 s reported in the ANNUAL REPORT ON RELIGIONS in Japan, 1979, published by the Cultural Agency of the Ministry of Education, Government of Japan. The Con-gress has the advantage of preaching Islam through its medical service because its founder and a few other members of [he upper echelon are medical practitioners. Since the beginning of 1979, a certain news story relating to Islam was flashed in the Japanese mass media, specially, newspapers, week.lies and other journals and bacame the source of widespread rumors. The news originated from the in- vestigations conducted by a team of auditors of the government tax bureau into the operation of health insurance system of a medical clinic run by Japan Islamic Congress in Shinjuku, a prosperous urban district of Tokyo. Discontented with this investigation, the news agency connected with the medical clinic sent despatches to the news media of the Muslim world saying that "it was an investi• gation conducted in order to put pressure On the Islamic activities in Japan by the newly- inaugurated as of early 1979) Ohira Cabinet because the Prime Minister is a Christian." Surprised at this news, the Motamar Al-

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Alain Al-Islami (World Muslim Congress) sent its Secretary General Dr. Inamullahlaan of Pakistan and Vice President Dr. Mohammad Natsir of Indonesia to probe the actual situa-tion. Immediately after their arrival in Tokyo, they visited the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the Health and Welfare .Ministry and the Tokyo Metropolitan Govern. ment office and probed the truth by interviewing the officials concerned there. As a result, it was reported that the investigations of the clinic were conduct- ed as a normal duty of the government tax bureau to find whether there were any irregularities or not in connection with health insurance drawings according to the tax law and that religion had nothing to do with the investigations. All the government offices explained the same identical views that "under Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution, since freedom of thought and religion is guaran teed, au ..discrimination or persecution for the reason of religion is absolutely impos-sible." To be sure, in no other country of the world religion is recognized to be so free as in Japan, both constitutionally and legally. As appeared elsewhere in this book, the Congress opened its own mosque near its headquarters in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. On 27 June 1980, Japan Islamic Congress also held the ground-breaking ceremony of its Japan Islamic Institute building and, on 7 July 1980, of the Tokyo Grand Mosque, as it has been named, with cooperation from the Iraqi Government. The Tokyo Grand Mosque is said to be a conglomerate of a mosque, a hospital, an Islamic Center, a library and some other facilities.

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Islamic Welfare Corps and Fatiha Foundation The motto of "ALLAH AKBAR 50-MILLION" means to devote our efforts to spread the teaching of Islam to the whole population of Japan and to bring -million Japanese people to Islam, The number of Muslims was increasing day by day. Then in the beginning of 1977, these lvluslirn brothers expanded their. work for the purpose of bring-ing the majority of the Japanese people to Islam though the activities in their respecitive fields On a national scale. As a result of the efforts of these organiza- tions, the number of Muslims belonging to this organization reached up to 10000. So, these Muslim brothers decided to reorganize their organizations and to establish what is called the Fatiiia Foundation with the aim of obtaining a far greater success in spreading the teaching of Islam in Japan. It became a very important problem for these new Muslims as how to perform duties according to the 5 Pillars of Islam, especially to offer SALAATUL.JUM'A. There is only one mosque in Tokyo, which is located in the south-western part of the city, Almost all the new Muslims in Tokyo who belong to this organization live in the north-eastern part of Tokyo. For these brothers, it is very difficult to go to the Tokyo Mosque on every Friday. l It takes more than one hour from their offices to the Mosque. For some, it Lakes one and a-half hours Moreover, nowadays in Japan, many companies have adopted the system of socalled 2 holidays a week — on Saturday and Sunday. Therefore, Friday is the final work and busiest day in a week. So, it is quite difficult for these new Muslims to leave their offices for 4 hours or so. Inspite el this fact, since the beginning of Feb-ruary last year, Mohammad Sawada, founder of the organization and other leading members used to go to the Tokyo Mosque on every Friday to offer the Jum'a prayer together with other Muslinis.

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But the rest of the new Muslim brothers were facing a very difficult situaiiun, * Contributed. This organizution has now been shifted to and established the Holy Quran instituie there.

The Holy Qur'an Institute in Kyoto* With the advent of 140011ijra, that is, tile 15th Centrury of the Islamic calen* dar, the headquarters of the Islamic Welface Corps was shifted to Kyoto and the Holy Qur'an Institute was established there on the 21st of November 1979, the New Year's Day of 1400 A.H. Naturally, as a matter of course, the opening of Arabic language classes is also expected in thislioly Qur'an Institute. According to a legend of Islam, the real light of Islam will begin to shine on earth from the 15th Century of the Iiijra calendar. In preparation for that momentous new century, it decided to advance iii to Kyoto and shifted its headquarters to that city during early November 1979, to make preparations for setting up the Holy Qur'an Institute. *Contributed by Daawud T. Sawada Needless to say, Kyoto is the place which was the capital of Japan as well as the center of politics, CC01101111CS, and culture of our country for long one thou-sand years. It is the place which produced three Nobel Prize winners of Japan. And history leaches that Kyoto is the place where almost all the rnovements, especially the important spiritual movements, started since the Meiji Restoration (1868) when the capital was shifted from Kyoto to Tokyo (Tokyo means 'Eastern Kyoto). Now it is clearly stated in the Holy Qur'an on several occasions that Allah sent at least one messenger to each race and delivered

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the same Truth in the language of that land. This means it can be assumed that at least one messenger of Allah was sent to our country as well and the same Truth was delivered to us. If that be the case, the reasoning that the origin of Shin toisrn of Japan also primarily delivered the same Truth (Hag) holds good. There are various symbols to prove that reasoning. As if exactly to logically support that reasoning, in Yoshida Shintoism (another name is Unitarian Shintoism) which guided the Shinto world of Japan for a very long time and, in a sense, the core of Shintoism since the ancient Ameno-koyane-no-Alikoto (the ruling progenitor of religious rites in Japan), it is said that the only God who created the Heaven and Earth has been worshipped by way of chanting His Name as Dai-Genson-Shin and this is claimed to be the true faith. Dal-Genson-shin means the Almighty God who created the Heaven and Earth and A meno-Koyarie-no-Macroto is the an of the so-called Fujiwara Family which ruled the Japanese society for long 1,500 years or so until Meiji Restoration. It was resolved at the 8th Foreign Ministers' Conference of the Muslim Count-ries held in , Libya, in May 1977 to hold various functions all over the world to celebrate the advent of the 15th Century of Hijra. In the resolution, dialogues with the Christians in countries like Libya and Malaysia was taken up with great importance. In Japan also, dialogues among various religionists have been advanced vigorously. Concerning with this, since the founding of Mt. Hiei by High Priest Denuo- Daishi, there exist in Kyoto the head temples of many religious sects, which have guided the spiritual world of Japan; shining in one corner. We believe the Holy Qur'an is the origin which can make it possible to unite all the religions on earth. The Holy Qur'an says Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which. revealed unto us and that which was

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revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered. (Chapter II — 136) Considering these points, we set up the Holy Qur'an Institute in Kyoto, com-memorating the start of the new Hijra Century which we think is the most im-portant and significant period of time in the History of the human being on earth. We have the conviction and expectations that we shall be able to see hundreds of thousand of in the city of Kyoto in the near future. Council of Islamic Organizations in Japan During the last one decade or so, many Muslim organizations sprang up in Japan, conducting Islamic activities at their individual organizational levels. There are nearly a dozen of such organizations all over Japan. A need was felt for coordination among these organizations so as to accelerate the Islamic activi-ties in a rather unified way. Thus, the Coordinating Council of the Islamic Organizations in Japan (NIPPON ISURMILI DANTAI KYOG1KA1) was formed in 1976. Since then a few of the orkinal member bodies have withdrawn from the Council for various reasons. The declaration of the formation of the Coordinating Council goes as follows: DECLARATION OF COOPRATION FOR ISLAM* WHEREAS the Holy Quran and the words and actions of the Last Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) call upon all the Muslims to be ugited, WHEREAS it is expedient that all the Muslim organizations work in close co-operation for the sake of Islam in Japan, WHEREAS it is necessary that there should be

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coordination among the activities of all the Muslim organizations in Japan, WHEREAS it is the call of time that all the Muslim organizations have mutual understanding, mutual iespect and broad-based common policy, WHEREAS the Muslim organizations must set forth a good example for others to follow, WHEREAS Dr. Towfik Oweida, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Egypt, urged upon us to form a fresh coordinating body, WHEREAS this basic idea was unanimously adopted and agreed by all the Muslim organizations in a meeting held on Jamad-us-Sani 16, 1396, (June 14,. 1976) at Hotel Okura, Tokyo, NOW THEREFORE WE, TIIE UNDERSIGNED REPRESENTATIVES OF OUR RESPECTIVE ORGANISATIONS, HEREBY UNANIMOUSLY AGREE, DECLARE, AND BIND OURSELVES TODAY THE 28TH JUNE, 1976, AS UNDER, IN TIIE NAME OF ALLAH: We shall devote all our energy and resources for the propagation and spread-ing of Qurani liaclith and Islamic literature by all suitable means, We shall work for the genera1 uplift and general welfare of Muslims and for creating brotherly feeling among them all, We shall support and cooperate with each other for the cause of Islam and defend it against all enemies, Each of the undersigned organisations will be independent to carry out its own activities and works according to its own rules and regulations without any.- interference from any other organization, Each organization will extend its cooperation to the other only to the extent it is needed and desired by the other sister organizations,

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We shall, form time to time as and when necessary, consult each other in mat. tors of Islamic importance and shall help each other as far as possible, We shall encourage each other's organization in Islamic activities and each organization shall refrain from any damaging campaign against the other, We shall form a common coordinating committee or so to achieve the above-stated objectives of mutual cooperation, Any dispute or misunderstanding among these signatory organizations will be resolved and settled through the said coordinating body which will be of consultative nature, ALL THE UNDER-NOTED ORGANIZATIONS ARE BOUND BY THIS DECLARATION. 1. INDONESIAN ISLAMIC COMMITTEE 2. ISLAMIC CULTURE SOCIETY, JAPAN 3, ISLAMIC SOCIETY IN JAPAN 4. JAPAN MUSLIM ASSOCIA-TION 5. TURKISH ASSOCIATION 6. ISLAMIC DIRECTENT 7. ISLAMIC FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIA-TION(KYOTO) 8. ISLAMIC CENTER-JAPAN 9. ISLAMIC WELFARE CORPS 10. JAPAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS 11. MUSLIM STUDENTS ASSOCIAT1ON

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12. TOKUSHIMA AND NARUTO IS-LAMIC ASSOCIATIQN, THIS DECLARATION IS MADE AT TOKYO ON JUNE 28TH, 1976. MAY ALLAH BLESS IT. ABDUL KARIM SAITOH, COORDINATOR *Contributed

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4. Leaders of Islamic Movement Introduction The history of Islam in Japan, its development and movement remains in-complete without introducing at least some of its leaders who played the role of pioneers under heavy odds. As we have stated earlier, in social life or in human relations in Japan, to express frankly that one belongs to a certain religion or re. ligious group results in hindering the personal or social relations or it may even lead to discord or dislocation of group consciousness under established social order in this country. Under the circumstances, it took great courage on the part of those individuals who declared themselves as Muslims although such a thing never incurred them any persecution in the common parlance. Here is an account of some of the pioneer Muslims. The Late adici Imaizumi Son of a fine arts and curio dealer, Yoshio Imaizumi was born on 16 Sep-tember 1905. After completing elementray and secondary education at the neighborhood schools, Yoshio entered the Nihon University. in Tokyo, and graduated from it in the year 1927 at the age of 22 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In the same year, Yoshio Imaizumi entered Meisho Electric Corn-pany Limited as an engineer in its iron works department where he was engaged in producing radio and aeroplane parts. Ile continued working there until March 1930 when he resigned from his post in the company. In_ AprIti:that year, lima-izumi was appointed in the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication of the Japanese Government and was assigned as Post Master of Bongo-Kiridoshi in Tokyo.

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Embraces Islam Near the home of lmaizumi Turko-Tartar Imam Abdurrashid Ibrahim Bey who was a leader of the Muslim patriotic movement in Russia was staying. Imam Ibrahim Bey came to Japan in 1908 for the first time and started contact with the .top leaders of the Japanese political world and sought their support to the national movement of the Muslims of Russia. During 1920's, Yoshio Imaizumi • became acquainted with 11111AM Ibrahim Bey and through his introduction Imaizumi started association with the local Turkish people. It is through his'as- sociation with the Turkish Muslims resident in Japan that Yoshio Imaizumi learnt about Islam. Influenced by the life of these Turkish Muslims he decided to be-come Muslim and in March 1929 he embraced Islam at a ceremony led by another Turko-Tatar Muslim leader Kurban Ali. Yoshio Imaizumi became Sadiq Yoshio Imaizumi. Sadiq hnatzunii also started learning Islamic studies with great interest. His teacher, philosopher and guide was imam Ibrahim Bey, who came back to Japan in 1933, until the Jinam's death in 1943 at the old age of 95, Here it will not be irrelevant to mention that Imam Ibrahim Bey played an important role in the spread of Islam in Japan. About a hundred Japanese embraced Islam at his hands, In the meantime, the Tokyo Mosque was built in 1938 with Ibrahim Bey as its first Imam. With the building of the Tokyo Mosque, Islam in Japan took a new turn. During World War II In 1933, Sadiq linalzurni, when working as Post Master, got himself married with Saeko who became Sadiqa. But during World War II, Japan plunged into the Pacific War in 1941. In a lightning conquest, Japan occupied a very large area of the Asiatic continent as well as the islands in the western Pacific

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and the East Indies. The Japanese Navy High Command requisitioned his service as a civilian non-regular for service in the Islamic lands of the south. The High Command despatched him to Makassar city in the Island of Celebes now Sulawesi island of Indonesia) in June 1943 to work as technical instructor in mechanical engineering projects in the Muslim community of that area. In November, Sadiq Imaizumi was transferred to Bandjarmasin, a city in the island of Borneo where he worked as advisor to an engineering works project in the Muslim community and also of Jainia Islamia Borneo. These works gave him the chance to know about Muslim life through first hand experiences. He resigned from his job of Post Master in 1944. World War 11 and the Pacific War came to an end in August 1945 with the defeat and surrender of Japan to the occupying forces. The Dutch reoccupied their former col t' of the East Indies. Meanwhile, national liberation movement started in the Dutch East Indies, too. Many former Japanese soldiers and civilian workers of the Japanese army helped the Indonesian freedom fighters. Sadiq linaizumi was one of theni. But in January 1946, he was captured by the Dutch _ • and was put to the Court Martial on charge of hostility to the Nether;ands. But in the Court Martial, he was found innocent and released. In June of the same year, he was repatriated to Japan. Starts a New Life After repatriation, Sadiq linuiztiiiii faced a lot of difficulties which were com-mon to all the repatriates. But conquering all difficulties, he established a factory of ins own using his knowledge and experience of mechanical engineering and became its president. Mitsuboshi industrial Company Limited, as it was called, manufactured machinery and equipment for socks and other hosiery products. The factory was located in

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Nakajuku area of Itabashi Ward in Tokyo. Its main clients were the Occupation Forces in post-War Japan. Consolidates the Muslims of Japan Though engaged in his profession for a living, lie did not cut off his relations with the Muslims of Japan and other foreign countries. Rather his contact and association became more deep and more Frequent After his office hours in the Company he devoted the rest of his time to strengthen his contact and friend- ship with other Muslims. He took a leading role in unifying the Japanese Muslims and consolidating their position. He was one of the founder-members of Muslim Society of Japan, the fore- runner of present Japan Muslim Association and be-came its first president on its founding. Besides his own business, he was selected a non-regular staff member of Ministry of Justice, Government of Japan, for serv-ice to the ex-convicts as their protector and counsellor, for itabashi Ward area. in spite of all his busy preoccupations, for a living as well as for service to the local people, lie never failed in his duty as a Muslim. As President of Japan Muslim Association which was the representative organization of the Japanese Muslims, he had to conduct multifarious activities such as arranging scholarships for the young Muslim Japanese in a foreign Muslim university, conducting lecture meet-ings in various places of Japan and speaking there, giving interviews to the mass media or writing articles for them for the purpose of introducing Islam to the Japanese people. Owing to his tireless efforts, number of Muslims in Japan con-siderably increased. In 1959, 7 years of the establishment of Japan Muslim Association the number of members of the Society increased to 112 from a few dozens in 1953. And most leaders of the present-day Islamic movement in Japan are the products of those days.

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But due to overwork, Brother Sadiq hnaizumi fell ill from around 1959 and his health greatly reduced. When it was found that he was suffering from fatal stomach cancer, he was suggested to be hospitalized. But he refused hospitali-zation by saying: "I must work until death," and as usual continued his service to Islam and the Muslims. But his condition was fast deteriorating. So he was compelled to enter hospital and was operated upon at the Nihon Uniersity Hos-pital, the hospital of his alma mater, in 1960. But it was too late. On 17 May 1960, Sadiq Imaizumi breathed his last in the hospital bed (INNA LILLAHE WA-INNA 'LAME RAZIUN). At the time of death, he was 55 years old — too young to die normally in this country. But Allah's will invariably prevails. He was buried in the Muslim part of the Tama Graveyard which is situated in the western outskirt of Tokyo. In this way, a great leader, one of the most selfless and dedicated, of the Japanese Isluslinis passed away from the midst of his beloved brothers and sisters. But he lives in their hearts. Sadiq linaizumi passed away childless. His widow, Sadiqa Sacko Imaizurni, now lives-alone devoting herself to the work of her late beloved husband, in 14-101 Minami Urawa Danchi, 3-39 Minami Urawa City 336, Japan. A Few Episodes Some time before Sadiq Imaizumrs death, a new Cultural Counsellor was posted in the Egyptian Embassy (then Limbusy of the United Arab Republics) in Tokyo. His name was Mr. Moukii tar El-Gawhary who took keen interest in the promotion of Islam in Japan and gave the Japanese Muslims very strong sup-port. Through his good offices and support, President Sadiq Imaizumi of Japan Muslim Association sent two young Japanese Muslim students to Al-Azhar Univer-sity for Islamic education

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and training in 1958. They were the first Muslim students sent abroad by the Society. These two students, Omar A. Hamada and Zubair H. Suzuki, frequently wrote letters to Sadiq Imaizumi describing their life and study in Cairo,. During their stay in Cairo, the Ministry of Waqf of Egypt (then known as United Arab Republics) sent an invitation letter to Sadiq Irnaizurni to visit Cairo as the guest or the Egyptian Government But the letter never reached him because Sadiq linaizumi had already passed away when it reached his home. In 1958, Sadiq I r izuiiii had visited city in central Japan to address a lecture mooting on .1.siam. After addressing nearly 60 students at Fukushi Kai. kan of the city he alone started say.i rig Maghrib Prayers in front of those surprised mcpectators who WO never had any opportunity to witness a Muslim prayer. Amon% the surprised-..audienee• were two students of Shinshu University who became highly impressed by Sadiq Imaizumrs belief and earnestness. They were Kasuke Iiniorl and Itiroshi Ka tayama. Sadiq Imaizurnils earnestness and faith in his God moved these two youngmen and on the spot they declared their faith in Islam and became Yusuf K. lilnorl and Sadiq H. Katayama, respectively. Sadiq Ii aizumi recommended them for study at the A.Azhar University and they were accepted. But it was only the following year after Sadiq Imaizumi's death that they entered the Al-Azhar University. He could not bid the two students goodbye. Howe-yeti :they continued their study and research for a long time. After coming back to Japan, Yusuf limori is now rimed as a top Arabic and Islamic scholar in jipan and is engaged in teaching and reserch at Takushoku University of Tokyo. • .Sadiqa.taya ma is now an official of Chi} oda Chemical Industry Construction. Company. Limited and is rendering important ,service in the Arab-Japan business exchanges.

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Haji Umar Mita A few Japanese were influenced and inspired, ironically, through anti-Islamic propaganda by the interested forces, riot through any Islamic preaching. They became the nucleus to oen the path of Allah in this country. But among these pioneer Muslims,• only tl-kee of .them are still alive. Among them is Haji Umar Mita, the most typical example of the early Muslims in Japan. In fact, II* Umar Mita is the most outstanding figure in the annals of Islam in this corner of the world. Now at the age of 88, this Grand Old Man of Islam in Japan can rightly be called the pride of the Japanese Muslims. Early Life of Haji Umar Mita Haji Umar Mita whose Japanese name is Ryoichi Mita was born on 19 Decem-ber 1892 in a samurai (warrior) family of Chofu Town in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan. Since childhood Ryoichi did not possess a strong health or physique. His weak and ailing physical constitution caused delay in completion of his education. Therefore, at an advanced age of 24, in March 1916, Ryoichi graduated from the Yamaguchi Comniercial College, the forerunner of the present Yamaguchi University. Soon after graduation he proceeded to China, for which he had been yearning so long. Ryoich Mita in China China was a very familiar name to ltyoichi from his childhood because of the Sino-Japanese Wars in the mid-ninties of the last century. Ryoichi reared a dream for going to China all through his early youth. After graduating from college, he crossed over to China. This event not only became the first step toward the fulfilment of his long-cherished desire of seeing the continent but also gave him the first chance to come in contact with Islam.

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Meanwhile, Ryoichi earned sonic skills in medical practice. He travelled through various regions of the Chinese mainland meeting people, learning the Chinese language and earning the experience of life. During those travels, his skills in the medical practice greatly helped him to strengthen the human contact. Specially through these personal contacts he started to know about the actual life of the Muslim, the Muslim way of thinking and the Muslim society. This opportunity could never be expected in Japan. Ryoichi became highly impressed by the life- style of the Muslims. In 1920, he wrote an article on Islam. in China in a Japanese magazine calledT0A KEIZA1 KENKYU (Far-East Economic Research Journal Nos 1,2,3.) Ryoichi Mita happens to meet Hap Omar Mitsutaro Yamaoka, a Muslim forerunner in Japan Meanwhile, the first chapter of the history of Islam in Japan was opened by Haji Omar Mitsutaro Yamaoka who was the first Japanese Muslim to perform Haji in 1909, accompanying Imam Abdurrashid Ibrahim Bey, a Turkish Muslim lead-er of Tatar origin who was then living in Japan. After returning to Japan in the following year, Ilaji Omar Mitsutaro Yamaoka embarked upon a wide travel across the Japanese islands snaking lectures and holding discussions about his travel to the holy lands, thus introducing and explaining Islam and the Muslim world. In 1912, Haji Yamaoka wrote and published a number of books on his journey through Arabia and on the grand spectacles of the pilgrimage of Hajj in Mecca. Young Ryoichi, still a student, became highly impressed by the accounts regard-ing the Islamic lands contained in these books. Thus, it can be assumed that even before going to China Ryoichi had already acquired some background knowledge of Islam.

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In 1921, Ryoichi Mita returned to Japan for a while. During his stay in Japan, lie attended lectures as well as studied the writings of Hail Omar Mitsutaro Yamaoka. Then lie met HO Yamauka for the first time in near Tokyo, to learn more about Islam. At that time, Ryoichi Mita was 29 and Ha ii Yamaoka was 41. Ryoichi had not yet formally accepted Islam although his heart was gradually turning toward Islam.- Ryoichi Mita works for Manchurian Railways In 1922, Ryoichi Mita joined the Manchurian Railway Company and was posted ai the Company's headquarters in Dairen, Machuria. There Ryoichi enter-ed into his married life. In the office, Ryoichi Mita was in charge of the Inspec-tion Section relating to the industrial inspection in Manchuria. In course of time, along with his promotion to the higher posts, lie was transferred from one place to another, which enabled him to see many pla6es including Mukden, Hurbin and so forth and to come in contact with many people. Meanwhile, the Manchu. flan incident occurred and the successive long-drawn Sino- Japanese war began, leaving many innocent people in distress. Though an official of the Manchurian Railway Company, Ryoichi Mita devote.d himself to the relief of the distressed wherever he went around the northern China on his official duty. This gave him more chances to come in closer contact with the Muslims, thereby serving as incentives for strengthening his determination to embrace Islam. The year 1941 was the turning point in the life of Ryoichi Mita, Until then although for nearly 30 years he had known Islam, studied it, nurtured the fond-ness for Islam at heart, nay, although .11e was already a Muslim in his heart all through those years, he still did not embrace Islam formally. Maybe, this delay was due to the Buddhist religious tradition of a samurai

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family for generations and his living environment upto that time was not quite favourable for a hasty change-over. Ryoichi Mita becomes Urnar Mita When Ryoichi Mita was transferred to Peking, he decided to make his faith in Islam public. Therefore, he net Imam Wang Reilan of Nyuchie Masjid of Peking and under his guidance Ryoichl Mita formally declared his faith in Islam in 1941, received the name of [Jar, and became a dedicated servant of Allah. Nearly forty years later, even today, Haji Urnar Mita recalls that great moment with serene joy of fulfilment and also expresses his hearty gratitude for Imam Reilan for his kind and inspiring guidance during the days after Omar Mita's formal declaration of faith. Ryoichi Mita% step toward embracing Islam teaches us a very valuable lesson that it is not the preachings or observance of ceremonies but the love for humani-ty originated from the deep faith at one's heart and the personal experiences that guide one to find out the way toward the truth. True, Ryoichi Mita was impressed by what HO Omar Yainaoka had told. But unless Ryoichi Mita's inner heart gave him the right direction, nobody's preaching could change his mind. However, in the year of his declaration of faith, Urnar Mita was 49 years old. In his occupational field he was assigned with the job of Counsellor to the Supreme Council of the Federation of the Chinese Muslim Associations as a recognition of his vast, first-hand knowledge and experiences in the Chinese Muslim affairs and his close relations with the Chinese Muslims. Umar Mita lived in Peking until the end of the wars in 1945 when he resigned from his official posts and returned to Japan.

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Umar Mita alter returning to Japan Leaving behind his 30 years or long iile in China, Umar Mita returned to his native Japan. After returning home he took up the job of teaching Chinese, first at the Kansai University in Osaka and then at the Kita-Kyushu University in the island of Kyushu. But after some lime, he met with the disaster of losing his wife. Therefore, he gave up his teaching job in 1952 and settled in Tokyo and decided to engage heart and soul in the religious activities of Islam. Almost during this time, the Japanese Muslims who had so far been leading their individ-ual Islamic life, established the Japan Muslim Association in cooperation with the foreign Muslims living in Japan. Progress of Islam in Japan In the meantime, during the 30 years period when Umar Mita had been deepen-ing his faith in Islam while in China, Islam was steadily taking root in Japan. The forces behind this progress were the initiative of Haji Omar Yamaoka who had all along been streously working for the building up a foundation for Islam in this country through lectures and publications; of the Japanese evacuees from the South-East Asian Muslim countries where they came under the influence of Muslims (here and became Muslim during World War II: and of the Turko-Tatar Muslim refugees who settled in Japan after leaving their home in the Soviet Union. In fact, the last group of Muslims, that is, the Turko-Tatar refugees played a very important role in influencing the Japanese Muslims in their Islamic life. Umar Mita devotes to Islamic Activities in Japan When Umar Mita came to settle in Tokyo in 1952, he was then 60 years old. In those days, the marks of war destruction of cities throughout Japan still re-mained. The life of the Japanese

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people was still in great distress, to say, it was extremely difficult for the common people to make both ends meet in respect of food, clothing and shelter. Even during this toughest of time Omar Mita chose to devote himself to the cause of Islam and to the learning of the Arabic language. He was always at band when foreign Tabligh groups visiting Japan and participated in all their works. In 1957, he went to Pakistan on invitation and undertook various journeys in connection with Tabligh activities in that country and had exchanges of thoughts with the Muslims of an out and out Muslim society. These journeys were not at all easy and safe, specially for the frail health of Umar Mita. In spite of that, God-fearing but undaunted Umar Mita continued his journey in the path of Allah- iti 1958, joining with a Pakistani pilgrims group he went to Mecca and fulfilled his life-long desire of performing Hajj. After that, Urear Mita returned home and started his work with new vigour. In 1960, after the sudden death of Sadiq Iniaizunii, first President of Japan Muslim Association, ail Umar Mita was elected its second President. During his term as President of Japan Muslim Association, he published his work: ISURAMU RIKAI NO TAME NI (for Understanding Islam) and ISURAMU NYUIvION (An Introduction to Islam) and SAHABA MONOGATARI, the Japanese translation of Urdu book HEKAYAT-E-SAHABA by Maulana Muhammad Zakaria and specially translated into English for Haji Limar Mita by the late Hartz Abdur Rashid Arshad. Haji Umar Mites Resolution for Translating the Holy Quran into Japanese Exactly during this time, a new pocketbook size Japanese translation of the Holy Quran was brought out by a renowned Japanese publisher and was circulated in a fairly large number. In this connection, it may be mentioned that three more

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Japanese translations of the Holy Olifall were published in 1920, 1937 and 1950, respectively. A fourth translation from the original Arabic was published in 1957,E But all of these Japanese translations were rendered by non-Muslim Japanese scholars and obviously they lacked the Islamic standpoint. Moreover, the three previous ones were translated from English or other languages and more or less contained no-Islamic bias or absence of fairness. Therefore, Hail Umar Mita felt the need for a Japanese meaning of thelHoly Quran prepared by a Japa-nese Muslim and from the original Arabic text. There was no other better person than liaji Umar Mita himself to undertake such a stupendous job. So he made up his mind to do the work himself. He was then 69 years old. He had the anxiety of his frail health and old age, but left the problem to Allah's mercy. *See Chapter 2:11 progress in the Translation with the Support of Rabitat Al- Alain Al-Islami, Mecca In 1961, at the age of 70, Ilaji Uiiiur once again left for Pakistan and, for a time, settled.in •Lailure to (..ontinue the work of translation, simultaneously study-ing Arabic with the Arabic and Quranic scholars there. During this time, he established contact with Rabitat Al-Alain AI-Islami, Mecca, through the good offices of the late Hafiz Abdur Rashid Arshad.. On invitation, he visited Mecca and there he received pledge of support from the Rabita for the publication_of the Japanese meaning of the Holy Quran; While staying in Saudi Arabia, he made wide contacts with the Quranic scholars of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Taif, Riyadh, and so forth, and made considerable progress in his work. All through this work the inspiring guidance from the late I lafiz Abdur Rashid Arshad is an unforgettable memory for him Yet the more unforgettable event during his stay in Saudi Arabia

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was the death of Hula Arshad in a traffic accident. Hap Urnar Mita was also travelling in the same car but by the grace of Allah he was safe. In fact, that he survived and was able to return to Japan was a miraculous event in his life. This was in 1963 when i lafiz Arshad, ilaiiMita and some other companions were proceeding to Mecca from Medina by car. When the car reached Badr, it net an accident and turned turtle. I lafiz Arshad died instantly. Haji Mita escaped deaih but received serious injury. In course of time, he recovered from the in-jury and from the shock of the accident_ The Rabita extended. its most generous help and hospitatny all through the time of treatment and recovery after the mishap. Progress toward the Publication of the Japanese Meaning of the Holy Quran After returning home, Ilaji Umar Mita continued treatment, at the same time, he also went on with his translation work. During this period, he sometimes lived in in Kyushu and sometimes in Enzan city in Yamanashi pre-fectum, for the purpov; of recovering health as well as doing his work in a peace-ful atmosphere away from the din and bustle of the big cities. During his stay in Enzan, he met Abu Bakr Ivlorinioto (this writer), for the first time, in 1965. It was a happy occasion in that iiaji Uinar Mita felt relieved of anxieties regard-ing. printing of the Japanese meaning of the Holy uran by availing of the co-operation of a Muslim printing expert such as Abu Bakr Morimoto. in 1968, the translation of the text was completed and its first revision was accomplished by a committee of revision and review, appointed by the Japan Muslim Association, after continuous study and review for about a year and a-half. Carrying the revised manuscript of the translation: Haji Untar

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Mita went to Mecca in June 1970, taking Brother 1 lussain nap o;. Pakistan with him. At Mecca, the manuscript was again revised by a committee of scholars appointed by Rabitat Al- Alam Al-Islarni. After. about six months of painstaking review, the work was finally came to the stage of printing. liaji Umar Mita then returned Japan and the manuscript went to the printing press of Takumi Kobe hinting Company of , owned by anotlier lapanese At long last, or 10 June 1972, the F. rioting of the Japanese meaning Of the Holy Quran was complete and its firs i:Aition was published after 12 years of painstaking and strenuous efforts of 114 Uinar Mita who was then already 80 years old. Even after the publicailon, 1-laji Umar Mita has continued to write nntes g.f t tjon Haji Umar Mita's Daily Life as a Muslim Although busily engaged all the. time in the work of writing the meaning of the Holy Quran, /-laji Uinar Mita did never forget his other duties as Muslim. While performing his normal duties, be takes time out to guide the activities of the Japan Muslim Association as its Counsellor. Even at this age of 88, he commutes from his home in the suburb of Tokyo, a two hours' distance, to the Tokyo Ivhisiid and to the Association's office. This life pattern of Haji Utnar Mita is really an example before the younger generation who are fortunate to re-ceive his guidancc regularly. hi March 1974, he once again visited Mecca and in November of the same yeat, attended an Islamic conference held in New Delhi, Haji Ulna iii becang, 88 on 19 December 1979. Let us pray to Allah for his lung and healthy life so that his living example can inspire and guide the Japanese Muslims, now and in the future, to enable them to become worthy Cin-ryilig on his noble mission.

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Haji Abdul Karim Saitoh Now I introduce another Japanese Muslim leader, Professor Haji Abdul Karim Saitoh who is still in active service as an educator and is known not only in Japan bit also many foreign countries because of his activities which have expanded to a wide perimeter all over lite -Muslim world.' Presently, he is the Coordinator of the Coordinating Council of the Islamic Organizations in Japan (its Japanese original NIPPON 1SURAMU DANTAI KYOGIKAI which is a kind of federation of about a dozen of Islamic organizations in this coun try, and is destined to play a very important role in the unification of all Muslims living in Japan. Professor Abdul Karim Saitoh was born in 1908 iii Kiga city near Lake Hamana in the prefecture of central Japan, and was •given the name Selcihei. Sekihei was the third son of Ryohei Saito'', a Buddhist by faith. In 1933, Sekihei Saitoli graduated from [lie Takushoku University in Tokyo and was employed in the Japanese Foreign Ministry Next year, in 1934, he was posted in the Japanese legation in Kabul, Afghanistan. lie stayed in Kabul until 1939 when he was called back to the head office in Tokyo, but only to be posted in Kabul again in the. ollowing year. During the whole period of World War II, he stayed in Kabul. When the War ended, Sekihei Saitoh returned to Japan in 1946, and lived for a while in his native Shizuoka and in Yamaguchi. In 1955, he joined the staff of Wald Sangyo Co., Ltd. and worked with that company until 1959+ As a staff of the company, lie again visited Kabul, and also was despatched to Beirut and Cairo. Sim ice 1959, he had been engaged in teaching at his alma muter Takushoku University till 1978 as a professor in the Faculty of Political and Economic Sciences taki.ng charge of the Middle.-East Studies.

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Conversion to Islam As mentioned above, Sckihei Saila lived in a Muslim country for quite a long time and had a lot of chances to come in contact with Muslim people and their life. Specially, in a country like Afghanistan where Islam is the only religion of the people, this is but natural that he would be influenced by the local culture. Again, his visit of other Muslim countries, though for a shorter period, also gave him enough opportunity to come in contact with many more Muslims. However, as Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoli himself says: "Although I lived in a Muslim country for a long time, yet I had little interest in Isla M. On occasions I came across European books on Islam. But I never tried to learn the true meaning from those books or understand them." Prof. Saitohls remarks, as given above, is typical of all the other non- Muslim Japanese who go to the Muslim countries oil business as diplomats, trade repre-sentatives or tourists and live there, but never care for knowing the land of this stay or its people, let alone the religion of that land. In spite of the fact that Sekihei Saito]) was never interested in the religion of Islam, Allah's blessings were showered upon him. This was in 1957 when a 'Tarnish group from Pakistan visited Japan and Mr. Salta had a chance to be with the members of the group for a while and move with them. The saintly as well as puritanic life of the members of the Tabligh group and also the depth of their faith and belief impress-ed him and, for the first time, he was able to understand the meaning and significance of submission to Allah. In the same year, Sekihei Saitoh embraced Islam at the Kobe Mosque in a ceremony led by Maulana Fazlul Karim, leader of the Tabligh group and came to be known as Abdul Karim Saitoh.

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Islamic Activities About seven years before Prof. Saitoh embraced Islam, the Muslims of Japan who had become Muslim before or during the War gathered together and founded an organization what is now Japan Muslim Association and started work to introduce Islam to the Japanese people in an organized way. The first president of Japan Muslim Association was Brother Sadiq Imaizumi. Prof. Saitho joined the organization and vigorously devoted himself to the work. On the sudden death of Sadiq Ima umi, Haji Umar Mita was elected president of Japan Muslim Associ-ation. But as he intended to devote his whole time to the translation of the Holy Quran into Japanese, he stepped down in 1962 and in his place Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh was elected President, the post which he held until 1971. During his tenure as President of Japan Muslim Association, the organization became known throughout the world, specially the Muslim world, more than ever before. This is due to his vigorous activities as well as his ability in a few foreign languages which helped him to have better communication with Muslim brothers of other countries. In 1962, the very year when he became the President, he was invited ..by Nandatul Ulaina of Indonesia to visit that country as head of a 3- , member Japanese Muslim delegation to its congress. In the same' year; -he was delegated to become a member of Islamic Academy of Jamia Al-Azhar, Cairo. In the following year he was invited by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs of Cairo and became a guest member of the Council. In 1964, Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh performed Hajj. As President of Japan Muslim Association, Ids must important achievement was the despatch of a number of young Japanese Muslims to Muslim countries for education and training in

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Islamic life and culture, at his initiative. As a result, now we have in Japan quite a number of Islamic and Arabic scholars of Japanese origin, who studies in the Muslim countries. Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh's personal care and initiative and his wide range of acquaintances in these Muslim countries made it possible and fruitful, to a large extent. His personal acquaintances with the leaders of the Islamic organizations of Muslim countries, such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs of Egypt, Mutamar Al-Alam Al-Islami of Pakistan, Rabitat Al-Alam Al-Islami of Saudi Arabia, Nalidatul Ularna and Asia-Africa Islamic Congress of Indonesia, Islamic Call Society of Libya and many others, thus, not only produced highly qualified Islamic scholars in Japan but also enhanced good, will and friendship between the Muslims of Japan and of the Muslim countries, on the one hand, and between the peoples of those countries and Japan, on the other. And, to a great extent, it is also due to his personal friendship with them that leaders like Dr. Muhammad Natsir and Sheikh Alunad Sjaichu of Indonesia, Sheikh Towfik Oweida and Sheikh Muhammad Ai-Fahhain of Egypt, Sheikh Muhammad Saich Al-Qazzaz of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Inainullah Khan of Pakistan, and others found time to visit Japan. In 1968, he also took initiative to get Japan Muslim Association registered as a religious body, that is, to earn the recognition of the Japanese Government as religious organization. For this purpose, owning of some landed property by the Association was required by law. With the financial help mainly from the Saudi Arabian Government and also from others, a tract of land measuring about 7,585 square meters was acquired in Enzan city in , west of Tokyo, and a Muslim graveyard was established there.

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After about ten years of service as the chief executive of Japan Muslim Associ-ation, he stepped down in June 1971 when Abu Bakr Murimoto (this writer) was chosen President. During these years, there were various developments in the Muslim society ofJapan and about a dozen Islamic organizations came to being in various places of Japan. This gave rise to 1,1)e need for coordination among all these organizations so as to accelerate the Islamic activities in a rather unified way. in June 1976, when Sheikh Towfiq Oweida and Sheikh Muhammad Al-Fahharn visited Tokyo, a decision was made to organize a coordinating council of all these organizations in their presence, with Prof. Saitoh as its coordinator. This council came to be known as NIPPON ISURAMU DANTAI KYOGIKAI, as mentioned earlier. This invested him with an extremely heavy responsibility of coordinating in the activities of these organizations, and no other person than Prof. Saitoh could take that responsibility. A Typical Muslim Family True to his role as a Muslim leader of Japan, Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh's per-sonal and family life is also typically Islamic. To maintain Islamic way of life in a absolutely non•Islamic environment is not an easy task and it needs a strong will as well as devotion to one's faith: Abudul Karim Saitoli has both. His devoted wife, Mrs. Karimah Kimi &Utah, is the first Japanese Muslima to perform Hajj in 1966 with her husband. She and two daughters of the Saitohs are also earnestly putting efforts for the education of the Japanese Muslims. Prof. Saitoh has undergone some .personal tragedies. His eldest son, Sayid Ryoji, met his tragic death in Medina on 14 December 1965 when he was a stu-dent of the University of Medina in Saudi Arabia. It was due to the collapse of the 4-floor

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apartment where lie wus living. Just at that time Prof. Saitoh was visiting Medina and staying with his son but he was safe, maybe, by a of Allah. His son died instantaneously. Because of this accidental death, Sayid Ryoji was honored with the funeral ceremony of a Alujahid. Prof. Saitoh's another son, Mohamed Itikijiro, was admitted to the University of Medina in 1966, but later took transfer to the University of Cairo. He is now back to Japan and engaged in Islamic activities. Here, it needs to mention that, in Japan, when a person embraces Islam, it is not always possible for him to get all the members of his family converted to his new religion. This is because there cannot be any force or duress for conversion to a certain religion, under the Japanese Constitution. In the circumstances, Prof. Abdul Karim Saitoh's family has set a great example for others in a non-Islamic society. Alhaj Muhammad Mustapha Komura As mentioned in the description of the Osaka Mosque, its special characteristics is that it is the only mosque in japan established, managed and maintained by the Japanese Musliins The mention of this particular phenomenon may seem strange to the Muslims of other countries, who perhaps do riot know very well about the situation in Japan. It is a fact that the Kobe Mosque, the first mosque in Japan, which was established in 1935, was the outcome. of the efforts of the Muslim businessmen of Indian, Turkish and Arab origins, who were foreigners. Similarly, the Tokyo Mosque was established in 1938 by the efforts of the Turbo-Tatar Muslims, who were also foreigners, but with the financial backing from non-Muslim Japanese politicians and businessmen. As the Tokyo Mosque and, in.the same manner, the Kobe Mosque have been controlled by non-Jap..-,ese Muslims since their establishment 40 or more years ago, these mosques seem, i, a sense, to be foreign lands

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within Japan. in contrast, the Osaka Mosque was built and has been managed and maintained entirely by the Japanese Muslims. Its scope, at • present, is small but it carries a great meaning in the hiSteoy.ofisiarn in 'Japan. And we must give high credits for this distinguished service to Islam to senior Japanese Muslim, Alliaj Muhammad Mustapha Fujio Komura, whom we are going to introduce here. In the recent years, specially since the oil shock of 1973, Islam has, finally, been drawing attention of the Japanese society and the Islamic movements in the world are being closely observed by the Japanese people, During the past about 70 years since the first Muslim conversion took place in Japan, the ex-tremely- handful pioneering Japanese Muslims treaded a thorny path in literal sense, so to say. For instance, the first riaji among the Japanese Muslims, Atha. Omar Mitsutaro Yamaoka, dedicated his life to the cause of Islam. 'Yet in the last years of his life there was none to look after him and he met his lonely death at the age of 82 at a charity home for the aged people. In another instance, Brother Faruq Kashu Nagase had devoted himself to spreading Islam in the post-World War 11 Japan which was then a devastated country. Even in such unfavorable circumstances, Faruq Nagase published his Islamic organ, THE ISLAM, at his own expense for a long time. As a result, he became indebted and there was none to come in his rescue from that heavy burden of debt. Totally disappointed, he gave up the publication and propagation and has since been lost into oblivion, away from the Muslim society. Rising from the defeat in the War, Japan prospered materially during the period of high economic growth through rapid indus-trialization of the country and has come to be known as a big economic power. But Islam did not find its way open here and it was not easily accepted, rather rejected, by the tradition-minded homogeneous Japanese

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society. And conse-quently, a Mtislini like Faruq Nagase who devoted himself to the cause of Islam whole-heartedly and at his own expense was compelled to give up his work on account of unbearable distress in life. And the life of Mustaplia Kontura is no exception. After the War was ended, he came back to Japan from China where he was employed and devoted his life for spreading Islam in his native Kyoto. But the Japanese society did not accept him warm-heartedly. Even his home in Kyoto where he was born was, in the meantime, illegally occupied by someone else and he had no means to fight for his home. Thus having no home of his own, Mustapha Komura was driven from pillar to post in search of a shelter. Even under such hardships, he has continued his mission of spreading Islam in Japan with unflinching zeal and undaunted resolution. Early Life of Mustapha Komura Mustapha Komura was born in June 1912 in Kyoto, 'an ancient capital of Japan, and was given the name, Pujio. He coupleted his elementary education in 192$ in Seoul, Korea and high school education in 1931 in Kyoto. He graduat-ed from the Tenri College of Foreign Languages in 1935, majoring in Chinese, Immediately after graduation; he was ..employed at the Archives and Docu-ments Section in the Ministry of Justice and was posted in Manchuria where he stayed until 1938. During his stay in Manchuria, he came in contact with many Chinese Muslims, associated with them and visited various mosques in Manchuria, which left a deep impression of Islam on the mind of young Fujio Komura. in April 1938, lie quit his job and returned to Japan. In the same year, he embraced Islain under the guidance of Imam Ibrahim Bey, the noted Turkish Imam who was then visiting Japan, and Ahinad Ariga, one 'of the

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leading early Japanese Muslims. On conversion, Fuji° Komura was given the Muslim name, Muhammad Mustapha. In May 1938 when the Tokyo Mosque was inaugurated, Mustapha Komura was one of the few Japanese uslims who participated in the opening ceremony of the Mosque. In July 1938, Mustapha Komura went to Inner Mongolia in China where he established a Mongolian Muslim association and became its Chief Adviser. In April, the following year, tic helped establishing a Muslim junior high school, a Muslim Boy Scout and a Muslim women's association there. He sent some bright Chinese Muslim students to study at the Waseda University in Tokyo and the University in . 1n January 1941, he participated in the movement for an independent Muslim Slate of Eastern Turkestan which is now known as Sinkiang in western China. In July 1942, he established a Northwest China-Turkestan research institute in Inner Mongolia. In October, the same year, he accompanied a Mongolian Muslim delegation to Japan visiting Islamic research organizations and institutes in Tokyo, Osaka and elsewhere. In February 1944, he was drafted into the Japanese Army which was waging a war in china and was injured while in action. In May 1946, he was evacuated to Japan following the end of World War II in the previous year. Islamic Activities of Mustapha Komura in Japan Association whose President was Kentaro Omura. In April 1954, he established Japan Islamic Friendship Association in Kyoto and was elected its President, the post he has been holding ever since. in March 1960, he visited Pakistan and activities in Japan and associated himself with various Islamic organizations in this country. in September 1950, he worked as a resarcher with the Japan Islamic studied Islam and Islamic way

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of life in Lahore for nearly two years. In December Since 1947, Mustapha Komura has continuously engaged himself in Tabligh 1964, Mustapha Komura went to Mecca on invitation from the Rabitat Al-Aram Al-Islami in order to help Hap Umar Mita who was then engaged in Mecca in the translation of the Holy uran into Japanese. During his stay in e a, Mustapha Komura also performed lia . In 1972, lie started a movement to establish a mosque in Kyoto, In 1973, he visited and and established brotherly relations with the Muslims of those countries. In February 1974, he headed a Japanese Muslim delegation who visited many countries of the Q Mccjj Middle* ass. In June 1975, he was chosen as the Director incharge of Tabligh or the Islamic. Centre, Japan and helped developing TabUgh activities in many parts of Japan. In April 1976,1te again visitc,d Pakistan for the purpose of reassur-ing friendship with the Islamic organizations in that country. In December 1977, his long-cherished dream of establishing a mosque came true-with the opening of a mosque in Osaka though not in Kyoto. A special ceremony at the Osaka Mosque was held in February 1978 with the participation of people like Sheikh Abdul Aziz who Is the Imam and Khatib of Haram-al-Makki, Dr. Ahmed Totonji, Sheikh Sayyid Jandool and many others. We have mentioned earlier that Mustapha Komura established the Japan Islamic Friendship Association in Kyoto in 1954. Through this organization, he &voted his life to the Islamic mission even under great hardships. He was working and sleeping in the office-room from where he published Islamic literature and a journal and conducted Tabfigh work. Having no fixed income, he was already in financial difficulties and had to live in great distress. Fortunately, how-ever, in those doleful years, it was the selfless and sincere friendship of two other Muslims, the Tsuldyama bruu thers, who had already been

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supporting him in his work and livelihood, that saved him from breaking down. Mustapha Komura and the Tsukiyama brothers worked together at the same small office-room which was also used as their sleeping-room, as the lodging for Tabligh groups from Pakistan and elsewhere as well as reception room for other foreign Muslim visitors. Also from there, they launched their Tabligh activities together with the foreign TabUgh missions in the outlying districts and nearby cities. In all adversities, Mustapha Komura remained undaunted and continued his work. Most meritorious among his achievements so far have been the despatch of a number of young Japanese Muslin's to various Muslim countries for Islamic education, his cooper-ation with Fiaji Urnar Mita in the translation of the Holy Quran into Japanese and, the last but not the least, the establishment of the Osaka Mosque, Brother Mustapha Komura is now Secretary General of the Islamic Center-Japan.

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5. Relations with Foreign Muslims Since the inception of Japan Muslim Association as a voluntary membership organization in 1952, close contact with the foreign Muslims has never been inter-rupted. A very friendly and cordial relation has been maintained all through the growth and development of the Association, even after its recognition by the Government of Japan in 1968 as a religious legal body. Japan Muslim Association was established in 1952 as stated above, and was headed by the late Mr. Sadiq Yoshio linaizumi who became its first President. It can happily be noted that our contacts and relations with the Muslims of other Islamic countries such as Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, India, etc. have not been limited to only the Juin'a Prayers at the Masjid at Ohyama--cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, but also we have had an extremely cordial and friendly personal relations with them. It may be specially mentioned here that it was in 1935 and 1938 that the Mus-lim immigrants of Turkish descent who migrated from the Soviet Union at the beginning of 1930s constructed the two Masjids in Kobe and Tokyo respectively, in cooperation of the friendly Japanese supporters, and these faithful followers of Islam have kept the banner of Islam erect in Japan. Records show that at the time of inauguration of these two Masjids in Kobe and Tokyo a famous Imam from Yemen attended, and grand ceremonies were held on each occasion. In the autumn of 1956, a Tabligh delegation from Pakistan, led by Haji Fazlul Karim, visited Japan. This was, so to say, the first step toward the pervasion activity of Islam in its real form. in this country, This Tabligh Jam'at had its Head Office in New Delhi, India, with Maulana Yousuf as its head. A purely religious private organization, it was very actively doing

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practical propagation work in every corner of Lite woild, sp:cially in Pakistan. In Japan also, a Tabligh group was formed consisting of volunteers from the local and foreign Muslims in Japan. At their own expenses, every year they visited not only Pakistan, but also other parts of the world preaching Islam, each year making the range of their visit wider than the previous year. In 1956, a four-men TabUgh Jam at stayed in Japan for several months and made tremendous efforts for teaching Islam through practical methods by coming into direct con-tact with the Japanese people. Deep faith and sincere, attitude of these people touched the hearts of many Japanese, and brought a number of them under the banner of Islam. In 1957, Mr. Umar Ryoichi Mita was invited to visit Pakistan, and after a great handwork on practical Islamic studies, he came back to Japan. In the same year, invitations to Mr. Omar A. Hamada and Mr., Zubair Suzuki opened the way for them for study in Cairo. Egypt. Their study was sponsored by the Government of Egypt. At that time, His Excellency Mr. Yousuf, Ambassador of Egypt in Japan gave much sympathetic consideration to our efforts and was kind enough to attend many of our meetings. Thus, the relations established with Egypt and Pakistan paved the way for iliVitatiOnS to and dispatch of many students and trainees to those countries. Through the lapse of time, their number increased manifold and, gradually, the dispatch of the Japanese Muslims including students and trainees was not limited only to the countries mentioned earlier, but also to other countries such as Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, Libya, and so on. Furthermore, it is gratifying that the number of Japanese Muslims partici-pating in

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Uajj also increased. Recently, relations with Muslims of many other countries have developed at a very fast pace. Invitations to Japanese students from Turkey, , Yugoslavia, Tunisia, etc. have also been received. Among the foreign Muslim students in Japan, who have sincerely cooperated with us, mention may be made of Mr. A. R. Siddiqi of the Hitotsubashi Uni-versit►; Dr. S. M. Sainarrai of the Tokyo University, now a professor of the Riyadh University; Dr. A. A. Moinfar of the Waseda University, now Minister of Petroleum, Iran; Dr. M. Ozaci of Tokyo University, Turkey; Dr. All Rahabi of Tokyo Agricultural and Industrial University, Syria; Mr. All Shahab, Indonesia and other numerous devout Muslim brothers and sisters whose names could not be printed here on account of short space. Devotion of these people to the cause of Islam during their stay in Japan for several years will earn them the blessing's of Allah and will remain a good reminiscence in the hearts of the Japanese people for a long time. Apart from these students, other devoted Muslims such as trainees, business-men and scholars who stayed in Japan for a short time or passed through Japan, and extended their support to us both spiritually and materially include Mr. Ar-shad, an electrical *engineer, the Bawani Brothers of the Bawani Foundation, Dr. Fazlur Rahman Ansari of the World Federation of Islamic Missions and Syed Mohammad Jamil of the Holy Quran Society — all from Pakistan; late Mr. Yakub Bolat from Burma; Madame Rokeya UM from Hong Kong; Mr. Ina=Bah Khan of the World Muslim Congress; Mr. Ma ad Parker from Ian; Mr. Abdulth Mutlawa from Kuwait; Dato Ibrahim al- Saqqaff from Singapore; Haji Ibrahim Ma from Malaysia; Grand Mufti Ziyautdin ibn lshan Babakhan from Tashkent,

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USSR; Haji A. V. Careem and HO Ismail from Hong Kong; and so on. They visited our country very often, associated themselves with us and marked tre-mendous effects on our activities. It must also be mentioned that Mr. A. A. Motiwala front Pakistan, a pearl dealer in Kansai, preached Islam in Tokushima and converted several hundred Japanese to Islam. Among the Muslim schotars and Islamic leaders who visited Tokyo in recent times are - the noted personalities like Haji A. Sjaichu, President of the Inter-national Islamic Organization in Djakart; Dr. Mohammed Natsir, Chairman of the Dewan Dawah Islamia in Djakarta; Haji Salmi Suh, Chairman of the Korean Islamic Federation in Seoul; Dr. Tawfiq Oweida, Director- General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Cairo; Dr. Abdul Latif Badawy, Rector of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Dr. Ibrahim Kazem, Dean of the Faculty of Education of Al-fahar University, Dr. M. Muballuli, Secretary-General of the Islamic Center in Washington; Dr. Omar T. Sliebani, President of the ; and Mr. Mohammad All, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the U. S. A. All of them showed great interest in the Islamic activities in Japan and expressed hap-piness to have come in contact with the Japanese Muslims. A number of heads of Muslim Slates and Governments, who visited Japan, gave encouragement to us in our activities and said prayers with us at the Tokyo Mosque. They include Field Marshall Mohammed Ayub Khan, a former President of Pakistan; Muhammad Reza Pehlavi of Iran; King Zahir Shah of Afganistan; the late former President Sukarno of Indonesia; former Prime Minister Tunku Abdur Rahman of Malaysia and the Late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Their visit gave a great impetus to the Islamic solidarity and brotherhood among all the Muslims in Japan.

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We also thank those Muslim diplomats who, during their stay in this country, extended a helping hand toward our efforts, both in their official capacity as well as personally. They include Secretary Karnali and Minister Ubani of the Indonesian Embassy; Counsellor El-Gawhary of the Egyptian Embassy; Ambassa-dor K. M. Sheikh of Pakistan; Ambassador al-Saneh of Kuwait; Ambassador El-Mankour, Secretary El-Husseini, Secretary El-Kurth., Secretary EIharridy of Saudi Arabian Embassy, and so on. *Prof. Abdul Karim SaitoIt contributed this article to VOICE OF ISLAM No 2 1973. Since then many changes have occurred. Many personalities, mentioned n the article, changed their posts or jobs, retired or died. Reproduced with a little editing.

6. Muslim Students Community "Do acquire knowledge even though you have to leave your home and travel as far as China for this purpose." The above is the famous saying that inspired many Muslims in the past to make trips to foreign lands in search of new knowledges. Knowledges flowed from the original sources to the Islamic world through various means — direct learning and importing, massive translations, and so on. From the period of importing of foreign knowledges came a time when Muslim intellectuals and scientists develop-ed, refined and discovered as well as invented many new things and made the Islamic world the center of modern knowledge and technology during the Umaiyah and Abbasiali periods. That was during the time when the Europeans were in the Dark Age and were underdeveloped. Such a prosperity of the Islamic world is now a thing of the past and today the world is on the opposite side so much so that most

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of the Muslim countries are categorised as the Third World, economi-cally underdeveloped, politically immature, and technologically embryonic. After emerging from the colonial rules, many Muslim countries have dispatched scholars and students to the Western countries to learn almost everything of the West, starting from science and technology to political systems, even culture and tradi. Lion. It is now uncertain whether going for study abroad is to follow the above- mentioned saying per se or just to try to catch up with the West. Japan is not a Western country geographically. But since she has made a very good stride and startled the world by her fast development, she has become an economic giant and her science and technology are ip the forefront in most of the fields. This makes Japan a country where a good number of students from the developing countries come for training and learning and, surely, they included those who come from the Muslim countries as well as Muslim students from other non-Muslim countries. Looking back to the saying quoted above, we, the Muslim students in Japan, are possibly following it closely. We are in the country which is located at a place farther than China from Arabia and have to study the lan-guage of the country including the Kanti or the Chinese Characters and also have to live in the country which was under the influence of the Chinese civilization by the time when the saying was uttered. Certainly, the implication of the quo-ta tion is not limited to China, Chinese language and civilization, it rather means we should try our best to learn the things, even the sources of the knowledges, in a country far away from home. We have to learn the foreign language and have to face with the oddity in the unfamiliar circumstances of the non-Muslim society. To be in the foreign land and within the foreign culture, we, as Muslims, should possess a certain character and some qualities which may not be

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necessary when we are at home and within the Islamic environment. Since there are different backgrounds of religious education and training and also different levels of faith among the Muslim students, it is possible to see them behaving differently when they are exposed to the foreign culture — from those who still stand firmly on the principles of Islam to those who neglect what they had believed at home. Adaptation to the social environment in Japan takes place in many patterns, some might do too welt to the extent of sacrificing their faith and culture and some might be able to harmonize their belief with things Jap. anese. But there also might be some who are not able to manipulate in such a way, may have to live in isolation or even pack off for home. It would be a great tragedy if someone leaves his home for seeking know-ledge and technology abroad, which seems to follow the pattern encouraged in Islam but, by the time he returns home being socialized to the extent that no Islamic personality, even the faith Itself remains any longer in him, then bow could such a man be beneficial to his own country? We might see many of the returnees who cannot get along with the majority of his countrymen, who would even become antagonistic to his country's culture and tradition. Living alone outside our Islamic culture might affe,..-t our behavior, more or less, sooner or later. Of course, not all of the Japanese things, culture or tradition are against Islam or our belief. One might be astonished to see many of the Japanese behaviors and practices conform with Islamic teachings more than what the Muslims themselves have in their own Muslim states. The Japanese are voracious knowledge-seekers, humble and polite, work devotedly and diligent-ly. Are these qualities

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not preached in Islam? However, there are some behaviors and practices, for example, drinking alchoholic beverages and indulging in sexual perversions, which are not in line with the Islamic way of life. To be a good Muslim is not merely abstaining from what are prohibited by Al•Quran and Al; Hadith, but also to practice what Allah asked us to do including all Ibadats. However, it requires courage to overcome the evil- motivations that cause us to be away from our Islamic behaviors. To obey law and order and to become. a good citizen of a country is not difficult but it is not too simple that much of doing nothing at all. Islam teaches us to build a community, big or small, and live in it, whether it is an Islamic or a non-Islamic country. In a non- Muslim country like Japan it may be difficult for us to live in the same or a nearby area, but to make an occasional visit and, if possible, to organize some kinds of gathering and hold the religious ceremonies together will offer us a community atmosphere. In the big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka where there are dormitories and other facilities for students of various Japanese universities to live together, the dormitory unit or an area unit would be appropriate to organize the gatherings. In the outer prefec-tures, such activities may be conducted on the university basis, that is, each uni. versity where there is a group of Muslim students, whatever its size may be, should have a community of Muslim students. In the Kyushu University at , we have a group of only 11 Muslim students from various countries but we were able to conduct the Friday prayers every week for the last several years. We celebrated the Islamic occasions and visited one another's residences on those occasions. Moreover, we managed to have fresh Haiai meat for Muslim students who want it. In such an atmosphere, no Muslim will feel lonely or face the circumstances of isolation but will

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feel the fraternal cooperation, comfort as well as sharing the same experiences. We have a chance to meet other Muslim brothers every week for saying prayer together, discussing OUT affairs of common interests and problems which we face in our daily life. We also try to help others who need help as much as we can and we try to persuade those who are somewhat away from the Islamic way of life to bring-back to- the path of Islam. This is the general picture of our community in Fukuoka. We do not want to claim it to be a model for Muslim students of other universities in Japan since it has not been perfected yet and there are many things to be done for our com-munity and we are humbly moving forwaui for undertaking them but, more than that, we are trying to maintain what we have already achieved. At present, though it is quite satisfactory for the communication within our group, we still sincerely wish to have a broader communication with other Muslims, both stu. dents -and non- students, foreigners and Japanese, in Kyushu and out of Kyushu because we are living in the same Japanese society sharing similar experiences and also because we are all brothers. *Contributed by Dr. Abdus Salm Preeda Praperichob, a former Thai Muslim student in Japan, and published in Islamic Culture Forum No. 1 l .

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7. A Dialogue among Japanese Muslims A discussion was held in November 19 71 at the Japan Muslim Association in Tokyo to exchange ideas about Islatn in Japan. It was participated by Mr. Shinji Maefima (Proftssor at ), Mr. Haji Umar Mita (Japanese Translator of the Holy uran), Mr. Abdul Karim Saitoh (Former President of Japan Muslim Asso-ciation, Professor of Takushoku Universi-ty) Mr. Mohammed Eguchi (Director off. Al. A.), Mr. Abdul Aziz Saishu (Correspondent, Tokyo Shimbun), Mr. Mohammed Races (A Pakistani Employee of a Japanese Firm), Mr. Abu Bakr Morimoto (Presklent of Japan Muslim Association, who presided over this meeting)

Morimoto: It is said that usually the people who embrace Islam are stronger in faith than the born Muslims. Among us, the Japanese Muslims, we don't have any born Muslim. To know inure about this faith, may I request you, Gentlemen, to tell in brief what attracted you to Islam. Mita: My acquaintance with Islam started about fifty years ago. After studying Islam through books, I had practical experience of Islamic life in India, Paid-stan and Saudi Arabia. Through

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translating the Holy Quran I realized the greatness of Allah and the blessings of Islam. Saitoh: I stayed in Afghanistan from 1934 to 1946. Though Afghanistan is a country of very enthusiastic Muslims, yet even after spending 12 years there I could not understand Islam. It seems rather strange if I think now, but at that time 1 used to laugh at Afghanistan. Most probably I had. only seen the surface in those days. However, my eyes were opened to see the strength of faith when by chance I came across a Tabllgh party from Pakistan. They even prayed in the train. It was a jolt to rue and when I read the Holy Quran with those opened eyes I came to know the greatness of the Holy Quran. After reading "walasre innal insana lafi khusrin " Just in this verse I found the depth. Everytime one reads the holy Quran, one learns different aspects. I fully realized that these are not the teachings of the Arabs or other human beings but these teachings are from the Creator of all the creatures of the universe. It is almost sixteen years ago that I embraced Islam at the Kobe Mosque. But 1 did not know how to become a Muslim. First of all, I WAS given a towel and asked to wash my face, hands and feet as thoroughly as possible. Later, I came to know that it was udu. After this, I was taught a verse of the Holy Quran. Here I should say thanks to Mr. Maejitna for trans-lating the travel diary of Ibn-e-Batuta in which there is a passage where Ibn-e-Batuta breaks the ice to get water for udu. While reading this together with my late son, I was very much impressed. Offering prayers sometimes looks quite troublesome to us. Even now I do not enjoy offering prayers. One of the reasons for this can be said to be riciu. Story of Ilan-e-Batota has really become a very good lesson for me. Morimoto: In 1963, I went to the then East Pakistan now Bangladesh and stayed there for one year as technical advisor. When I was young, I attended a missionary middle school. My

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family was Christian. Though the environ-ment around me were religious but I did not know anything about Islam. In Pakistan, all the people-around me were' Muslims and I naturally came in cortact with Muslim life. At the beginning, I became interested in mosques and other Islamic historic spots and, when I visited the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, l climbed its high . At the lop of this minaret, there is enough space to seat about 10 to 20 people. It" one looks down from this place one feels dizzy and gets vertigo because of height but around this place no wire- nets or railings are provided except a small fence. In Japan, it is not possible to even think of such a thing but there nobody thinks it strange. Quite a long time has passed since its construction but nobody has worried about this. This made me think and I realized that there should be something in it. In short, I fell that it has to do with the faith in the heart of human beings. After coming back to Japan I joined Shin-Getsukai* and started to study Islam. At that time, Mr. Mita was working on the Japanese translation of the Holy Quran and when I came to know about this, I told myself that here I can give a helping hand as my profession from the very beginning had been printing. Actually, I became a Muslim by learning with Syed Muhammad. _Tamil of Pakistan and through this learning 1 came to know about life after death. I have yet to study more and I pray that Allah will show me the right path. *Lecture meeting for study on isiam Which was conducted by Mr. Makoto Kameko. Eguchi: 1 am a graduate of a Buddhist school. At the age of 28,1 entered Nichi-renis religious sect and was determined to devote my life to Buddha. After this, 1 vowed to go around the whole of Japan, and started visiting temples. At ltsukushima, 1 prayed

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that I would like to meet Buddha, but to no avail. The year before last (1969), on 14th November, 1 put my feet in Tokyo Mosque and talked to the Tabriz/I party from Pakistan. After reading books given by these people, 1 found that this is the religion for which 1 have been looking for. Whort I was a child I was taught that Islam means 'Koran' in the right hand and sword in the left hand. But after studying these books, I came to know that in this religion lies the salvation of human beings and 1 feel it my duty to preach it in Japan from now. Saishu: I have been asked many limes of the motivation of my becoming a Muslim, It is rather difficult to explain it in one word. After passing the Buddhist middle and high school, I attended a Catholic university and, so to say, I was brought up in a religious atmosphere. 1 was very much shocked, when 1 visited about ten years ago, to see the Atomic Bomb victims. I became very much doubtful about the Christiain civilization when I thought who were the people that made this horrible atomic weapon and -dropped it on human beings? The Christian President of a country, who took oath by putting his hand on the Bible approved of manufacturing this atomic weapon and ordered to drop it on the human beings. Ivloreover, when I think that even napalm bombs and poison gases are being used, I conclude that there will be no salvation of this civilization-in-crisis under Christianity. In the mean tjme, I came to know Mr. Kurdi of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tokyo and, by visiting the Tokyo Mosque with him, I came in contact with the Islamic teachings. Fortunately, 1 was able to perform Hajj at Mecca and I found that, as a new Muslim, for me this way was not the goal but the start. 1 would very much like to continue my studies of Islam. Saitoh: A few years back when I visited Vatican, I was wondering of looking at a palatial building decorated with gold

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that if Christ looks at this building upon his resurrection what will he say? The same thing can also be said of Muslims that if Mohammed SAW) looks at the present condition of the Mus- lim, will he be satisfied? Is Allah happy with our deeds? We should reflect. Macjima: After listenning to you, Gentlemen, I feel very strong at heart. From the childhood, I had interest in Islam and always wondered that on the conti-nent of Asia though Islam is a very popular religion and so many nations practice it why then being the saine Asian, the Japanese do not introduce Islam in their society. The Japanese in general do not show much interest in Islam, not to speak of Islamic literature. I personally think it will be quite beneficial for the „Japanese•to introduce Islam in their society. At the present stage though the number of Muslims is small, yet they being the pioneers, trier existence is extremely valuable. Many people have become Muslims from Buddhists and Christians and this fact has confirmed that Islam has much attraction in it. • ' liOwever, still the number of Japanese Muslims is very small and if the number does not rise to 100 200 thousand it may not be possible to introduce the Islamic culture or to have the power of a religious body. Saitoh: In my opinion, though the number is also important we should also look into the factor of-faith. Small number of Japanese Muslims with a strong faith can easily influence the masses. Races: I also think that quality rather than quantity should be taken into con-sideration. At present many Islamic countries have differences among them. selves. This is because in these Islamic states true Muslims are far less than the Muslims by names. True Muslims have decreased in number. In case of Japan we can find that most of the Japanese do not tell lies, they

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do not commit theft and they also work hard. If they only start having faith in one God then they can be very good Muslims. Mita: Islam, being the teachings brought up in a strict atmosphere, will be very much effective in its mission in the present-day Japan. It is also mentioned in the Holy Quran that Allah will be the witness for the people who work hard. The Japanese daily life Very much corresponds to the teachings of Islam and as they have advanced up to this stage economically, they can become a great people and contribute to world peace only if they accept the faith. Morimoto: Last year I visited Ceylon. At present it is said that only ten percent of the population are Muslim and that during the Portugese occupation many thousand Muslims were massacred. Still many Muslims are shedding their blood for lshun in many countries even today. I wonder how many people there will be in Japan, who will prefer death to leaving their faith. Maejima: I often go to the countryside to lecture on Islam and I feel that the sparks of interest for Islam have started growing In many religious associations. If once Islam starts spreading in Japan the speed will be quite fast. Saitoh: Islam consists of two things. Iran (faith) and Amal (action) and both are -very necessary for a good Muslim. The Japanese actions are very much Islamic but they do not have any faith. For this we should be partly blamed. Our Prophet worked hard to teach Islam but, alas, we are sleeping! Saishu: The problem remains as to how to harmonize and adjust the Japanese life to the teaching of Islam. Mita: As it is rather difficult to introduce in Japan the conditions practiced in the actual daily life in Arabia, we ourself

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have to fix that, in the beginning, we should practice upto this much and, naturally, the most appropriate Japanese life in harmony with the Islamic faith will be derived from within Itself. Maejirna: As it is the beginning period of the Japanese Muslims, a lot of diffi-culties may come in the path. We should not forget that it took a long period of 70 years for spreading 'slam from Arabia to the Western countries. Morimoto: We should not force Islam on anybody just because we want to increase the number of Muslims. These be as some Japanese Muslim families have also increased in number we shall be able to spread Islam though the pace may be slow. Iii the end, I would like to add and pray that may Allah give us a faith so strong that we don't become afraid of even death.* *Adopted from VOICE OF ISLAM NO. 2. 1973.

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8. Pilgrimage to Mecca: Experience of a Japanese Muslim As you already know, tire ilajj of 1398 ['lira11 was held in early Novemb 1978,according to traditkon.of ub.out 1400 years. It is a great pleasure and pride for us, 24 Japanese Muslims who took part in the Hajj of 1398 Hijrah though we were divided in'to more than one group. Historically, the first Japanese Muslim who performed the Hajj was Omar Mitsutaro Yainauka. According to a book written by himself, he performed the Ha jj in 1909.,. that is 71 years ago. Later, about 10 other Japanese Muslims per-formed the Hajj by the end of World War 11. immediately before and after World War 11 which ended in 1945, no Japanese made any pilgrimage to Mecca. But in 1958, Omar Ryoiclii Mita took part in the Hal and in 1960's Professor Abdul Karim &atoll and the young Japanese students who were studying in the Arab countries performed the Hai In this way, the number of the Japanese Muslims taking part in the Iiajj has gradually increased. However, the Fourth Middle East War of 1973 led the oil producing Arab countries to bring about what is called the oil shock. And in consequence, Japan expressedly inclined more toward the Arabs and the Japanese economy came to rely more and more upon the Arab oil. Therefore, an increasing interest in Islam has arisen among the Japanese people that Islam is inseparable from the relationship with the Arab and other Muslim countries. With the increase in the number of Japanese Muslims; many more Japanese Muslims began to participate in the Haij. The Islamic Center, Japan, has helped the organization of Japanese. Hai groups for the last several years as one of its Da Walt activities. In 1977, 34 Japanese Muslims path,- cipated in the Hat, and 24 in 1978. A total of about 100 Japanese Muslims have reportedly performed Pre Hajj so far.

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Speaking of myself, it was toward the .end of my manhood that 1 declared faith in Istam in 1965) and since then I was most busily engaged in my social responsibilities in Japan vis-a-vis Islam. So could not find time to take a leave of even two or three weeks which is required for the Hajj at the least. Moreover, I hesitated to perform the ilajj considering whether I am eligible for it because of its basic religious conditions imposed upon the participant. Specially, my financial circumstances do not fulfill these conditioiis. Accordingly, in spite of my long-cherished desire, I could not find an opportunity. of taking part in the Flab until 1978. However, in May 1973 when I was President of the Japan Muslim Association, HajiOmar Mita, the senior Japanese Muslim, completed the transla-tion of the meaning of the Holy Quran into Japanese after his long and arduous efforts. In order to present a copy of the translation and to express our gratitude for the great help extended by the Muslim World League which is .usually called the Rabitat Al-Alain Allstarm, three directors of the Japan Muslim Association and I went to Mecca. At that time, 1 had the• opportunity of perfuming the Umrah and to visit other places such -a Mina, Muzdalifah, and the hill of Arafat which are essential venues of the flab. In this way, I had the chance to acquaint myself with the geography of the places related with the and 1 looked forward to the opportunity of performing the Hajj some day. In 1977 I visited Indonesia where I enjoyed the festival of Eidul-Azha in Jakarta together with the Muslims there. This gave me another stimulus to per form the Hajj myself and I became quite anxious to perform it in the .following year by all means because climatic conditions will be severe year by year accord-ing to the Hijrah calendar, considering my old age. By the grace of Allah, my desire was fulfilled. The permission for

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my visit to Mecca was arranged by the Islamic Center, Japan, and I was able to join the Hajj group consisting of 13 Muslims — 9 Japanese and 4 from other nationalities. Thus, my long- cherished desire of participating in the Hajj was realized. I take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation of the encouragement and help extended by the Islamic Center, Japan, and Molvi Thaika Shun ib, a businessman of Hong Kong, who contributed a lot toward the realization of my desire. The 13-member group from Japan, including. four women, was too small to be able to move independently. Therefore, the Islamic Centre, Japan, made an arrangement to include our group in the ifajj camp organized by the University of Petroleum and Minerals situated in Dhahran, an east coast oil city of Saudi Arabia. This judicious arrangement by the Islamic Centre, Japan was highly beneficial to our group. The party organized by the UPM was composed of about 200 members includ-ing professors, students and staff of the university and their families, both from Saudi Arabia and other countries. This well-organized and well-guided party composed of the most superior elite of that country made neatly-arranged reser. vatiOnS of transports and camping for us. They also extended very kind hospitality and protection to the Japanese Hajj group they took charge of. Thanks to their. perfect arrangements like tl ua t, we were able to perform the Hajj without anxiety although, ordinarily, performance of the Hajj is accompanied by many odds and difficulties. We are very gra teful to the organizers of the camp. Now, leaving aside the significance and the regulations concerning the perfor--• mance of the fiajj, which is well-known to all Muslims, 1 would like to describe MY performance of the Hajj.

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To begin with, our Japanese Hail group of 13 members got together at the New Tokyo International Airport i t Narita at 11 A. M. on Wednesday, November 1._ As four members of our group were to arrive from the Osaka-Kobe area in the southwest and Hokkaido in the north ofJapan, the group organization ceremony was held at the airport lounge under the leadership of Professor Hisham Toshio Kuroda, a director of the Islamic Centre, Japan. After confirming what we have to observe during our journey to the liajj pilgrimage, we got on the airplane which flew on for Bahrain, the tiny island country in the Arabian Gulf. On our way, we stopped at Manila, , and Bombay for refuelling. Flying throughout Ike night, we reached the Bahrain airport at 3:45 A.M. local time of November 2. On the way, while we were .at the waiting lounge of the Manila airport, we saw about a score of Filipino Muslims, perhaps, going to perform Hajj in Mecca, and I felt that we were actually in the tide of Hajj groups from other countries. We alighted from the airplane at Bahrain and proceeded to the waiting lounge of the airport, awaiting a flight to Dhahran. Sitting in the airplane for about 17 hours from Narita to Bahrain, we were quite tired. But the thought of Bahrain being a part of the Arab world, we felt encouraged with the thought that we are now in the vicinity of Mecca-Medina.. After waiting for several hours, we availed ourselves of a Gulf Air night and we arrived at Dhahran, lying on the Gulf coast opposite to Bahrain island. Thus we safely completed the first leg of our journey. In Dhahran is situated the University of Petroleum and Minerals or UPM for short, as mentioned earlier, whose llajj party included the Japanese Hail group. We stayed in Dhahran until we got the confirmation of and actual flight to Medina. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Professor Dr. Zafar lshaq Ansari of the UPM and his colleagues and students, we were

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accommodated in the residences of the UPM professors dividing the whole group into smaller groups of two or three. This was not in our itinerary but on our apology we were told that this is what Islamic brotherhood is. We were deeply moved by this sense of Islamic brotherhood. Professor Ramadan Isozaki and I stayed at the home of Professor Dr. Adnan Niazy. A young educator of 30, Professor Niazy received his higher education at a top American university and obtained his doctorate degree in geography. Besides being a scholar, Dr. Niazy is a devout Muslim and a man of graceful disposition. We learned much from the very congenial atmosphere hovering around in his family consisting of his mot4er, his wife and three small children. At 4:30 every morning, we woke up and Dr. Niazy drove us to the mosque of the university campus and we attended the solemn Fajr prayers in the heavenly calmness of the early morning. In this way, we spent three days in his home. In the afternoon on November 5, we left Dhahran and, crossing over the of the central parts of the , we arrived at the Medina airport. As is well-known, the sacred tomb of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is in this holy city of Medina. Around Medina are the sites of the old battle-fields of Ohd where lies the grave of the brave General Hamza, Khandak, etc. and the Kubbah Mosque which is said to be the first mosque built by the Holy Prophet in Medina, and so on. Along the road from the airport, which is in the , to the city are growing forests of date palms, which tells us that Medina is a fertile city of oasis. After securing our accommodation at a school dormitory which was reserved for us, we paid a visit to the Mosque of the Holy Prophet, which stands high in a short distance from our dormitory. We made our way through the thick crowds of people to the inside of the Mosque and joined the Maghrib

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prayers which was just being held. We offered the prayers at the most coveted place for all pious Muslims. I shall never forget in my life the sound of the duet of the Azan from the of the Prophet's Mosque, the evening glow shining in golden color in the western sky and the crescent shining, clearly and quietly up in the sky. As I have recited and followed the Prophet's teachings for a long time since I became a Muslim, I was deeply moved thinking that l am just in this very place of Medina where the Prophet lived, worked, struggled, fell sick and died. Looking into the Prophet's grave through the holes in the fence-wails, my eyes were filled with tears. Behind the Prophet's grave, we can see the grave of his most trusted friend. and follower, Abu Bakr, the first Klialifali of Islam after the Prophet's death. Beside this grave lies that of Omar, the second Khaiifah. Seeing the grave of Abu Bakr, I thought of the special relationship I have with him as my Muslim name was given after his. While staying in Medina for three days, we visited the Prophet's Mosque as many times as possible for prayers together with hundreds of thousands of Mus-lims. overflowing the mosque, from around the world. Also, Medina is the place which reminded us, the Japanese Muslims, of one thing which we can never forget. This is the said death of Sayid Ryoji Saitoh, the eldest son of Professor Abdul Karim Saitolt, a senior member of the Japanese Muslim community. Sayid was studying at the Islamic University of Medina since 1962. On December 14,1965 when lie was sleeping at night in the dormito-ry, the building suddenly collapsed, causing many casualities. Sayid was crushed to death by the fallen ceiling. Coincidentally, Professor Saitolt was also sleeping in the same room while•on his visit to his son, but

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escaped death though injured. Sayid, a foreign Muslim studying , was given the honor of a Alujahid for this death in an accident and was buried in the graveyard of the Muslim celebrities called Jannaild Liagiyah near time Prophet's Mosque. It is now 15 years that this Japanese tvlusliiii youth died as a Mujahid. When in Medina, we paid a visit to his grave praying for his soul to rest in peace. However, in the graveyard surrounded by a stone wall, there are no tombstones with the dead persons' names engraved on them because Islamic tradition does not permit it. There, I saw that the gray earth lying on tile graveyard was turning red with the setting sun. We spent two days in Medina together with the flab party of the UPM. On the night of November 7, we purified ourselves and put on the Irani, the two white seamless pieces of cloth, and left Medina by plane for Jeddah so that we could be in time for the important events of the Ha. In the airplane and in the bus, all through the way we recited the Taibilyah loudly and fervently, and we felt as if we were heading toward the closest proximity of the throne of Allah: "Labbaika anahurnma labbaik, labbaika la-sharika laka labbaik, intuit hamda wanne"amaia laka oval tnulk la-sharika lak." "Oh Allah, We hear and we obey You. You truly have no partners in Your Kingdom. Verily the praise and the blessings belongs to You and so is the Kingdom. You alone are without partners." Continuing the recitation of the Talbiyah and flying for about 40 minutes in the sky over the nightly wilderness of the deserts of Hejaz, we safely arrived at the Jeddah airport in the early hours of 8111Dhulltjah. The whole UPM party moved in three separate large chartered buses which were waiting for is in front of the airport, and we set out for Mecca which is lying in the

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hills about 70 kilo-meters to the east of Jeddah.. The broad, level and metalled highway running across the deserts was jammed with the people and various transports proceeding toward Mecca. It took us several hours to get to Mecca although it usually takes less than one hour to reach there. When a row of houses of Mecca came in sight, it was already dawn. The morning sun was shining in the sky when we reached the entrance of the giant cloister of the Masjidul Harm, surrounding the Keba, the House of Allah. Separating from the others, our group of 13 from Japan entered the courtyard of the Kaba, overcrowded with the pi'grims. We made the seven rounds of the Tawaf, moving anti-clockwise, fixing our eyes on the Keba, and reciting the Talbiyah. Large crowds of people were flowing around the Kalba, similarly reciting the Talbiyah loundly and indulging in the dream-like feeling of joy of fulfilment and spiritual upliftment as Muslim, from the thought that they are now just in the vicinity of the House of Allah. After completing the seven rounds, we left the tremendous crowds of people whirling around the 'Cella, and took rest on the backyard steps of the cloister and also quenched our thirst with the holy water of the Zannam. We took rest for about an hour in an unexpectedly calm atmosphere of the great cloister surrounding the Ka'ba although the place was plisically congested. Like other Japanese, I also always carry a camera with me whenever I go on a journey. This time also I carried :; small camera and a mini-tape recorder in a small bag Fixed on my belt. However, just at the moment when I put myself in the whirlpool of people engaged in the Tawaf, the thought of the camera and the tape recorder slipped oft my mind, the idea of taking a photo of the inside of the holy place withered away. What I could do in the feverish atmosphere of the Tawaf, which

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was being heightened by degrees, was only walking steadily arid reciting the Talbiyah. I learned from this experience that alt other thoughts and acts of human being, except serving the purpose of our being there, has to be cast away. This learning served as the standard, controlling my movements, perhaps others' as well, until the whole ritual came to an end. After the first Tawaf, our group left Mecca a little after the midday and arrived in Mina around 4 P.M. We entered the camp which was erected for the UPM party of Hajis. The camp was located in a part of the gravel plain along a main street of Mina. The roof was made of hundreds of canvas pieces pitched over a number of square lumber pillars. All the sides of the camp was covered with tarpaulins, keeping two entrances. This UPM camp accommodated about one hundred people — all men. A separate tent was erected for the women and the children. In the backyard were a cooking place, two large and one small water tanks and the toilets. Thus, the minimum facilities required for a few days' living were pre-pared. Water for drinking and for other purposes was separately arranged. For ablution and washing, we drew water from the two large tanks. When we went out of the camp and stood on a highway, we saw nothing but the rows of tents which looked like hundreds of thousands of mushrooms fledg-ing Iii the desert. here and there we saw the national flags of various countries hoisted for showing the places where their people are stationing. Near our camp, we saw many flags of Turkey and Pakistan fluttering over the tents. Once in a while, we happened to see a patrol car or an ambulance passing by blowing horns or sirens. Sometimes, we saw helicopters flying overhead, perhaps, for patrolling purposes.

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According a recent issue of THE MUSLIM WORLD, the organ of the Motarnar Al-Alain Al-Ishii* published from' Pakistan, the number of Hajisin 1978 totalled 1-million 631-thousand 239 of which 8W-thousand were' from Saudi Arabia, and the remaining from other countries. By region, 479-thousand 921 pilgrims came from other countries in the Arab world, 260-thousand 066 from other Asian countries, 87-thousand 124 from Africa, 3- thousand 508 from Europe, 517 front the Americas, 71 from and Fiji Islands and 32 from other countries. From Japan, 24 Muslims participated in the Hail of 1978. I was one of them. THE MUSLIM WORLD also reported that the number of the countries from which pilgrims took part totalled 104. This clearly indicates that More than two-thirds of the 150 member-countries as of 1978) of the have believers in Islam and the Muslim communities exist in those countries. We must not forget, however, that there also exist Muslims in other countries (like many in East Europe) than the 104 mentioned above, but that they could not perform the Hajj for various reasons such as political, economic or religious restrictions. We must also keep in mind that the Ilajj, that is, the religious event of taking part in the pilgrimage to Mecca-Medina, is never a pleasure trip. It is a religious act accompanied by great hardships from the very beginning. For instance, there are elaborate preparations for the purpose, hardships of making the trips of going and returning, unappetizing meals in the camp, uncomfortable living en-vironment in the camp; inconveniences in the large crowds, difference of climate, and .so on. Therefore, the pilgrimage may not be suitable for those who are inclined to have a grievance or make a complaint about the hardships like

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those mentioned above. And because it is full of hardships, the performance of the Ha ii gives the Muslims the divine pleasure which nothing else can replace. In the course of our stay in the camp from 8th to 12th Dhulhiliah, we went to the plain of Arafat on the 9th, stayed there until the sunset and at Muzdalifah until the midnight on our way back to Mina. In the following early morning, we went to Mecca for the second Tawaf which we completed before Fair prayers. Then we said our Fafr prayers at the Masjidul !foram and then performed the So'', that is, running between the hills of Safa and Marwa and returned to the camp at Mina. After completing all of the riles of the Haji, we left Mina on the 13th of Dhulhijjah for Mecca again, where we performed the farewell Tawaf and departed for Jeddah. Meanwhile, ail through our stay at Mina we performed the Rami-e-Jamarah, a symbolic act of driving away the Satan, which is also an essential part of the Flak Three stone pillars are set up at Acba, in the western end of the valley of Mina and people threw at them seven stones each time out of the 49 stones gathered from the field of Muzdalifali, reciting: "Bismillahe allahu akbar allahu akbar, La-ilaha iliallahu allahu akbar allahu akbar era-iillahil harrid." "Allahis great, Allah is great, there is no god but Allah, Allah is great, Allah is great, All praise belongs to none but Allah." What I have mentioned so far are my own impressions and experiences in the Hat of 1978 and not an explanation of the religious significance of the Hail nor the elaboration of the rites. What surprised me greatly was that, in Mecca, where nearly two million pilgrims got together from all over the world, there were no arches, buntings or decorations to mark the occasion. And we

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saw no erection of time-tables, guide charts or placards in the streets. No fire was burnt and no gun was shot signalling the time of the rites which took place one after another and there was no loud-speaker announcement, either. This may be due to the fact that the time-table was fixed about 1400 years ago and this has been flowing down through the history of Islam and in the blood of the Muslims. Another thing which impressed me deeply was that among the countless masses of people we saw no policeman directing the people. And every Muslim restrained himself in all his behavior. Women and children were given priority in the congested places and moments. There were no quarrels or disputes or clamor for anything except for getting close to Allah, emotionally reciting the Talbiyah. Where can we find such huge masses of people behaving themselves so calmly and orderly except in this universal event of !slam? When I visited Mecca in 1973, I performed the Umrah and also paid a visit to Mina and Arafat. Five years later, in 1978 again when I visited these places found that the ekistical environment of Mecca and its surroundings has under-gone a change much greater than I expected. The streets of Mecca are modernized and tall buildings are being constructed here there. The cloisters and mosques in the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina have , been widely expanded. What attracted my attention particularly was the construction of a new superhighway linking Mecca, Mina and Arafat and of a foresr of many lighting towers In and around the field of Muzdaiifah for illuminating the area at night. This tells us how the Government of Saudi Arabia has been making great efforts to build enormous facilities for the safety and convenience of the liajis who are increasing in number year by year, and also for the development of Islam. This is one of the many great achievements of the late King Faisal who considered the pro-tection and development of Islam as his life

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mission which is also being followed by his successors in great strides. And, finally, I learned that to participate in the 1-lajj means nothing but the reconfirmation of our belief and faith in Allah.

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CHAPTER III Present Conditition of Islam in Japan

1. The Problems ... It is a fact that Japan is a hard sand for Islamic penetration through..conven. tional process of preaching. Apart from the deep-rooted local Shinto religion, there. are strong imported religions such as Buddhism and Christianity, and also some new local religions. Added to them are blind imitation of western material civilization, atheism, non-mligionism, or even anti- religionism — all of them making almost an impregnable wall against the penetration of Islam, though. inadvertently. To break this wall, it needs great patience and will to sacrifice on the part of those who want to make the presence of Islam felt. However, under all situations, we believe that this country needs the increase of its Muslim population as well as the establishment of a strong bond with our brothers abroad. The Muslim population of the whole world is said to be about 900-million. Among these Muslims, there must not be any difference of opinion so far as the basic principles of Islam is concerned. l lowever, one cannot ignore the facts of life — the geographical, social, linguistic or political differences or differences in traditions, customs or habits, because of their local cultural bases which are different. And, except for the basic tenets of Islam, there is no absolutely unified and universally accepted opinion on various problems among the Muslims of various social cultures. For example, we can cite the case of Muslim women. In the case of Muslim minorities in the predominantly non-Muslim societies like ,Japan . where .all the Muslims have to lead their life very sparsely and have little

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chance to form a compact community, it is very difficult to expect of the women living here to lead the Muslim woman's life exactly according to precepts, and their way of life, in effect, may not look Islamic in the eyes of the people having centuries- old Islamic tradition. To them, the way of life pursued by the Muslim women in the non-Islamic countries cannot simply be permitted. In case of Japan, the social environment is such that Muslim girls cannot avoid receiving school education together with boys for various tenable reasons. In adult life, they have to work in various spheres of life also with men. In other words, the Muslim women under such conditions cannot be expected to exactly imitate the life of the traditional Muslim woman. In short, in almost all spheres of life men and women have to work together, which cannot be even imagined in a traditional Islamic society. We have to give thoughts to adjustments of Muslim life to the non-Muslim environment, if we have to live there. There are many other problems such as photography, music or physical excise, to cite only a few, on which opinions vary among the Ialamic intellectuals. We have not so far received any unanimous opinion_about all these problems. On the problems of photography and Muslim women's life, the more extreme, diehard, and conservative Muslims say that those who support photography or women's presence in the mosque "must make exit from Islam with grace," On the other hand, many more liberal-minded people give different views. Also regarding the latest Islamic call movement in Japan, there has been a criticism against its approach, in a certain quarter. But the criticism is based on unfounded allegations. In, sum, when living in a situation dominated by non-Muslims, our approach of Islamic call must nut be for creating friction with the local culture, but for wining its understanding toward Islam.

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Then How to make Islam More Attractive to the Japanese People ? To answer this question, in my opinion, the following conditions need careful attention and consideration: a) In the first place, that Islam is the truest and die most perfect religion and code of life should be made understood by the Japanese people in a logical manner, in simple language and as a knowledse. For this purpose, starting from the Holy Quran with its interpretation, sufficient reading materials on Islam must be made available in and instructed through the Japanese language. Translation from the foreign language Islamic publications alone cannot create favorable interest. It is most desirable that actual experience of the Japanese Muslims as believer of Islam be given more importance while preaching to the Japanese people through their own mother tongue. Close contact should be established with the Japanese mass media including broadcasting organizations for their cooperation. More frequent, large scale public lecture meetings should be organized. b) That the Islamic faith leads the people's daily life toward happiness should be stressed in the propagation to the Japanese people. Actual examples of such life of the Muslims should be set for the purpose. Proper care to the indivi-dual's daily life, his needs, his problems should be given. Personal welfare of the individual as a Muslim will attract him more than by mere preaching. Regular follow-up activities fur his welfare rather than totems and tabooes should be emphasized to strengthen his newly embraced religious faith. c) Emphasis should also-be laid that Blain does not clash with their national goals or social values, rather helps achieving or exalting there. It means the people can lead better and happier life through Islam. Here also practical examples will be more

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effective than precepts. Efforts for the upliftment of the people's community life, their welfare, their education, their health, their prospect of employment, their cheap and healthful living, etc. will earn their stronger faith in Islam. Thus inure practical social activities should be d) The Japanese people should also be given opportunity to convince themselves regarding the world Muslim cooperation in the betterment of the Muslims and regarding the universal brotherhood of Islam. Through more practical examples they should know that the world Muslims make one family and that exchanges among them can bring forth the universal human peace and happiness. On the problems of Islam in Japan, this writer had an interesting dialogue with Indonesian brothers and sisters during a trip to their country. The dialogue gives more or less a clear picture of the present condition of Islam in Japan. Also an interview with Prof. All Hassan El-Samney sheds light on the burning questions about Islam in this country. 2. A Dialogue with Indonesian Muslims My Visit to Indonesia My long-cherished desire to visit Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, was finally realized during the eighteen days from 11 November to 28 November 1977. But this trip was neither a business trip, nor was it any kind of official trip to attend meetings as a representative of the Japanese Muslims. It wai a trip of an individual Japanese Muslim, rather a family visit, for the purpose of strength-ening close ties with our brothers and sisters of the leading Muslim country in a homely atmosphere. It was also an educational visit in broad sense. My desire was fulfilled by the warm courtesy of Brother M. Natsir Zubaidi,

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Cahirman of The Institute for Religious & Social Affairs Studies and Development (LEMBAGA —,STUDI-PENCEMBANGAN AGAWA DAN KEMASYARAKATAN) and Brother A. Musaffa Basjyr, Chief Editor of Islamic journal MUT, both of whom kindly invited us to be their guest in Indonesia. I take this opportunity to express our deepest thanks for their fraternal hospitality. In this trip, our party included myself, by wife and Mr. Ahmad Akiyania, a young Muslim cameraman of Islamic Culture Forum magazine. We did not stay in any hotel, rather were placed in the families in various cities, thus, provid-ing us an opportunity to have first-hand knowledge about the Islamic way of life in a Muslim country. Those were really happy occasions for us. The trip started on 11 November, flying direct from Tokyo to Denpasar, the main city of Bali island. We stayed there for four days and flew into Jakarta on 15 November. We offered our Eidul-Azlia prayers on 21 November at the Al- Azhar Masjid square together with a large assembly of Muslim brothers and sisters of Indonesia, men and women in the same congregation but in separate sections. This was our first Eid-ul- Azha prayers outside. Japan. Then we visited Bogor, Bandung and went to Jogyakarta in central Java. In Jogyakarta, 1 fell ill, cancelled all further schedules, returned to Jakarta and on 28 November we left Jakarta, safely reaching Tokyo or' 29 November early morning. During the trip, we were invited by various Islamic educational institutions, mosques, religious organizations, and so on, and there we gave talks, held discus-sions, exchanged views and deepened mutual friendship, All these were extremely useful to us. The whole schedule was arranged by the KIBLAT authorities. They also arranged our stay with the Muslim families in different cities. We express our deep appreciation to

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the KIBLAT authorities for arranging the visits and to our hosts for their warm hospitality. Everywhere we visited, our brothers and sisters there asked us various ques-tions regarding Islam in Japan and activities of the Muslims in this country. At the Islamic university of Bandung (UNIVERSITAS ISLAM BANDUNG), its students submitted a 16-point questionnaire to me, which can be regarded as representative of all the questions and inquiries we encountered during our sojourn in Indonesia. The same type of questions we also receive from various other people all over the world. We answered them verbally. I also answer them here item by item concisely and as precisely as possible. Question 1: What are the effects of Thai and Mow Muslim movements on the Muslims of Japan? Answer: In the later half of 1975 in Southern Thailand, the incidents involving government discrimination against Muslims and massacre of 8 Muslims by the Thai Marines on two occasions and subsequent united. protest movements by the Muslims for over 40 days, were reported in the Jap-anese mass media. Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) broadcast a 30- minute program called "Angry 45 Days" in a documentary reported by its Special -CorreSpondent, accompanied by a commentary. These news and reports were useful, no doubt, to the interested Japanese, specially the Muslims, to understand the abnormality of the situation. In the common sense of most Japanese, Thailand is a Buddhist country, 93% of its about 40 MilliCon population being Buddhist. They never knew that so many Muslims also live in Thailand. They did not know that 85% of the people of Pattani and two other adjacent districts in Southern Taltiland were Muslims of Malay stock who were different from the majority Thai Bud dhists, and these Muslims were being dis-criminated educationally and economically by

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the policies of the Bud-dhist majority governments. They did not know that against this dis-crimination the dissatisfaction of the Muslims was boiling up. Under this circumstances, the ivitislim anger exploded when the Thai military massacred those Muslims. However, the immediate dispute was settled through government acceptance of the demands of the Muslims in connection with the massacre. Yet the massacre and the protest movement against it provided a chance to us to give a close look at the pro. Wins of Muslim minorities in the world. As regards resistance movement of the Mom Muslims in the Philip-pines, the incidents occurred in Job° city and Tuluksangay village as well as at Zamboanga airport in the month of February 1974 were also reported in the Japanese mass media. The incidents which drew most. Japanese attention were those of the kidnapping of a Japanese woman tourist near Zamboanga and the seajack of a-Japanese ship by the gue-rillas. These two incidents drew strong Japanese criticism at a time when the Japanese started to think about and show interest in the problem of the Toros. Apart from various articles in the newspapers and magazines about the problem, NHK Television broadcast on 15 April 1975 a program called "Island of Rebellion—Muslims of Mindanao," which was also a report by its Special Correspondent, describing 400 years of Muslim resistance against Christian aggrandizement. This NHK program, specially, made clear the situation in which 3-million strong minority Muslims were being suppressed by the 93% Christian population of the country of nearly 30 million. Again., on 12 October 1975, Mr, Akira Ogata, head of the news commentators of NHK and Mr. Nobuhisa Izawa, its commentator on Asian problems, discussed on the TV the historical development of the Moro liberation wars against the govern-ments over centuries and described this

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background as an international problem in relation to the Middle East. Still again, on 26 May NHK broadcast in its Overseas Report program a report entitled "Phil-ipino Minorities Speak" as part of its "" series. In this report, the independence wars of Mow Liberation Front and the carrot and stick policy of the Philippines Government toward the Moms was described. In the newspapers and magazines also discussions were held among scholars and intellectuals expressing sympathy for the MOM resistance movement. But all these reports, TV programs and other media discussions were conducted by way of observations by non-Muslim Japanese. On the other hand, there was no visible reaction among the Japanese Muslims. One reason, perhaps, is that although the number of Muslims in Japan is on the increase, it is still too knoll compared with the total population of the country to express themselves out. Moreover, these Muslims are not consolidated under the banner of any single organization. As a result, they cannot ever_ think to exert their opinion in the society. In particular, there is no forceful expression of will internationally and politically in concert with overseas Muslims. Under this circumstances, it may be assumed that long years will be necessary for the Japanese Muslims to be able in some way or other to express their will or to act in connection with the problems of the Muslims of their nearest coun. tries in Asia. Question 2: How is the attitude of the Japanese Government towards Islam in Japan? Answer: I think it is difficult for the people of Muslim majority countries to understand the relations between the Japanese Government and Islam or any other religion. Apart from the indigenous religion of Shinto, there are law foreign religions such as Budd10-sni or Christianity. Quite a few new religions

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also sprang up in recent times having great many followers. From outside it is really difficult to understand which are the actual religions of Japan. Conversely, one is apt to think that there is no religion in Japan or there is no religious belief or practice, seeing from outside specially from the world MusHim' point of view. Also because there are so many religions, both traditional and new, indigenous and foreign, there are also confusions regarding faith. In other words, it is but natural for those believing in One God, like the Muslims who think that Islam is the only true religion, to think that there is no religion in Japan. The Japanese Constitution promulgated after its defeat in World War ll provided for clear separation of politics and religion. Any special relation between the Government including other governmental institu-tions and any particuair religion is forbidden by the Constitution. The same principle is applied to the national and public (municipal) educa-tional institutions, and any kind of religious leaching or preaching is not permitted at all in these Japanese schools. Accordingly, the Govern-ment has no interest in Islam which is a new religion in Japan and whose followers are also small in number, nor does it regulate or interfere in the affairs of Islam, in accordance with the principle of freedom of religious faith, and nor does it support or help any particular religion. Therefore, one is free to choose any religious faith one likes, But there is no .way to reach a high governmental position through religion and there is also no reward or prize from the State for any sort of religious achievements. Inside Japan, this situation does not pose any problem. But in rela-tion with other. countries, specially where there is a State religion, problems may arise sonic day from the Japanese

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Government's not showing interest in that religion when aspiring good relations with that country. Question 3: What are the main activities that are being undertaken by the Muslims of Japan? Answer: Islam in Japan is still in its cradle, therefore, cannot undertake any large-scale independent action all by itself. Yet the Muslims are trying their best to make their fellow Japanese to show understanding toward Islam, to provide slamic education to the newly-converted Muslims, to publish Islamic reading materials and to call upon students and other young people to study Islam. But there are not much unified action by the Muslim organizations. The individual Muslim organizations are not as effective as foreign Muslims could expect of them. 1 think Islamic activities in Japan in the future should be developed placing emphasis on international cooperation and contribution to the Islamic world through industry and technology which were developed into a national power in Japan. Question 4: How many Muslims are there in Japan now? Answer: This is a question I have always encountered both in my country from foreign Muslim visitors and in foreign countries wherever I visited, and this is a question which is guile difficult to answer with authority and correctness. The reason is that there are no official data or statistics regarding the number of Muslims in this country. As mentioned earlier, there is full freedom of religion in Japan and an individual has no obligation to publicly declare his faith in any official document. Hence no column is provided for religion in the forms of national census or residential registrations as may be found in some other countries. Similarly, an individual is not obliged to mention his or her religious identity while being admitted to school for

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education or entering a company or government office for job. Therefore, it is not possible to coiled information regarding statistics concerning Islam from the government sources. Furthermore, although there are a number of Muslim organizations in Japan, no organization has so far published its number of members. As a result, it is also not possible to ascertain whether a Muslim's name is registered with more than one organization. There are four mosques in Tokyo, Kobe and Osaka, but the attendance in prayers in these mosques does not give a clear piciure of the number of Japanese Muslims. Names of the newly-converted Muslims are registered in the membership books of the respective organizations, but usually they are not published. Moreover, follow-up activities after their embracing Islam are not con-ducted adequately. Consequently, after several years of their conversion, it is not known in many cases whether they are maintaining their Muslim identity and continuing their religious practices. Also there is no easy way to know in many other cases_ whether a Muslim remains a Muslim after marriage (mostly in case of girls) and can bring up children as Muslims. In any case, the number of Muslims in this country is very small. A few years ago it was said to be about 3,000 (three thousand). In December 1974 when Dr. Shawqi Futaki embraced Islam accompanied by some upper echelon staff members of his clinic, the number began to increase. The increase became rapid after the establishment of Japan Islamic Congress led by Dr. Shawqi Futaki. A. large number of his Clinic staff and patients embraced Islam. The only and first official document 'mentioning the number of Muslims in Japan is Annual Report of Japanese Religions which was published by the Cultural Agency in the lvlinistry of

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Education. Accord-ing to this Report (197) the number of members of Japan Islamic Congress is 25,000 (twenty-five thousand), If the numbers of members of other Muslim organizations and nun-members, which are estimated to be about 5 po (five thousand) both together, the total figure comes to around 30,000 (thirty thousand) all together. But the figure may be-come meaningless if one looks at it from the strict definition of a Muslim. Question 5: Is Islam a compulsory subject in Japanese schools? Answer: As staled earlier, religious education of any faith is prohibited in the Japanese government or municipal schools. There fore, "compulsory" religious education is beyond question. However, there is a chapter in the social studies and world history subjects in the curriculum of middle and high schools with the title of "Foundation of Islamic Empire." It describes the advent of Islam and its development through historical process. This is only for learning historical facts, there is no Islamic teaching whatsoever in the schools which are mostly state-n.m. Question 6: What are the impacts of the fast development of Islam in Japan on the Japanese Muslims? Answer: Since the adverse effects of oil crisis in the wake of the 4th Middle-East War in October 1973; most Japanese began to take strong interest in the moves of the Middle-Eastern Arab countries. Because most oil-producing countries of the Middle- East .are Muslim countries and Japan has to depend on these countries for a great part of its oil supply, many Japanese began to study Islam, the religion of these countries, and also the way of life of the Muslims there. Thus, what with oil interest and what with new in in the Muslim people, quite a number of these

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Japauese accepted Islam. Stimulated by this trend, the old Muslims also seized upon the opportunity and started vigorous activities in various ways to spread the teachings of 'slam. The situation urges one to predict that it wi/I provide a probable fuse toward the explosion of an Islamic movement from inside Japan in a future not too distant Question 7: What are the main handicaps in the way of Islamic development in Japan and how are they overcome? Answer: in broad sense, there is no visible lia»dicap in the way of development of Islam in Japan. But practically speaking, the number of Japanese KIM-lims well-versed in Arabic is extreindy small, the number of Japanese Muslims who—are well-prepared to take the role of Imam is almost nil. Moreover, it is quite difficult for ordinary Japanese Muslims, who are not born-Muslim, to adapt themselves completely to the erstwhile unfamiliar habits and customs pertaining to Islam which was orginated and, in its early period, flourished in .dry and hot regions of West Asia and . Japan, on the other hand, is a temperate and wet country surrounded by sca and was closed itself for cent cries from foreign contacts. However, I think what are looked as handicaps may beCome the advantage if !slam, which is newly introduced in Japan, is planted in its pure form and spirit, not in the attire of some local idio- syncracies of some particular Muslim countries in the name of Islam. Question 8: How is the attitude of other religionists towards the develop-ment of Islam in Japan? Answer: At present, though fast, the development of Islam in Japan is very limited in scale and proportion as compared to the vastness of the population. Therefore, other religionists are not at all concerned about. the inroad of lslatri into their traditional

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stronghold. As a result, no interference from them is expected in the foreseeable future. Broadly speaking, there is no opposition, no conflict among various religions in this country; all co-exist peacefully for the main reason that Japan is a one-race, one- State, and one-language country. In spite of religious differences, all Japanese think that they are Japanese above all. We can see. an instance of co-existence in the Grand Hall of an important religi-ous organization of Japanese Buddhists, where 5,000 people of various religions and religious groups welcomed Dr. Muhammad Al-Fahharn, former Rector of Jutnia Al-Azliar, with great ovation and listened to his lecture on Islam. Of course, we cannot deny that there also exists a group of Japanese intellectuals, politicians, scholars, or religionists who harbor prejudice against Islam, following the models of similar Christian groups of Europe and America, One can suspect that this prejudice may take a serious turn when the number of Japanese Muslims reaches to millions of some decades or so. Question 9: How are the relations of the Muslims with the followers of other religions? Answer: This question is almost the same as the preceding one and thereby needs no elaborate answer, llowever, one point may be added here that Mus-lims of Japan have not yet been able to build up a onsolidated group or community life. They live scattered all over Japan and live in harmony with other religionists. Question 10: Why wasn't Islam propagated in Japan by the people from the Middle-East? Answer: The answer is very simple. Even only a few decades ago, there were not many exchanges between Japan and the Middle-Eastern Muslim countries in all fields including culture,

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commeict.. diplomacy, and so on. As mentioned.earlier, Japan isolated itself for long centuries and there was almost no contact between this country and the Muslim countries. About one hundred years ago, after Meiji Restoration, Japan started to adopt and absorb western civilization from Europe and America for the purpose of national upliftment materially. This country had no interest in something like Islam which could not contribute to its materi-al development in the same way as the western civilization did. Moreover, historically, Japan did not fall on the maritime commercial routes of the Arab traders in the Middle Ages as did the East Indies and other islands of the Indian Ocean. Question 11: HOW is the Government attention to the Muslims? Answer: At present, there is no attention from the Japanese Government to the Muslims of Japanese origin. In fact, as stated earlier, the Government cannot show any special interest in any particular religion internally because of the secular nature of the State. However, in recent times, there have been frequent visits to Japan by Muslim heads of states and other dignitaries, either on their own accord or on invitation from the Japanese Government. The Government treat them as Muslims respect- ing the religious manners or its honored guests. No haram food or drink is served to them. In April 1977, Japanese Foreign Ministry invited an Islamic delegation from Indonesia led by Dr. Hadji Abdulrnalik Karim Arnrullah (Dr. IIAMKA). This was unprecedented because the Japanese Government had never invited any religious delegation before. Also in the same year when Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda visited Kuala Lumpur to attend, as observer_ a summit meeting of ASAIN1 lead-ers, he also visited Masjid Negara Malaysia. This was also unprecedented for no Japanese Prime Minister did this before.

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The news of this visit was not reported in the vernacular press of Japan except one English newspaper. Question 12: Are there Muslims in Japan occupying high positions in the govern-ment? Answer: I have no knowledge of any Japanese Muslim holding high position in the government. A few years ago, a member of the Japanese Parliament, having coimections with Japan Islamic Congress, became Muslim. The news of his conversion to Islam was blessed by Rabitat Al-Alan Al-Islami, Mecca.

Question 13: Why did the oil-producing countries cut back their oil exports to Japan? Answer: is true that during the 4th Middle-East War, the Arab oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia used their oil as a weapon against support-ers of Israil and, for a time, they cut back their ad supply to Japan also. But this cut back was not only against Japan, but against all those countries which they consluered to be unfriendly to the Arab cause over Palestine. But the cut-back was withdrawn afte?a short time when Japan expressed its support to the Arab cause. Question 14: Have the people of Japan started observing "nahi-rnunkar" (reli-gious prohibitions)? Answer: If "the people" means all the people of Japan. the answer is: No. We cannot expect non-Muslims to observe the Islamic prohibitions. But if "the people" means the Muslims of Japan, then I should say that all sincere Muslims are resolutely trying to observe. But one thing we should remember that a human being is not expected to give up his, say, fifty years of habits in one stroke for the sake of something which is

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absolutely new to him. 1-le needs lime to mold himself gradually. Question 15: Is the young generation interested in theology? Answer: The Japanese youngsters right from their childhood have little or no opportunity to know about religion except a few cases. As explained in earlier questions and answers, religion is not taught in the govern-ment and municipal schools (most schools in Japan are government financed, so have to abide by the government rules). However, thete are some private schools run by the religious groups, which provide religious instructions. This is most conspicuous in the schools of Chris-tian denominatiolis Otherwise, ordinary Japanese youngsters do not clearly know wint is religion and what religion they belong to The obvious reason is that while there is no opportunity of religious in-structions at school, there is no such scope at home, either. Ordinarily, the Japanese parents themselves are not interested in religious instruc-tions which they did not receive themselves in their young age. Question 16: What is the way of atiracting,the Japanese society's attentiop to Isla on? Answer: If "society" means thatof a he ordinary Japanese people, then it can be said, as already said earlier, that they are generally indifferent about good or bad of Islam at the present 'mots ent. tut in order to make Islam attractive to the ordinary Japanese, all the Muslims living within their society must be of exam plary character, on the one hand, and must love that society, make good contributions to the welfare of their nigh- burs, on the other, These are the essential conditions to draw attention of the ordinary Japanese to Islam. If the Muslims only criticize the common J•Jpanese behaviors, despise their habits

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and customs, keep aloof lionl the Japanese social milieu, then the Muslims will be thrown out themselves. In this connection, I must confess that there are some elements among the ordinary non-Mosrfni Japanese in whom strong anti- lslarnic feeling has become deep-rooted, The foilowing letter-to- the editor, published in the newspaper called Hokuriku Chunichi Shimburi on 28 October 1977 written by a 54-year government office worker, with a heading "What is Islain?," is i very eloquent expression of that feeling: "In this your of 1977 w4 ..r1 we look at the world situation, don't we see that various kinds of trouble created by the Muslim guerilla activities is the actual situation? The independence movement of the Muslims in tlie southern part of the Philippines island of Mindanao, the trouble with lsrail in the Middle-Last, giving shelter to the Japanese Red Army fugitives — all these cannot he thought of without connection with Islam. Well, then what is !slum? Once again it is necessary for the peace-loving people of the world to ponder on this question. They (the Muslims) come attacking on camel's back, holding sword in one hand and the uran in the other_ They believe in only one God, Allah, and destroy all other . !low to deal with these obstinate followers of that monotheistic religion? Ifghere were no Islam, the present world would have become U domain of perfect peace. With endless griefs and sorrows accrued from the guerilla activities of the parasitic Muslims of southern Philippines, l want to appea/ to the United Nations for counter-measures." To this crude and thoughtless tirade, Brother Aril' Moulani, an Indo-nesian student at the University in western Japan, issued a rejoinder in the same column u the same newspaper on 16 November 1977 in which he boldly and forcefully attempted at clearing misunder-standing of this kind of Japanese_ On the other hand, it is shameful on the part of the

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Japanese Muslims that no one has come forward to take action against such slander aginst Islam. However, the slarrier itself is a proof that interest in Islam, both positive and negative, is growing amongst the Japanese people who have hitherto been mostly in I think. it is good.

3. An Interview with Prof. All Hassan EI-Sarnny The following is an interview with Professor Ali Ilassan El- Sarnny who had been associated with Arabic and Islamic education as well as !Amok call movement in Japan for long fifteen years. Prof. Saintly was a professor of Arabic at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studie.s, l-ie also taught Arabic at various other educational institutions. A native of Kalb/tibia province of Egypt,. Prof. Saintly received his higher education at Eyn Shams University in Cairo and qualified himself to become a teacher of Arabic and Islamic si lie obtained his Doctorate degree froin the same university in 1972. Ile is also a Hafez-al-Quran. Before coming to Japan he taught at various educational institutions in his country. Prof. Saintly actively participated in the Islamic call movement in Japan in various ways and published several Islamic books- and paimphicts in Japanese. The Tokyo IvIuslitns miss his lilting voice or recitation from the I Ioly Quran, an inspiring Quari as he was. Forum: Prof. Sainny, I hear you are leaving Japan soon. You have stayed in this country for long fifteen years. Could you tell us your impression of the progress of Islam here as you have seen it all through these years?

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Prof. Samny: Frankly speaking, l shall express my absolutely personal opinion having no connection with others'. When l first came to Japan, I saw Islam was very little known here and its progress was very slow. At that time, only Japan Muslim Association was in existence as the organization of the Muslims. 1 began to cooperate with this organization in order to perform my duty to Allah and Islam. It is the duty of every Muslim to do that. It is not for any expectation of benefit. There was the Tokyo Mosque hi those days, people came to the Mosque voluntarily to seek advice on Islam so that they can understand something of it. We used to go to the Mosque to give them advice in addition to our usual activities at the Mosque. We fixed Sundays to meet these people who included students from universities, high schools and people from other walks of life and offerred advice to them according to their inquiries about Islam. So far as Islamic Delilah is concerned, it was a very slow step but it was all right. Some of the people became convinced about the greatness of Islam and they embraced Islam at their own will. This progress, though very slow, continued until the time when _organi-zed Islainic. Dewaii was started. At first, we thought it was good to move in an organized way. But. the results afterwards proved that it was not good. And we, preachers, were responsible for that. We made Islam a commodity for bargaining. Forum: If i understand you well, your point is that the approach of Islamic call in Japan was not in the right direction. What should be the best approach in the Japanese context? Prof. Samny: The best way to spread Islam anywhere in the world is to show the people that we are good Muslim and practice Islam what we preach. There can be no better way than this. If we take a look at the history of spreading Islam in countries like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and

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many others, we can find how people of these countries accepted Islam. They embraced Islam from the Muslim traders who were good Muslim and who went there for trade. They lied among the local people and the local people saw that the Mus- lims were faithful, they possessed very good character and they practiced what they preached. The local people wondered: What is this? The Muslims said: This is Islam and we are Muslim. Forum: So you emphasize that the character of the Muslim and his behaviors are the most important factor for the spread of Islam. Prof. Samny: Definitely, yes. The character, the behavior, the faithfulness of the Muslims in those countries surprised the native people and the number of native Muslims rapidly increased. So anywhere in the world the best way to convince people is to prove to the people that the Muslim is a good man, a roan of good character and faithfulness. Only then the people will become convinced and follow the way of the Muslim. But if we say that we are Muslim, we say "LA ILAHA ILLALLAHU MUHAMMADUR RASULULLAH" but do not practice what we say, people will not believe us. They will not accept what we say. The 11(dy Quran says that It is bad to say something which you do not practice. This is a. universal truth that the teacher is the best example for his student. Forum: Am I correct to interpret your point in this way: To make t .her people accept Islam we must prove ourselves superior to them in our faith, in our char-acter and in our behavior. Prof. Samny: Yes, you are right. Only after that anything we say to them they will accept it. And it is equally true anywhere in the world. If we say that we are Muslim but do all evil timings, then people will think: Islam is like that and we do not need it.

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Forum: I can see the point. Why should people become Muslim unless they can find something better than what they have already? WeII, what would you suggest to improve this situation in Japan from now on? Prof. Samny: 1 am sorry to repeat that we are giving in Japan a very bad impres-sion of Islam. Specially, the new generation of the Japanese people cannot believe that Islam and the Muslims are good unless and until we do not change ourselves to be good or have good Muslims who truly practice Islam and show to the people good examples. Otherwise, I cannot believe that Islam will be able to take a root in Japan. The future will be very bleak and I am sorry to say that. Forum: I was very much impressed when you said that people used to come to the Mosque to know something about Islam on their own accord. But when we started to call on them to Islam, they do not come. Prof. Samny: You are right. They do not come now. I go to the Mosque every Sunday. linan Ainan Sara and I wait there for people. But people do not turn up. In the past, sometimes as many as thirty people came together to ask ques-tions about Islam. From that you can compare between then and now and measure the progress of Islam. Now when some eminent. persons from the dollar-earning Muslim countries visit Japan and come to the Mosque for prayer, only on those occasions many people flock in the Mosque and some of them introduce that they have made so many Muslims. When the VIP's leave Japan, nobody cares to come to the Mosque. So you can find that when many people come to the Mosque on occasions nowadays, they come not for Islam amd Allah but for something else.

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Forum: You mean if a person is a good Muslim, a real Muslim, a Muslim heart and soul, he must have constant and close connection with the mosque irrespec-tive of special occasions, don't you? .Prof. Saintly: Yes, of course. it is the command of Allah that if you are Mus-lim, if you believe in Allah, you must come to the mosque to pray in order to prove that you are Muslim. The Prophet of Islam also taught us that it is Saki which makes the difference between a Muslim and a Kafir. And the place for Sala! is the mosque. Forum: In this connection, I want to ask your opinion about a problem in the Japanese context. In Japan, as you know, the whole people are extremely busy all the time and the Japanese Muslims are no exception. For instance, there is only one mosque in this very large city of Tokyo. The Muslims live or work at far away places. Quite often it is practically difficult for them to come to the Mosque for the iiitlea Prayers. What do you suggest? Prof. Sunny: It is necessary for the Muslims that they sacrifice some portions of their time. We are not to be busy in activities of this world alone, we must sacrifice a few hours to come to the mosque for the sake of our life hereafter. Those who live or work near the mosque they can easily come if they want. Here in Tokyo, there are about twenty Muslim embassies and they are riot ..are not far away from the Mosque. 'Every member of every embassy staff can come to the Mosque for the furti 'a Prayers to set examples for the Japanese Muslim brothers that they keep Islamic obligations. They can do that easily. We do not insist on the men who are very far away to come to the Mosque if it is very difficult for them to come, but it is better for them if they can, that is, if they can sacrifice a few hours for that.

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Forum: I understand your point. But for the Japanese Muslims who work for non-Japanese organizations, it may happen that if they take an un-scheduled leave from the office, say, fur two/three hours, they may run into difficulties with their authorities, which may effect their whole life. Prof, Samny: I understand your point, too, But I believe that the Japanese people iii general respect those who keep their religion. If there is a Muslim serving in such an organization, he should say to his superior: "I am a Muslim. It is obligatory for me to go to the Mosque for prayer.. I shall compensate the time thus spent on some other suitable oc4.4isions." lithe superior refuses, then the Muslim may offer two/three hours' cut from his leaves, if necessary, by de-claring that it is against his religion to be absent from the mosque in time of the Junt'a Prayers on Fridays. 11 means lie must insist that he is a Muslim and has the obligation to go to the mosque to the fion'a Prayers. I do so myself. At the beginning, l told my employers that I cannot work on Fridays. So they arranged my time accordingly. lb the Muslims cannot come to the Mosque by any means then they can compensate the loss by performing the Zuhr Prayers, and Allah will forgive them. We must try to fulfil our duties to Allah. We also hope that some sincere efforts will be made to fulfil the duties as well as to explain Islam to the Japanese people. I again lay emphasis on sincerity because it is useless to go to the mosque for prayers without a since heart. The Holy Quran emphasizes' sincerity_ Without sincerity it is hypocrisy. Islam condemns hypocrisy. Forum: Now I would like to ask you about the language problem in the Mosque in Tokyo or elsewhere in Japan. All the deliberations in the Mosque are given in languages which most Japanese Muslims do not understand. This is a handicap for the

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Japanese Muslims in their way to understand Islam. What do you suggest to overcome this problem? Prof. Samny: 1 fully recognize the problem, I personall/arn sorry that I do not speak good Japanese, therefore, I have to explain everything in English. I think it will be very useful if some Japanese brothers, well-versed in English, ask people to stay for a while after the completion of the prayers and explain to them in Japanese what was said in the Khuiba and other deliberations by the Imam and others in course of the prayers. Forum: Another point: The Egyptian Government provided opportunity to a number of young Japanese Muslims tp study Islam at the Egyptian universities. Many other young Muslim Japanese studied lslan- in some other Muslim countries as well. But after their coming baCk to Japan, generally their knowledge and experience of Islam are not properly utilized. Prof., Samny: Yes, I know and I ain sorry that their Islamic learnings remain unused. In part, it is also the responsibility of the Muslim organizations who recommended them for study in the Muslim countries to mobilize them for Islamic activities. The young Muslim Japanese studied well, they know Arabic quite proficiently, they can explain Wain very effectively, and they can afford a few hours to come to the Tokyo Mosque on Sundays at least. But nobody comes. Perhaps they do not believe in what they studied except for the practical use of the Arabic language. They can utilize their. Arabic knowledge for trans-lation work for earning money in commercial term. So they prefer money to the mosque. We Muslims must know to sacrifice some time, some money, some knowledge in the way of Allah. It is our duty to do so. Forum: I agree with you that they sould have the spirit of serving Islam. But it is also true that when they come back after

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completion of their study, they find no follow-up program for them. There is absence of facilities to utilize their Islamic knowledge and experience. In other words, they must find some work by which they can make a living as well as render service to Islam. Prof. Samny: But they do not go to work on Sundays. That is one point. An-other point is that when a delegate from the Rabitat AI-Alarm Al-Islami visited Japan, I remember I proposed to him to establish a committee including the Japanese Muslims who studied in the Iviusiini countries for the purpose of engag-ing them translation work of Islamic literature into Japanese. This would provide them with a job, a source of living, while encouraging them for render-ing service to Islam. I do not know if any action has so far been taken on the proposal. Forum: In this connection, I would like to ask your view on a very pressing thing. We need a school in Tokyo for providing education to the Muslim children of both foreign and Japanese parents. We must have such a school in this country to become a center of Islamic education for Muslim children. We need Islamic education for our children together. with modern secular education. If we have such a .school, that also can be a source of job for the young Muslim Japanese who received education in the Muslim countries in various capacities while pro-viding Islamic education to the Muslim children. Prof. Samny: Yes that can be an idea to solve partly the problem of job for there. But do you think the Japanese people will send their children to such a school? Moreover, where do you get sufficient number of Muslim children to make a school feasible? l also doubt if the foreign Muslims will like to send their children to such a school. They will rather prefer to sent their

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wards to such schools as the American School, the Christian missionary or commercial schools. Forum: I think, the, Muslims and non-Muslims alike will send their children if we do not make it a pure religious school but a part of the modern school system with special arrangement for Islamic education for Muslim children. The idea is this: Such a school must be a part of the- modern school system. Take, for instance, the Christian missionary schools. Though they preach Christianity in these schools in Japan or elsewhere, the core of their education Is the pre-paration of the children for modern life in the present world. And you know well that children going to these schools are not the foreigners or Christians alone, there are a lot of Japanese and non-Christians who send their children to these schools even at high costs because they find that the quality and standard of them are high. If we can establish such a school, of course, in stages, it will be a good choice for not only the foreign Muslims but also for the Japanese Muslims and non- Muslims alike. We need this kind of school not only in Tokyo but also in other capitals or large cities of ihe world where there is a substantial Muslim population. There can be an international chain of such schools. I believe if we can take initiative and move properly for the purpose, we can draw support from various quarters. The Muslim countries were never in a better position to finance such .a school project. Capable teachers are available from among the Muslims all over world to teach in English medium because, in my idea, it must be an English medium school to make it attractive. Prof. Samny: In order to put this idea into practice we must work out detailed plaiis and concerted move. It should be a tong-range plan but starting in a modest way considering the practicability and other factors of the situation here. But as I said earlier, even before that we must strive to correct ourselves so

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that we can become capable of undertaking, such a project. We must first prove our-selves good Muslim and we must be able to teach thoroughly what we believe. Otherwise, it will be nonsensical even to have an idea of establishing such a school. Forum: Now about a problem faced by the newly converted Japanese Muslims: For instances, a person who is, say, sixty years' old and has all through habituat-ed in a certain way of life has now become a Muslim. He enjoyed drinking alcohol during all his life. Now can we expect him to be able to give up that drinking in one stroke because he has become a Muslim? Is it possible for .him to change so suddenly? Prof. Samily: It depends on the strength of his belief and his resolution. If he in Islam, in Allah, thoroughly, it is possible for him to give up in one stroke. But if he cannot do it immediately, he must try constantly to give up gradually. But he must understand that drinking alcohol is Hamm and he is obliged to refrain from it. If he fears Allah, Allah will help him in his predica-ment. If he wants to stop Baran: at once, Allah will show the way. If he cannot do so immediately but has the sincerity to do so, Allah will definitely help him to overcome the difficulty. Once again I want to emphasize on sincerity be-cause sincerity is the essential condition for Ibadat, Forum: From my personal experience 1 have found that it is difficult for the Japanese Muslims to lead strictly the Islamic life in the predominantly non-Islamic social setting unless one has a very strong and resolute mind. I fully agree with you that it is most important 10 have the sincere belief, that is, Niyat even though we may not be able to perform our duty according to the tenets of Islam within the non-Islamic social situation. Prof, Samny: Yes, sometimes there may be some occasions that we better do nut expose our Muslim identity. But that should be

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only in. the extreme case. • Forum: True._ We must keep on sincerely believing in Allah and fix our goal. It may happen that we cannot reach the goal straightaway, we have to avoid clashes and to take a different route but to reach the same goal, It is a Japanese way of thinking which I believe dues not run counter to the Islamic way of thinking. There is another point. There may be certain differences between the Japanese way of thinking and the traditions and customs of some other Muslim countries or societies because as a society Japan has its own values and traditions, culture and customs. Prof. Sumny: Yes, I see your point. Sometimes the Japanese Muslims are forced by the circumstances not to exert themselves. But that, too, depends on the strength of the man's belief, For instance, there is a toast of drinks with alcohol when marry Japanese. get together in party and a Muslim is also among them. It may happen that you feel embarrassed not joining them, don't you? Forum: For a Japanese. Muslim it is not possible to escape such a situation in the Japanese society for fear of being ostracized though he is clear in his con scien ce so far as his belief Islam is concerned. Personally for me, I have sur-mounted the problem of drinking and the people around me accepted the fact that I am teetotaller. But it took a long time and endurance before they accepted the fact. Prof. Samnr So we need such strong character when we are among the non-Muslims who also show understanding toward our way of thinking. 1 tell you of one such instance. I recently attended a party at the residence of a friend. When they brought alcoholic beverage in front of me, the friend said: "No. Don't put that drink before him. Ile doesn't drink alcohol." The guest sitting beside me asked: "Why don't you drink?" I said:

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"Because l am Muslim, My religion forbids alcoholic drinks for the Muslim," He then asked: "Why does Islam forbid alcoholic drinking?" I replied: "Because a Muslim has to keep his body and mind, conscience and brain clean so that he can behave properly for he is always responsible for his behavior to Allah. If he drinks alcohol, it damages his personality, he loses the elegance of his be When 1 explained this, they admired my belief. Rather they themselves apologized for offering me the drink and w;litec.1 to stop Liiiking on that occasion because I was the guest of honor there. But I said: "No. You don't need to stop drinking for my sake. It is not prohibited for you. So please go ahead. In this way, I was free to choose my way and they were free to choose theirs. Allah said: "If you fear Allah, Allah will find you the way to safety and to be in a good position." We must obey Allah's commands and show the character of a Muslim. Forum: You are right. But what was easy for you as a foreigner, may not be that easy for a Japanese Muslim. Anyway, we have taken a long time of you. Thank you very much for giving your valuable time and views.

4. Mass Media in Japan and Islam ISLAM IN THE BROADCAST IN JAPAN Characteristics of broadcasting under the Japanese constitution On 15 August 1945, Japan • faced a great change unprecedented in its history in the wake of its defeat in World War II. In fact, it was a rebirth of Japan, and the country made a fresh start as a completely democratic state. In 1947, a new constitu-don came into force. Article 14 of this new constitution says: 'All the people are equal under the Law and there shall be

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no discrimination, whatsoever, among the people politically, economically or In social relations because of race, religion, sex, social status or family titles." Under this constitution, the Japanese are absolutely free in matters of religion, As long as one does not create confusion in the social order, one is completely free to believe in any god or to belong to any religious sect, arid no persecution is per-mitted against belonging to a particular faith. But, on the other hand, the State does not belong to any particular religion, nor does it support any religion or propa-gate one, however superior a religion may be. Under the provisions of a 1950 Law,, there are two types of broadcasting orga-nizat ions: one is NHL or NIPPON HOSO KYOKAI (Japan Broadcasting Corpora. lion) which is a public body, and the other is private commercial broadcasting enterprises. MIK being a public organiza-tion, its base of broadcasting is controlled according to the spirit of the constitution and, there fore, any broadcast supporting or propagating a particular religion is not permitted. But taking up religion as a theme of learning or as a cultural pheno-menon is recognized. Accordingly, at NHL, recitation from the Holy Quran as is found in the Muslim countries or reading of Sutras found in some Buddhist countries is strictly prohibited. In the case of the private broadcasting companies also there is no place for propagation of any religion on. the part of the organi-zation itself, However, religious broad-casts on a commercial basis sponsored by religious organizations are, sometimes, on the air. An outline of broadcasting in Japan Broadcasting in Japan started in 1925 with only the radio broadcasting, As early as l 932, the number of listeners contract exceeded one million households. in 1940, the number was well over five million households, in 1950, under a law derived from

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the new constitution, Japan Broad-casting Corporation (NHK) was establish-ed and provisions were also made for the opening of privately managed broadcast-ing organizations under the same law. Ac-cordingly, in 1953, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) came into being. Mean-while, television also made its debut in Japan and, in 1955, TV listeners cont-ract surpassed the level of one hundred. thousand households. in 1956, colour television broadcasting was started on ex-perimental basis and, in 1960,. actual colour television broadcasting was started in the cities of Tokyo and Osaka, In 1962, the number of colour television receiving households exceeded ten million and, in 1967, the number was over twenty million households. In this way, according to a figure of 30 June 1974; the number of households receiving the NH IC broadcasts amounted to: 6,283,000 in black-and-white televi-sion and 18,867,000 in colour, totalling 25,150,000. There are 88 private broadcasting sta-stations all over Japan, among which five are in Tokyo. Various exclusive private channels taken together, the figure be-comes really great. Until the end of June 1974, the number of households in Japan was 28,093,000 and among them the rate of using colour television is 66.4% and that of colour and black-and-white TV taken together is .89,1%. By the way, the present total population of Japan is 109,574,000. Islam as in the broadcasting programme in Japan From the conditions stated before, it is obvious that there is no instances of Islam being broadcast with the objective of propagating that religion. But with the opening of negotiations with various Is-lamic countries, today news and other information relating to Islam are being broadcast from various angles. Also, with-in the school education .in Japan, 'slam is

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included in the history curriculum. Th-rough the Educational TV of NHK, too, Islam is being broadcast as a subject of the university and high school level correspondence courses. Furthermore, in the news of the several Middle-East Wars or in the documentary broadcasts, their relation with Islam or the Arab countries could, by no means, be ignored, This became particularly ap-parent after Japan which received the biggest shock through the worldwide oil crisis as a result of the suddenly broken out Fourth Middle East War, Beginning with the political and economic circles, the whole Japanese nation began to take great interest in the oil producing Arab countries, thereby in Islam which consti-tutes the very foundation of these Arab and other Middle Eastern countries. Start-ing from this period, reports from the Arab and other Islamic countries and the living conditions there have been frequent. ly broadcast through various TV pro-grammes. On the night of 31 December 1973, the eve of the New Year, which is of deep significance to the Japanese people, NHK Educational TV broadcast a long programme on the actual situation of the Hajj performance at Mecca. This broadcast was a lofty present to those Japanese people who have interest in Islam From among these programmes per-taining to Islam, this writer took a num-ber of photographs of the more remark-able TV broadcasts which were on the air from 1968 and recorded their voices in the tape-recorder and has preserved them. Some of the photographs are put below in chronological order for reference. It may be mentioned that a great many programmes could not be recorded be-cause they were so many.

In the first issue of the ICF, we published an article reporting the broad• casts in Japan, specially on TV, relating to Islam,

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,,,Although we like to report many more such broadcasts, there was not much substance in the later part of last year However, there was a two-hour long documentary broadcast from the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) TV on 2 December, covering the Arab World. In fact, this was the longest ever documentary broadcasting of this kind, which was on the air in a Tingle programme on the Arab World, The title means, in English, "Traversing the land of burning sands — a profile of the present-day Arab people," This documentary was produced by the Kajima Productions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Kajima Constructions Co. Ltd., which is a foremost Japanese construction firm headed by the well- known builder-scholar-legislator, Dr, Moririosuke•Kajima. Bessed with full cooperation from the Ministries of Information of Saudi Arabia and Egypt and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the filming team consisting of Takao Sun akawa (Directoi), Morihisa Iwasaki (Producer), Hussein Yoshio Hira- a'shima (Cameraman), Takashi Kawai and Tetsuro Tokunaga (Staff) made the film late last year covering a period from 10 August to 21 October. For their course of visit, apart from the too well-knowri places, their journey also included the remains of the old caverns in the Arabian desert, the ARAMCO oilfields, the border with Yemen, an interview with a Saudi prince, a view of the parade of the royal guards of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian Air Force manoeuvre, marks of war devasta-tions in the neighborhood of the Suez Canal, Palestinean Refugee camps, the Golan Heights, and so on. Hussein Hira-shima took the photography of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He was the only Muslim in the team.

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Specially, the &overage of King Faisal's giving audience to his subjects the palace, the manoeuvre of the Saudi Arabian Air Force, the victory parade in Egypt, etc., are no doubt the evidence of special cooperation that has ever been extended to a foreign TV reporting learn, Again, for the first time, the Ti coverage of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina was possible so intensively. This was because of Hussain Hirashima's being in the specially good books of King _Faisal. And also, it was for the first time in history that a TV camera entered the holy premises of the Prophet (SAS)'s tomb at Medina. The broadcasting time of this docu-mentary was 9:00 — 11:00 P.M.. the golden time for TV viewing, The length of the film and its broadcasting time provides some indication as to how deep has become the interest of the Japanese people in the Arab World after the oil shock following the Middle•East War of 1973. This interest is also evident from the detailed review of the film published in the leading Japanese newspapers and from the demand of the people — both individuals and organizations -including the Japanese Foreign Ministry — for a second broadcast of the documentary. It is a happy augury that the Japanese people of various walks have started to take Interest In the Arab World. It is hoped that 'this interest for knowing the Arab World will not end up in mere superficiality or dilute in the "oil", and that it will lead them to a deeper inquiry as well as understanding also of Islam. In the last two issues of ISLAMIC CULTURE FORUM, we published in-formation about various aspects of life in the Muslim World as broadcast from the Japanese televisions. Among all the broadcasts that have ever been on the air in this country, the most heart-rending one was that of the death of His Late Majesty King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and the related documentaries Including his Iasi journey which was broadcast

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live through earth satellite from Riyadh. Through these broadcasts, the people of Japan not only had a glimpse of the royalty of `a Muslim country, they also had a chance to see a real picture of Islam. Earlier, on Saturday 1 February at 11:30 P.M., TB S television company broadcast again the documentary on the Arab World entitled "Traversing the Land of the Burning Sun: A Profile of the Present-Day Arab People" which was first broadcast on 2 December last year This was because its viewers asked for its repetition. The documentary was coin. mended by the Board of Critics for TV & Radio in Japan and on 25 May the team members of the Kajima Productions who covered this programme were award.. ed letters of commendation by the Board. On Tuesday 15 April at 7:30-8:00 P.M., NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corpora-tion) broadcast a TV programme on the Muslims in Mindanao. The actual title of the programme was "The Rebel Island" which depicts the life of the Muslim minority In a Catholic majority country, that is, the Philippines, and their Islamic consciousness. The programme was pro-duced by the Asia Division of the NHl . covered by its Japanese cameramen. The NUK carrieramen visited various parts of Mindanao Islands including Zamboanga, Taluksangay grillage, and Ayala farming area and Join island where they witnessed actual situation. The coverage gives an unbiased picture of the situation and from that point of view it carries special values. (See the photo picture: By cour-tesy of the foreign. News Division of NM.) Among other TV programmes, NET television broadcast a documentary en-titled "Land of Burning Sands: Kuwait" in one of its feature programmes.

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(1) Radio Japan In the last three issues of ICF we tried to give our readers some information about the television broadcasts concern. ing various aspects of Islam and the Mus-lim world. Today we shall try to shed some lights on the radio broadcasts on the same subject. While the former's object is to cater to the Japanese viewers, the latter's object is the overseas listeners of the radio broadcasts from Japan. When we deal with the overseas radio broadcasts from Japan, the only name that comes to our mind is Radio Japan, the overseas radio brciadcasting service of Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). Radio Japan started its service in 1935 with a view to promoting international goodwill and understanding. Its finance is borne partly by the Japanese Govern-ment and partly by its parent organiza-tion, the NHK. Radio Japan has continued its service all along since its inception except for a brief intervention during World War II. Now it broadcasts a total of 37 hours of daily programmes in 21 languages of the world through its General and Regional services. Its programmes include news-casts, commentaries, informa tion, intro-ducing Japanese culture including ,Japa-nese language, social and economic con-ditions of Japan as well as music and entertainments of varieties from different cultures of the world. Now let us see to its broadcasts beam-ed at the Muslim world. But one thing we must not forget is that it does not broadcast a programme of any particular religious nature or for religious purpose. As an autonomous organization it cannot do so according to the Japanese constitu-tion which forbids any religious pro-gramme of propaganda nature by the State or a

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Stale-controlled body. But Radio Japan broadcasts programmes in languages including those which most M uslims use. Among those languages are Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, Malay, Swahili and Urdu. In Radio Japan. these languages are covered by its three regional services: 1) Southeast Asian Service, 2) South Asian & African Service, and 3) Middle-east & North African Service. Their time, frequencies, rneierbands and contents of programmes are shown in the following charts languagewise (April 1975 — March 1976): Radio Japan receives hundreds of letters from its overseas listeners_ The largest number comes from Indonesia, about 800 a month on an average, fol-lowed by Bengali listeners, about 600. From Southwest Asia, the Middleeastern and African countries the number is much less, countrywise. lt also sponsors an essay contesi among its overseas listeners every year. The top contestants are awarded a free return ticket to visit Japan and their tour expenses in Jap4n are also borne by Radio Japan. This year a Kuwaiti radio journalist has been selected a top con-testant. He recently completed his visit to Japan including the Ocean Exposition at Okinawa. Broadcasting of the recitation from the Holy Quran cannot be expected of Radio Japan because of the reason stated earlier. But various programmes on special religious occasions such as Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azlia, and the like are broadcast as col rural programmes. There were also special features inclUding recitation from the Holy Quran on the death of King Faisal. When dignitaries from Islamic countries visit Japan, many of them are invited to Radio Japan and their inter-views are broadcast on sui I able occasions, Music from various Muslim countries also find places in the programme schedule.

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In sum, Radio Japan is playing significant role in promoting goodwill and understanding between Japan and the Muslim world.

(2) Music of the Muslim Countries in the NHK FM Radio Broadcasts While describing Radio Japan, we said about its overseas services beamed at the foreign countries. Here we want to deal with the national FM radio service of the NHK which introduces foreign culture to the Japanese people over radio programmes. In this respect, our main topic is the music from the Muslim countries, which are broadcast by the NHK FM radio service. This music programme was first start-ed in April 1965 with the theme of "Folk Music of the World". The pro-gramme is broadcast every Tuesday from 10:20 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. conducted by Prof. Fumio Koizumi of Tokyo Gel-ju tsu Daigaku (Tokyo Uniyersity of Arts). Prof. Koizurni travelled to various countries of the world and collected the masterpieces of music of those countries. Those masterpieces are broadcast in this programme. He specially took note of the countries of Asia and Africa which had hitherto been ignored by the Japan-ese music world. Prof. Koizurni studied not only the music of the Muslim coun-tries but also the cultural aspects of Islam and has a deep understanding of it. Based on this understanding he is making efforts to prorriote goodwill and friend-ship between the Japanese people and others through this programme prepared by the NHIC FM radio service. Recently, the FM service broadcast a special programme. called "Islamic Mu-sic" in two installments. In this pro-gramme, along with various kinds of masterpiece music from many Muslim

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countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Mo-rocco, Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, In-donesia, etc., recitation from the Holy QBran including Sura Al-Fatiha as. well as Azan and other aspects of Islamic culture were also broadcast accompanied by necessary commentaries.

5- THE PROBLEM OF MUSLIM BURIAL IN JAPAN Abu Bakr Morimoto Japan has had its local religion, State Shinto, since olden times. Later, in the course of history, foreign religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity also spread throughout Japan. Advent of Islam in this country took place very late and it could not show any remarkable growth or activities in the past. It is only meist recently that Islam has suddenly come into limelight, special-ly, since the socalled oil crisis of 1973. The reason for this sudden growth is that Islam is the religion of the people of Arab and other Middle East countries which produce most of the crude oil, the basic energy for the high economic growth of Japan and that the Japanese people needed to take interest in the religion of the people of these countries. Moreover, because of Islam's links with many inter-national situations, the term "Islam" has come to appear almost daily in the Japanese mass communication media. Besides,_also as a subject of knowledge, research on Islam has made remarkable progress in this country. For instance, NM( (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) broadcast on its nationwide TV programs a lecture series entitled "The World of Islam" in 25 installments from October 1981 to April 1982. Another instance is the introduction, belatedly though, of a course on

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Islam at the University of Tokyo, a premier national university of Japan. From these events we can see a Japanese national approach toward Islam. Apart from this, we can also find that among the private organizations, Heibonsha, a top publishing company of Japan, has very recently published a book entitled "A Dictionary of Islam" in the Japanese language as a result of four years of painstaking research by nearly 100 Japanese scholars of Islam and this fact proves that the Japanese intelligentsia is now feeling the need of acquiring authoritative and basic knowledge concerning Islam. Moreover, side by side with this scholastic study of Islam) it is also true that the number of the Japanese accepting Islam as their faith has been fast increasing and in about the past ten years or so the number is said to have swelled from a few thousand to tens of thousand although the exact figure is unknown. In spite of the increase in the number of Muslims, as mentioned above, there are only two mosques in Japan, both of which were built nearly 50 years ago, one in Kobe and the other in Tokyo. Besides, there is also one small prayer room in a corner of a building owned by an Islamic organization. It means that even though the Japanese Muslim population is on the increase, these Muslims have neither the zeal nor the financial resources to build their own mosques through unifed efforts, that they are Muslim only 1.!-, name and that the tenets of Islam and the performances of duties emanated atom these tenets have not penetrated into their daily life. Also we must not overlook the fact that the Japanese society itself tends to deliberately avoiding all religious connections. Specially, we may mention that Article 20 of the present Japanese Constitution while

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recognizes the freedom of faith, it also stipulates that the State or any public organ must not nurture any special links with any particular religion, propagate it or perform its rites. Imparting of education in favor of any par-ticular religion is strictly prohibited in the government and public educational institutions. Under these circumstances, we must say that it is extremely difficult for the Japanese Muslims to practice, as it is, may of the life-styles evolved and practiced in the Muslim countries. On the other hand, many foreign Muslims are critical of this situation, at times, they call the Japanese Muslims as "Muslim in name only", and generally do not take them into confidence or show understanding toward them. But we must recognize that there is basic difference between the circumstances of the Muslims who, through more than a thousand years, have been born and brought up from childhood under Islamic environment and educa-tion both at home and at school, and those of the Japanese Muslims who have been born and brought up in an absolutely different religious and social environ-ment where, although they have embraced Islam, they have no special Islamic education or guidance. While we must see both of them putting on the same level, we must also acknowledge the great responsibilities on the part of those who have neglected that education or guidance. Yet we cannot ignore the reality that the Japanese Muslims have to live and earn their bread within this absolutely different social milieu. Two most typical examples of this situation we can see in the doleful disputes that arose during the funeral services of two senior Muslim Japanese who died in the months of January and March, respectively, just this year (1982). On 28 January, an aged _Muslim of the ancient capital city of , Abdul Ahmad Ohnishi by name, met his sudden death in a

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violent motorcycle mishap. He was born in Nara in 1910 and was 71 years old at the time of death. Soon after graduating from the Nara Commercial School at the age of 18, he went to Indonesia and was engaged in trade. When he was 23, he embraced Islam and got the Muslim name of Abdul Ahmad. While living within the Indonesian society, he also devoted himself to the religious study of Islam. During World War II, he was made to cooperate with the Muslim policies of the then Japanese Military authorities. About the time of Japanese defeat in the War, he joined the Indo-nesian liberation forces and fought against the Allied Powers. When the War came to an end, he was arrested together with the Indonesian freedom fighters including the late President Sukarno, and put in prison. Fortunately, he escaped a death sentence. Then,-two years later Abdul Ahmad Ohnishi returned to Japan, got married and lived in Nara for about 35 years as the only Muslim of that city. He had two sons. The older, Abdur Rashid Ohnishi also, like his father, went to Indonesia after graduating from a university in Tokyo. In Indonesia, since his completion of study at Bandung University, Abdur Rashid has been holding the public office of Vice Consul at the Japanese Consulate in Surabaya, when he was immediately informed of his father's death by his mother over international telephone, he asked that Islamic_ burial must be given to his father by all means because it is obligatory on the part of a uslim. But his mother got perplexed as the did not have any idea of Islamic funeral for her husband will) was. the only Muslim in the whole city. In .lapari, there is only one Islamic cemetery which is situated in Enzan city in Yarnanashi prefecture and which is supervised by Japan Musliin Association, a religious legal body in Tokyo_ But to carry the dead body from Nara to Err n, the transportation cost alone was said to require an amount of three million yen. Moreover} .it was also found impossible for the mother to expect of other

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members of the family, their relatives, friends and acquaintances to go as far as Enzan to attend the funeral services. Therefore, there was no other way for the mother of Abdur Rashid but take the decision of holding the services by a priest of the Buddhist temple in accordance with the traditional practices of funeral in this ancient city, Nara_ But before the decision, there were long heated arguments between the mother in Nara and the son in Surabaya. And finally when Abdur Rashid arrived in Nara four days later, all arrangements for the funeral of his father were completed. All the troubles of the son's request for an Islamic buria1 for his father failed to draw the sym-pathy of even one person, His request was totally rejected and the body was put QT1 the funeral pyre as required by the regulations of the prefecture_ With all the sadness of his heart throughout the funeral rites for his Muslim father by a Buddhist priest, Abdur Rashid could only lament turning his back to the scene and then left Nara for his place of work in the distant city of Surabaya giving up all hopes. About only one month after the death of Abdul AhmaclOhnishi, another aged Muslim Japanese., Taller Suzuki, who was living in Kodaira city in the suburb of Metropolitan Tokyo, suddenly died of caidiac infaraion on 15 March this year. He was born in 1905 and was 77 years old when he died. Even at his old age, he regularly commuted to the Tokyo Mosque to attend the. Friday prayers at-Jun-1'a, travelling a long distance from his home in Kodaira to the Tokyo NI osqut , Besides, he also performed Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, Thus, we can find that he was a typical Japanese elder Muslim. He, too, had two sons. Ahmad Suzuki, after graduation from a university in Tokyo, went to Al- Azhar University in Cairo to study Islam and upon completion of study there, he worked for a time at the Japanese Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Now he is posted at the Jordanian capital of

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Amman as a senior representative of a large. Japanese trading house, the Sumitomo Corporation. The news of his father's death was immediately transmitted to hirrE in A an. Two days afterward , Ahmad arrived in Tokyo. Meanwhile, all arrange- ments were completed for the funeral of his father by the relatives and in this case, too, Taller Suzuki's dead body was cremated in accordance with the Japa-nese law and practice in spite of Ahmad's wish for an Islamic burial for his father. A few days later, following the Junfa prayers at the Tokyo Mosque, when the bream; of the Mosque read his memorial prayers for the departed soul of Taher Suzuki, his son Ahmad could not control his tears rolling down from his eyes. On seeing his tears, the anger of other Muslims around him began to swirl at the injustice perpetrated on a Japanese Muslim in Japan forcing him to accept un-Islamic funeral for his father. Now what do the two very closely resembling cases, mentioned above, mean? They mean the reality that even devoted Muslims for two generations of father and son, which is an extremely uncommon, rare case among the Japanese Muslims, cannot practice their funerals in accordance with the stipulation of Islam The social environment that does not permit Islamic funeral for the Muslim, even more, the powerlessness of the Japanese Muslims, that of their organizations and their groups, who cannot prevent that social environment from taking such action, must be strongly questioned. In such a situation, there can be no prospects of joy, hope or sense of security for the Japanese Muslims. In a word, there is no answer even if the Japanese Muslims are criticized as "Muslim in name only". In the book "A Dictionary of Islam", the first of its kind in Japan published as recently as April 1982, the paragraph on funeral customs (p.239) clearly says: "But there is the

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remonstrance that in Islam cremation of dead body is not per- mitted under any circumstances." In future, if Islam is to spread all aver Japan increasing the number of Muslims far and wide in this country, then, first of all, the Japanese Muslim must at least have a secure and favorable environment both for their present life in this world and for their life after death here. Specially, concerning funeral services for Muslims, establishment of an Islamic cemetery in various places in Japan and preparation' -or burial of Muslims without delay are an absolute requisite. Islam is said to have about one billion faithfuls in the world today, but it should not be let to end up in a mere conceptual or abstract religion to us. We must declare that closing our eyes to the fact that Islam is practical religion based on the actual life of mankind, how much study we conduct about Islam or how much we claim that we have understood this religion, all those study and claim will just end up in a mask without substance. May 8, 1982

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CHAPTER IV

Future Outlook for Islam in Japan

In order for the spread and advancement of Islam in Japan, it needs to meet a few conditions and overcome a few hurdles. For that purpose, one must know and understand the intrinsic nature, realities of life and history of the country and its people. Japan is• now an economic power of the world, has a conservative democratic political system; and the Japanese are a highly educated and peace-loving nation. Freedom of thought and belief is guaranteed by the Constitution and almost all the religions of the world co-exist here. Any individual who appears not to belong to any religion has at the bottom of his physical being stored the religious feelings originated from the Japanese national traditions. Various religions which have been introduced in this country from the west and across the seas became melted once they landed in this country and had fusion among themselves; the impure and unnecessary things were thrown out. There are no prospects for unifying this country by a single religion. Islam will definitely penetrate into and spread over this country treading a long period of time. But, strictly speaking, it must depend on the efforts of the Japanese themselves and in the Japanese way, otherwise, there will be no effect; everything will end in failure. Spread of Islam in Japan means: it must either convert the Shintoists, the Buddhists, the Christians, the Polytheists, the Atheists and others into Islam or it must make a fusion of itself with them. - There is no other way. With the lack of knowledge

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to draw a hasty conclusion that Japan is a country of religious vacuum, spread of Islam in Japan is unthinkable. It goes without saying that since the Japanese are highly calculative and measure things by a profit standard, they do not accept any spiritualistic or idealistic pursuasion. In their national character, principles like life in the world hereafter or eschatology is absent in their thinking. Since they believe that the present reality, the existing life in the present world is the human life, so they are not ready to accept a philosophical thought or a religion which do not contribute to their present life. The Japanese people are always watching the Muslim world within the frame-work of the world. situation. They will accept Islam even without any pursuasion if they can see that there are gains for them in doing so. The more natural and right path should be that the world of Islam, the Muslim countries themselves and the people who believe in the religion of Islam, that is, the Muslims themselves must be at a high standard of things which will always be enviable, aspired after and respectable in the eyes of the Japanese people, morally from the spiritual point of view and economically from the material point of view.. The traditional habits and cusioms that we can see in the Muslim coun+ tries, for instance, the kujiyah or the abayah, means nothing or has no charm for the Islamization of Japan. There is uo doubt that Japan will certainly accept Islam in future and it can be evident from myself accepting Islam in spite of so many hurdles that are ex-isting in the Japanese society in its way . And if Islam remains a religion of Peace and Japan remains a nation seeking Peace, the world will enter into a shining epoch of history when the Japanese people accept Islam. The Holy Quran Says:

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"invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them iii ways that are best and most gracious." XVI: 125 The Bee In order to make Islam more popular and better understood, some concrete works are necessary mainly at the cultural level so as to make our Da'wail work more acceptable to the Japanese public. For that purpose, a permanent Islamic mission should be established in Tokyo, at the beginning, with a consideration to the following brief suggestions: 1 ..A small but full-fledged office is necessary. The office should have a Japanese director and at least two Japanese assistants as well as 2/3 foreign staff. 2. The office premises should also include a small meeting room which- can also be used as library and prayer room at the initial stage. 3. The office should be near the center of the city as far as practicable, consider-ing the transportational situations. 4. At the bOginning, emphasis should be given on the cultural aspects of Islam rather than abrupt preaching in order to prepare the ground for Dalwah. 5. The mission should try at first to publish easy materials on Islam so that ordinary Japanese can understand them without difficulty. 6. Emphasis should also be given on contact with the Japanese intellectuals such as teachers, artists, writers, journalists, etc. so as to elicit their interest about the truth of Islam.

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7. Consideration should also be given to the establishment of welfare facilities like a hospital to attract people closer to Islam. (This can be promoted as a world-wide system.) 8. A modern school system with fslamii bias will have far- reaching effects. Establish lent of such a school system should be promoted in Tokyo. This also can be promoted as a world- wide system.)

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