Lost Identity, by Ken Joseph

Chapter 1 The Encounter That Brought Me Back To My Roots What Togasaki Kikumatsu taught me At the end of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur made an appeal to the American people for 10,000 volunteers to come to Japan and help with its rebuilding. My father was one of those who heeded the call, and came to Japan right after his 22nd birthday. While on the ship going over, he was seated across from an elderly gentleman at the dinner table. Togasaki Kikumatsu was the owner of the "Japan Times" English newspaper, and he had an air of aristocracy about him. Speaking to my father, he asked, "Why are you going to Japan?" "Oh, I'm responding to the appeal of MacArthur and I'm going to help Japan rebuild. I'm a pastor and I'm going to tell them about Jesus." "Really? That's impressive. By the way, where are you from?" "I'm from Chicago." "Oh? Well, where were you parents and your ancestors from?" "We are Assyrians. Both my mother and father came from Assyria." To this answer, Togasaki san gave a most surprising reply. "Since you are going to Japan, let me explain something to you. You think you are going to Japan to help her and to preach Christianity, but there is one other thing that is really important and deep." My father had just graduated from college knew very little about Japan then, and so he simply said, "Oh, really?" And so Togasaki san continued, "Actually, your people came to our country some 1400 years ago and the brought us three treasures." "Are you kidding?" "The first treasure was 'freedom and democracy', the second was 'welfare and medical care', and the third was the 'Christianity' you just mentioned. Our country has now lost everything because of this war, and it has almost completely lost those three treasures we once had. As an old man, I hesitate to make this request, but once you get to Japan, please resurrect those three treasures we have lost." That is what my father recalls Togasaki san to have said, but all he could say was, "Thank you. I'll do my best." And so he went to Japan without understanding much of anything. The Letter To The Editor Several years passed, and my father had pretty much forgotten about the incident. But one day, as he remembered back on what Mr. Togasaki had said, he decided to write a letter to the editor of the Mainichi Shinbun (Newspaper). In it, he explained what Togasaki san (who was by then deceased) had said to him on the ship to Japan. Lo and behold, letters began arriving from all over Japan confirming what Mr. Togasaki had said. One of those letters was from former Waseda University professor and Tokyo Bunri University president Saeki Yoshiro. He was well-known for his research into "Keikyo", the "Nestorian" branch of Christianity that had spread into Asia in ancient times. I should mention that much of the information I have gleaned on this subject came from Professor Saeki's books, along with the writings of one other researcher, Ikeda Sakae, professor emeritus at Tokyo University. Prof. Ikeda concentrated his research on the followers of "Keikyo", together with the "Hata" people who immigrated into ancient Japan. This tribe of people immigrated in mass to Japan and had a great impact on Japan. In fact, Prof. Ikeda was so enthralled with the Hata people and Keikyo, that he even attempted to resurrect Keikyo churches in Japan. My father still holds very dear those first letters he received from professors Saeki and Ikeda, and over the years, our three families have maintained a deep relationship. In fact, without their cooperation and encouragement, this book would never have been written. Most people are under the impression that Christianity was first introduced into Japan by Francisco Xavier (1506 - 1552) in the 16th Century, but this is true only in the sense that he was the first to bring western Christianity to Japan. Christianity, in the form of eastern Christianity, had entered Japan long before Xavier and had a profound impact on Japanese culture. In fact, the remnants of that influence can be seen in numerous places around the country and even within Japanese culture itself一something I will document in this book. In ancient Japan, it was not only Buddhism that came in from India and China. There were also a variety of other religions and cultures that entered in as well. Likewise, it was not only Mongoloid peoples that crossed over into Japan, but other Asians (including Caucasians) as well. Keikyo, that is ancient Eastern Christianity, likewise entered Japan. Togasaki san had said that it first came in some 1400 years ago, but further research indicates that Christianity likely first entered Japan by way of the Silk Road Japan by about 1800 years ago! Since my childhood, my father had been telling me these things, but I was skeptical and thought that couldn't possibly be true. My father just loved to talk about Christianity having come not just 450 years ago, but 1450 years ago. When guests were at our house, he delighted in telling them about how in ancient times numerous peoples had crossed over into Japan bringing with them not only religions but medical knowledge and concepts such as concern for social welfare. He particularly enjoyed telling how his own Assyrian people had transversed the Silk Road and crossed over in boats to Japan as early as the 4th century. I would say to him later, "Dad, enough is enough! Can't you forget about this stuff when people are over?" But he wouldn't quit. Then one day, I had a serendipitous encounter that changed me. Remains of the "Kirishitan" (Catholic Christians) Wherever You Go Once when I was overseas, a friend gave me a book about Japan, saying, "Have you ever read this? You're interested in Japan, and this is a book that tells about ancient Japan." It was a book by Richard Henry Drummond entitled, "A Christian History of Japan." I glanced at the back cover, and one sentence literally jumped out at me. "In 1600, the single largest organized religion and the one most widely spread throughout Japan was Christianity."* I was shocked by this statement and said to myself, "You've got to be kidding! Japan is a Buddhist country. This just can't be!" But at the same time, I was thinking, "If this is true, then how come we haven't known about it?!" So I expectantly read through that book. At about this time, I got involved in founding volunteer organizations designed to help people. These included "Agape House", "Japan Help Line", "Nihongo 110 ban" (which roughly translates "Japanese 911"), and "Japan Emergency Squad" (which sends teams of volunteers to disaster locations). Along with the notoriety that came with this, I was frequently invited to give talks all over Japan. As I travelled to numerous locations from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south, I made a point of asking local people a number of questions, including "Do you know of any artifacts or remains of the Kirishitan or other ancient Christians in this area?" I was really surprised, as almost everywhere I went, I discovered there were such remains close by. In one place, there would be a small Kirishitan museum in a local church, and in another place Buddhist temple that had Kirishitan artifacts. Likewise, there were Keikyo artifacts that were pre-Xavier. I also discovered that even things I formerly had understood to be strictly Buddhist, in fact, had remnants of ancient Christianity within them. I really found all of this quite mind-boggling. Once, after giving a lecture in Kumamoto, I called up my father and told him about the various Christian artifacts and influences I was discovering. I told him I wanted to come back to Kumamoto and do some more research. But my father didn't sound the least surprised, and he simply said, "So you finally are getting around to checking things out, huh? Greenhorn, don't you know that the Catholic missionaries were the late-comers? Our own ancestors came here a thousand years before them. Don't you remember me telling you about them?" That's when it hit me. I remembered that when I was young, my father had often told me that ancient Christians had already been in Japan long before Xavier showed up. "That's right! Now I remember! I used to get sick of hearing about that as a kid. Okay, dad, where are the places our ancestors, those ancient Christians, first arrived at in Japan? When I finish this job I'm on right now, I want to go check them out, one by one." So, at my first opportunity, I went on the information my father had given me to a small town in Hyogo Prefecture. This was the place that these ancient eastern Christians from between the first and fifth centuries had purportedly arrived in Japan. The Hata People Who Came To Sakoshi Sakoshi is a port in the city of Akou in Hyogo Prefecture. According to Prof. Takakusu Junjiro, it was here that a tribe called the "Hata" arrived in Japan from the Asian continent.* (*The character秦(hata) is defined as "name given anciently to naturalized foreigners" (Nelson's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, p. 666), and thus was apparently later applied to all such people.) On the train to Sakoshi, I happened to sit next to an elderly couple.

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