Religion: Prayers in Prison

On Dec. 8, 1941, the Anglican Bishop of South Tokyo heard, to his “complete amazement,” that war had begun. Six hours later, four Jap policemen dropped in, took him to a police station, frisked him, took away his suspenders but left him with his clothes and his spectacles (a considerable concession).

That was the beginning of the end of Bishop Samuel Heaslett’s 41 years’ missionary work in Japan. He spent the next four months in prison, charged with being a spy. From a Japanese Prison (More-house-Gorham; 60¢) , published last week, tells the story of those four months.

Soap and Soup. The Irish-born prelate and his cellmates, four Japanese criminals, spent a good part of each day mashing mosquitoes against the concrete walls of their 9-by-5½-ft. cell. It helped keep down the mosquitoes and it helped pass the time. Once a day the Bishop was escorted to a corridor washbasin — cold water and no soap. One morning a woman prisoner smilingly offered him a piece of soap. The gesture restored his waning faith in human nature. Coarse rice, a piece of pickle, vegetable soup and tepid water were the daily fare, but Bishop Heaslett had the privilege of having food sent in from a nearby restaurant. He shared this with his cellmates, noting that there was “neither coarseness nor apparent greed among them.”

After twelve days the Bishop was taken to modern Gumyoji prison in suburban Yokohama. There he found other Britons and Americans, somewhat better food, and a cell which had a bed, toilet and washstand with running, drinkable water.

Signals and Scissors. Whistling, humming, singing and talking were forbidden. Once when the Bishop tried breaking the no-talking rule, as everyone did, he got “a good wigging from the head warden.” Nevertheless he managedto send out word that he would say daily Morning and Evening Prayers, invited his neighbors to join him silently at those hours. He tapped signals on the walls to announce the opening and closing of services. On Sundays and saints’ days he celebrated the Holy Communion. For the Host he kept back a piece of bread from the preceding evening meal, substituted water for wine. To fit the occasion he composed a new opening for the Prayer of Consecration: “O Thou, Who at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee didst turn the water into wine. . . .” (On his voyage to England months later the Bishop told a Roman Catholic priest about this. The priest was inclined to think the service invalid, but agreed that “God does sometimes work miracles.”)

In Gumyoji, as in every Japanese prison, there was a Buddhist priest of the Hongwanji sect — in charge of the library, observer of prisoners’ behavior and recommender of shortened sentences. These priests also conduct Sunday services in which they sing hymns to tunes taken from the English hymnal, words altered to fit Buddhist doctrine (“Buddha loves me”). The priests exert a powerful influence and beatings never occur until after they have gone for the night.

Bishop Heaslett welcomed this priest’s friendship because he had trouble cutting his nails with the prison scissors. He persuaded the priest to bring along his own scissors, and while the two of them compared notes on Buddhist and Christian theology, the Bishop took care of his finger-and toenails.

Advice and Apologies. Possibly because of his Buddhist friend, Dr. Heaslett was never physically mistreated, but he did undergo the finely conceived mental torture of 20 “examinations.” The priest had warned him, “Don’t lose your temper,” and he followed the advice, though it was difficult, for the Japs had a stock comeback to all his answers: “You are a liar.”

Just when the Bishop decided that he was making no headway whatsoever in proving his innocence, he was freed —because of his “long service in Japan.” He returned briefly to his Tokyo home, where Japanese Christians deluged him with traditional apologies and delicacies.

To his readers the Bishop makes three earnest suggestions: 1) “We must in no way shut our eyes to the fact that evil, brilliantly organized, has captured Japan. . . .”2) “We must work and pray for the speedy destruction of the present evil regime. . . .” 3) “We must never forget that, even today in Japan at war, fruits of Christian living are still being shown in the lives of a small minority . . . and that the link of common faith and common prayer to the God and Father of all man kind still holds between faithful Christians everywhere — including those in Japan.”