Foreign News: Through Christian Eyes

What had the violence of war and bitterness of defeat done to the faith of Toyohiko Kagawa, one of the most famed of Oriental Christian leaders? Last week in Tokyo TIME’S Chief Pacific Correspondent Manfred Gottfried talked at length with Kagawa, founder of Japan’s Kingdom of God movement, biographer of Christ, and militant pacifist. War has not shaken Kagawa’s faith; he is still a Christian. He is also still a patriotic Jap. Gottfried’s report:

Kagawa is a small man with a ready smile, a forthright, friendly personality, and clothes as shabby as most Japanese. I had been told he was more likely than any to speak the truth about Japanese politics. This has been a police state, but his answers, in his own emphatic brand of English, were without hesitation or circumlocution.

I asked how Christians had fared during the war. “We had a terrible time. All Seventh Day Adventist males were arrested. Everybody who believed in the second coming of Christ or the Last Judgment was asked to appear in court. I was three times arrested. I could not preach.”

I remarked that he had been reported as making anti-U.S. propaganda. Instantly he answered: “I did. I did intentionally. The Americans said that when America won I would become Premier of Japan. That made me and all Japanese Christians traitors. Therefore, intentionally, I said America must return to the spirit of Abraham Lincoln. I was sorry I had to come down from international Christianity to national Christianity. I had no choice.”

Without Zip. Has Japan now a real urge for freedom and democracy, I asked. His spirited answer: “Oh, sure! The Army is gone [with a sweeping gesture]. The Potsdam Declaration promised to revive democracy in Japan—revive, not create. We are very glad. But Americans must not expect democracy here with American zip. What Americans do in one hour takes Japanese a day.”

There would probably be five or six parties in the new Parliament, among them liberals, capitalists, socialists. “But the Army and Navy cannot form a party. They have disappeared. Japan had a good whipping. The Emperor signed away the

Army and Navy — permanently. Not just for now, but permanently.” Kagawa’s words were not calculated, but spontaneous, ringing with conviction.

Plainly he believed and rejoiced. The Japanese feel that the Emperor’s peace making is a major revolution like that of 1869. Kagawa explained: “Japan is like Sweden, which was once a very war like nation. Gustavus Adolphus fought many battles, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but in the end Sweden found that war was no use.

“All that is past now. Prisons have been made into art galleries. Under the Shogunate Japan had 250 years of peace, developed the tea ceremony, color prints, love of nature. This terrible war experience shows us that we have made a serious mistake. The atomic bomb was rather a terrible thing, but it also shows how much Japan fell behind by neglecting culture and science. I am organizing a committee to take out all warlike sentences from schoolbooks. We are doing this without the Americans asking us, but I shall ask other nations to do the same.” In Three Years. Kagawa on wartime Christianity: “The Americans burned down 2,100,000 houses, so the common people don’t like Christianity. Thousands of people — 250,000 — living in dugouts in Tokyo alone. More people cannot come back till we have food and houses, but winter coming, no food, no clothes, no storage . . . March 10th, within three hours, 100,000 people killed in eastern Tokyo. Only kindness can revive Christianity, not mere words or creeds. Because of prejudice now, I don’t often preach. The people need help, not words. Missionaries are no use now unless they help.” On Premier Prince Naruhiko Higashi-Kuni: “He is very liberal. He made a speech saying that Japan lacked humility and self-examination, that the Army and Navy had both made mistakes. Nobody else could have said that for fear of being killed. It showed courage even for a Prince.

Japan’s moral standard was not sufficient to rule over other nations. Japan discovered that. Even General Yamashita said Japan gave education but not culture.” On China: “Chiang Kai-shek is great.

He wins over Japan. He said: ‘We shall treat the Japanese people as friends.’ So Japanese intellectuals respect Chiang. I wish Soviet leaders would behave like Chiang. The Japanese were beaten to the absolute limit, yet he shows humanitarianism. A good thing.” On Americans : “There are two kinds of Americans — those who follow Abraham Lincoln and those who follow Al Capone.

I believe in General MacArthur and his spiritual life. In some respects he is winning us by being generous. And Japanese love American efficiency. The saying now in Tokyo’s Wall Street is: ‘First year lack food, second year lack clothes, third year Americanization.’ “