Catholic bishops reject militarization
- Japan
- December 03 2009
Most of Japan´s Catholic bishops do not want their country to build up its military, and support retention of their constitution´s "peace clause," says Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki.
Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki
Takami of Nagasaki (File photo)
The Church leader, speaking to UCA News recently while visiting Rome, said he hopes the new government, led by Yukio Hatoyama, will not change Article 9 in the constitution.
That clause is "very important" in curbing militarization, he said.
Japan has significant military might, but for defensive purposes only. Following the country´s World War II defeat, the victorious United States forced the inclusion of Article 9 into the 1946 Japanese Constitution. It aimed to prevent Japan ever going to war again, Archbishop Takami recalled.
The Japanese people, the clause says, "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." It states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained" and asserts that "the right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."
Right-wing nationalists have long advocated revising this article to allow the development of a military capacity. Their campaign has gained ground in the last decade as the United States encouraged Japan to take a more active role in security concerns.
Born in Nagasaki on March 21, 1946, Archbishop Takami was in his mother´s womb when the United States dropped an atomic bomb there. Almost 74,000 people died instantly, and at least 25,000 more in the years that followed. Among them were the archbishop´s grandmother, two aunts and a cousin.
Archbishop Takami was in Rome as part of a pilgrimage of seven bishops and 163 lay Catholics from Japan, led by Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of Tokyo. They came for November 24, the first anniversary of the beatification of the 188 Japanese martyrs, to thank Pope Benedict for giving his approval for that historic event in the life of the Church in Japan.
Pope Benedict met them briefly on Nov. 25. Archbishop Okada handed him a letter of gratitude signed by the Japanese bishops and a reliquary containing a bone of one of the martyrs.
Archbishop Takami told UCA News that besides militarization, another major challenge facing Japan´s Catholic Church is evangelization.
The Catholic Church in Japan has about 1 million members, but less than half are native Japanese. The majority are Brazilian, Filipino, Korean and Chinese migrants who have brought new life and resources to the Church, the archbishop said.
He acknowledged that Pope John Paul II´s historic 1981 trip to Japan, where he visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo, inspired the whole Catholic community. The bishops convened national evangelization conventions in 1987 and 1993, each followed by a national missionary effort, but Archbishop Takami admitted these efforts have borne few visible fruits.
The bishops feel they have to do "something new" to evangelize, he added, and are planning to issue a letter on this, perhaps in 2010.
The archbishop also responded to a question about a reported comment by Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of Japan´s ruling Democratic Party, that "Christianity is an exclusive, self-righteous religion," he said.
Ozawa "has some reason" for his statement, in the attitudes Churches have taken in history, Archbishop Takami remarked.
"We exclude when we consider another religion as nothing, and when we consider ourselves to be right and the others to be wrong." Likewise, Japan was also being exclusive "when it expelled missionaries and denounced Christianity as a bad religion," he said.
Nonetheless, "the Christian Gospel is absolutely good and a supreme value and I believe in it," the Japanese prelate asserted. "We don´t always live exactly according to the Gospel, and that is a problem, and we recognize it."
Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki
Takami of Nagasaki (File photo)
The Church leader, speaking to UCA News recently while visiting Rome, said he hopes the new government, led by Yukio Hatoyama, will not change Article 9 in the constitution.
That clause is "very important" in curbing militarization, he said.
Japan has significant military might, but for defensive purposes only. Following the country´s World War II defeat, the victorious United States forced the inclusion of Article 9 into the 1946 Japanese Constitution. It aimed to prevent Japan ever going to war again, Archbishop Takami recalled.
The Japanese people, the clause says, "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." It states that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained" and asserts that "the right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."
Right-wing nationalists have long advocated revising this article to allow the development of a military capacity. Their campaign has gained ground in the last decade as the United States encouraged Japan to take a more active role in security concerns.
Born in Nagasaki on March 21, 1946, Archbishop Takami was in his mother´s womb when the United States dropped an atomic bomb there. Almost 74,000 people died instantly, and at least 25,000 more in the years that followed. Among them were the archbishop´s grandmother, two aunts and a cousin.
Archbishop Takami was in Rome as part of a pilgrimage of seven bishops and 163 lay Catholics from Japan, led by Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of Tokyo. They came for November 24, the first anniversary of the beatification of the 188 Japanese martyrs, to thank Pope Benedict for giving his approval for that historic event in the life of the Church in Japan.
Pope Benedict met them briefly on Nov. 25. Archbishop Okada handed him a letter of gratitude signed by the Japanese bishops and a reliquary containing a bone of one of the martyrs.
Archbishop Takami told UCA News that besides militarization, another major challenge facing Japan´s Catholic Church is evangelization.
The Catholic Church in Japan has about 1 million members, but less than half are native Japanese. The majority are Brazilian, Filipino, Korean and Chinese migrants who have brought new life and resources to the Church, the archbishop said.
He acknowledged that Pope John Paul II´s historic 1981 trip to Japan, where he visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo, inspired the whole Catholic community. The bishops convened national evangelization conventions in 1987 and 1993, each followed by a national missionary effort, but Archbishop Takami admitted these efforts have borne few visible fruits.
The bishops feel they have to do "something new" to evangelize, he added, and are planning to issue a letter on this, perhaps in 2010.
The archbishop also responded to a question about a reported comment by Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of Japan´s ruling Democratic Party, that "Christianity is an exclusive, self-righteous religion," he said.
Ozawa "has some reason" for his statement, in the attitudes Churches have taken in history, Archbishop Takami remarked.
"We exclude when we consider another religion as nothing, and when we consider ourselves to be right and the others to be wrong." Likewise, Japan was also being exclusive "when it expelled missionaries and denounced Christianity as a bad religion," he said.
Nonetheless, "the Christian Gospel is absolutely good and a supreme value and I believe in it," the Japanese prelate asserted. "We don´t always live exactly according to the Gospel, and that is a problem, and we recognize it."
