What if Japan Had Converted To Christianity?

[Music] japan jesus two things that sometimes combine three today japan is largely irreligious in fact it has one of the largest percentages of atheist people in the world temples are frequently visited but these are largely ceremonial with all of that said it seems kind of odd to imagine but for a brief period of time in the 16th century japan's fastest growing religion was christianity with the arrival of the portuguese to japan they brought along with them goods guns jesus missionaries went among the people and began teaching the bible this was largely tolerated by the japanese shogun because they were getting trade out of it the chinese had banned any trade with japan so going through european middlemen kept that porcelain and silk coming in and also those guns were certainly useful the side effect of this brief toleration was that a prominent minority of japanese had become devout catholics mainly in the south cracks began forming between the portuguese traders and japanese leaders by the time japan reunified under the tokugawa shogunate the new government had lost patience with this foreign religion christianity was seen as subversive and that's when the crackdowns began if you're familiar with early christian history you know the drill persecution martyrdom the classic 200ad stuff thanks to this along with general discontent with the government there was a rebellion primarily of christians in the south peasants took up the cross prophecies were foretold and spoilers it didn't end up well i'm going to be honest this video was directly inspired by a recent kings and generals video about the shimabara rebellion i'm going to try to avoid stepping on this video's toes as much as i can so if you want the full context of christianity in japan watch this video first and then come back if you just want a brief idea though there was christianity in japan until there wasn't but what if somehow christianity didn't stop rising what if japan had largely became christian thanks to the portuguese nagasaki and southern japan quickly became a hub of christian activity like followers and the hundreds of thousands even samurai and daimyo were becoming converts japan had recently been unified under the tokugawa shogunate and to the shogunate christianity was subversive against the culture and stability of japan you're not loyal to the emperor when you're loyal to the pope which you know that's that's kind of true this wasn't the only reason though missionaries were loud they had no regard for japanese cultural traditions and they were even having converts desecrate temples and shinto icons so upon hearing that the spanish and portuguese had colonies across the world the japanese feared that they might be next the thing is it's an uphill battle for christianity no matter what there are a few factors that need to happen for christianity to even have a chance to grow in this alternate timeline 1. there is no shimabara rebellion that was one of the final straws that broke the camel's back for the shogun the europeans were immediately blamed and trade was cut off for the most part but two there would be no shimabara rebellion if there's no tokugawa shogunate now imagining japan without the tokugawa pretty much changes the last 500 years of japanese history this was a period of unity and isolation that kind of really did help japan they had two centuries of total peace for christianity to spread we might have to imagine that this warring states period simply continues on far longer than in our timeline perhaps another century because if japan isn't able to unify as quickly they have far less of a united front against outside forces and in this case religion now you might say the emperor still exists wouldn't they do something to stop this while the emperor was much more of a figurehead and without any prominent military power they'd kind of be powerless to enforce any ban on christendom what i'm saying here is that without a central authority the catholics have free reign to influence the island oh cody is that what's gonna happen here too well while nine times out of ten i would probably say that this ends in some alternate divving up between colonial powers i'm not so sure that's the case here in this alternate timeline does japan suddenly become a portuguese colony does it fall to the same fate as china because it didn't shut itself off from the rest of the world well no and that's because of a few things one japan really just wasn't worth colonizing japan was too well defended in advance to even attempt a hostile takeover two japan especially during the warring states period had become masters of warfare and adept at picking up european weapons reverse engineering them and building their own i mean it took 200 years of isolation and an industrial revolution in the west for the japanese to even become concerned by the outside world so we continue on to an alternate 1600s christianity spreads and becomes an actual cultural force with more and more daimyos converting what becomes simply a divide between rivals becomes a divide between religions and cultures the warring states period blends into a new conflict over faith whether or not the christian daimyos may win i cannot say for the sake of time think of this like rome where christians were a minority of the population and persecuted until they weren't and suddenly the state is christian and hey perhaps they can even keep their emperor take a formerly native idea and translate it for the population to better accept the emperor is not simply ordained by the sun goddess amaratsu but by you know god god while it might seem like a stretch if the christian population becomes big enough this might be the way that the emperor might go what type of christianity there would be in japan really depends on how tolerated the portuguese are the shoguns liked the dutch because they didn't push their faith but with no shoguns and a very persistent portuguese those jesuit missionaries would be the main influence of christianity the japanese would get not dutch protestantism the main important thing here is that even if there is eventually another unified shogunate they simply don't have the influence to stamp out all of christianity like they were able to in our timeline and it only grows from there japan for quite some time was believed to be massive and while japan is big compared to europe about the size of the u.s west coast it isn't nearly as big as they believed in fact there was somewhat of a fascination in this early relationship between the catholic world and japan japan was a mystical land that portugal and spain believed was prime for conversion it wasn't until the shogun spat that idea down that relations became more openly hostile let's imagine that just like rome japan converts japan historically has been pretty homogeneous compared to other civilizations the only infighting that ever really happened was between who would be the ultimate shogun under the emperor or to kick out the ainu from the north socially and culturally there was never much division yet with the introduction of christianity this brings in a cultural new division that japan never had before daimyos samurai and peasants now could be divided between world views those former pagan idols and ideas are either wiped out or slapped with christian paint much like the last samurai of our own timeline those that refuse to adopt christianity probably create a new refuge on hokkaido the last remnant of an old japan buddhist and shinto thinking molds the theology and new hotbeds of eastern christian thought like nagasaki and osaka without the tokugawa edo now tokyo never becomes the center of japanese politics very likely kyoto remains the capital both politically and eventually religiously it may truly become a blend between eastern and western thought even down to well the writing style in catholicism regardless of your language latin up until vatican ii was the language of mass japanese churches would speak and write to discuss theology in latin and from that it's possible this leads to more acceptance of the latin alphabet while never outright replacing their own writing system of characters in kanji perhaps even creating an alternate latinized japanese system we first saw this actually with the nippo gisho a translation of 30 thousand words from japanese to portuguese for the sake of converting peasants had the religion never been banned and christian documents destroyed portugal would have been japan's window to the western world now from a traditionalist japanese perspective this all sounds horrifying first a foreign faith comes in then the emperor changes from the descendant of a god to simply blessed by god to now latin itself taking over that's a lot to take in but this is something that has repeated multiple times throughout history a new religion will come in upend the old and society even down to the writing style will transform as dramatic as changing the writing style sounds keep in mind before the 20th century most people didn't really write it was a tool for the elite so we're talking about the one percent no longer writing in a similar style yet if there is a new positive that the japanese would see gained from this conversion it would be a new connection to the west they would not be exploited by colonial powers this would be an equal relationship and the effect of this is it changes early modern europe's view on japan this would be a christian kingdom on the other side of the world something that we never really saw in our timeline while that period of isolation was great for the country internally it also soured any positive notes europe previously had towards japan then by the time americans rolled up in their gunboats any former respect that was seen between the western world and japan had been pretty much forgotten and by that time we had scientific racism i don't want to get demonetized but i will bring up the racial aspect to this what determined the other for exploration era europeans wasn't simply race but faith yes different phenotypes existed and people look different but what mattered most was whether or not they followed jesus or not faith evolved into views on civilization and soon onto views of race which is why when the japanese were originally flirting with the idea of christianity they were depicted as more closer to europeans but by the time of matthew perry they were seen as the yellow other i know it sounds weird but faith was the original basis for early european racism on what is civilized or not as much as japan is losing that aspect of its natural identity europe frankly has a far greater relationship with japan if they had adopted christianity in the 17th century what can i say people historically have gone along with others that have similar beliefs ain't that shocking imagine a japan that keeps up to date with technological advancements in military warfare from the 1600s on to the 1860s it was always going to modernize but it just so happens that in this alternate timeline it's a lot more gradual instead of over the span of a generation while i know some of you clicked on this video imagining crusading samurai or catholic japanese soldiers fighting in the 30 years war i'm sorry to be a bummer but this couldn't really be the case keep in mind japan's warring states period ended officially in 1615 it shut itself off from the world in 1603 now religion can spread fast but it needs a few generations to stick that's why i gave this a century-long window for christianity to realistically spread among the peasantry so even if japan did end up adopting catholicism after all of this it'd still be by the early 1700s that they would unify not really a time of crusading samurai anymore in fact japan largely skips the real bloodshed of the protestant reformation portugal which in this timeline would be japan's greatest connection to europe would be replaced by the dutch there's a few ways i can imagine this interaction playing out the japanese while christian are so far removed from the politics of europe that they'd rather trade with the west for chinese goods more than anything else maintaining a friendly relationship with the dutch regardless of faith or there is a swell of newfound catholic zeal birthed by this new conversion making japan late to the party when it came to religious wars at least compared to a europe that got all of that out of its system for the sake of picking one i'm going to lean towards the japanese disliking the dutch which is ironic considering how much they like them in our own timeline this newfound hatred has nothing to do with religious differences it's mainly politics mostly in this alternate timeline i can see it being very possible that japan develops a good relationship with spain thanks to centuries of trade japan would already be familiar with the portuguese and the spanish philippines who are the next closest connection to christendom that converted japanese would have the problem for japan when it comes to these european empires is they kind of backed the wrong horse no amount of japanese conversions were going to save portugal and spain from falling into irrelevancy it's likely that by the time japan rises as a power wars eventually stop being waged purely over religion and moreover markets and colonies moving on to other things a failed invasion of korea was also what led to that period of isolation instead of korea being annexed in a 19th century world it's instead slowly conquered and colonized by an ever-growing japanese population hey maybe it's japan's new mission to convert the koreans just as the ainu were pushed from northern japan until the island was homogenized this peninsula soon becomes another part of the japanese realm its people push to manchuria if they're not entirely assimilated japan without isolation just colonizes slower and because of that their influence in east asia has a longer lasting effect generations upon generations of japanese domination and throughout this whole time japan is still fighting alternate skirmishes and wars with european powers just as every nation at some point fought from the 18th to 20th centuries so would japan but never truly falling to any power even with slightly improved military technology i can't imagine japan could just strong-arm the qing into opening up the qing was at their height of power in the early 1700s if japan wanted to exploit that they might have to wait until the next century like everyone else personally i don't think japan was ever going to conquer the pacific if they did they would be competing against the dutch east india company for indonesia as well as turning against the spanish for the philippines i think they'd be more interested in colonizing a bit further north while also maintaining good relations with europeans unluckily for japan it just so happens that their new rival wouldn't be from europe thanks to its location on the globe and sharing an ocean with the united states in time there was always going to be some clash between these two japan is still a power that would rival the us and the pacific so it's inevitable that they would come to blows it's possible that instead of some massive pacific war japan and the us fight in a smaller conflict over a few islands maybe the philippines it's an interesting possibility that japan may still be allies with spain and help it hold out against the americans when the time comes this alternate spanish-american war may evolve into the spanish japanese and american war which is a far more costly endeavor for the us trying to get into the empire business not really a splendid little war like it was in our timeline in the slimmest possibility that somehow japan was able to convert to christianity it would largely be a societal change for japan more than anything on the global stage even in the best possible scenario japan following a true conversion to christianity still sees the turmoil that changing religions does for a civilization the old order is destroyed or adopted in some way political clans and structures are at best weakened and at worst toppled japan's isolation actually did do a fair amount of good it missed out on an age of enlightenment sure but it also missed the instability that came with it and by the time japan no longer could ignore the outside world they adapted without missing a beat while japan does become more respected by the european empires because of their conversion this is saying very little european empires hated one another for the pettiest of reasons and japan wouldn't escape this regardless of faith by the time they really do unify it would be after religious faith for europe kinda didn't matter anymore japan reinvented itself and rebuilt its society from the ground up to become a catholic nation only for its catholic allies to basically bite the dust this is cody of alternate history hub do [Music] [Music] you

Channel: AlternateHistoryHub

Views: 986,876

Keywords: Japan Christianity, What if Japan Had Converted To Christianity?, Christianity Japan, Japan, Japan AlternateHistoryHub, AlternateHistoryHub, alternate history japan, Shimabara Rebellion, Japan Catholicism, Catholic Samurai, Portugal and Japan, Portugese Empire, alternate history, history japan, japanese history, matthew perry japan, japanese

Id: ZBDN7-s2br4

Length: 19min 13sec (1153 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 04 2022