No. 282.
While I do not doubt that the humbler classes of Japanese are frequently
subject to ill-treatment, and occasionally to torture, by their
two-sworded officials, at places at some distance from any seat of
government, I still incline to the opinion expressed in my dispatch No.
30, of the 27th ultimo, and also believe that such persecutions, as far
as alleged to be owing to conversions to Christianity, are often
exaggerated, it not entirely unfounded.
The Soto Islands, as far as I have been able to ascertain, have never
been visited yet by any foreign missionary, and it is difficult to see
how the inhabitants, few of whom ever leave their homes, could ever have
become converted to the Roman Catholic faith.
I transmit inclosure No. 2. copy of an identical letter addressed by the
foreign representative on the subject to the Japanese ministers for
foreign affairs, and as soon as their reply shall have been received, a
translation will be at once submitted to you.
Account of persecution of native Christians in
the islands of Soto.
At the date of the 16th April the places where Christians were
subjected to the worst treatment were: 1, Matsugahama; 2,
Uragashira; 3, Mitsunoura; and, 4, Kusubari.
I. Matsugahama is a village in the island of Fusakajima. It was in
this little island that the persecution commenced on the 12th
November, 1868.
In the first instance 22 Christians were seized, imprisoned at Fukai,
the capital of Soto, and then put to the torture. A little while
later these prisoners, together with all the Christians of the
island, men, women, and children, nearly 200 persons in all, were
taken to Matsugahama, where they must still be, with the exception
of those who are dead. Torture, hunger, and cold have already killed
numerous persons.
1. Paul Sakeichi, aged 79 years, arrested the 12th November, was
beaten with an iron rod, and thrown in prison, where he died toward
the middle of December, of hunger, cold, and the blows he had
received.
2. Francis Rikiso, aged 55, son of the above Sakeichi, arrested the
same day as his father, was, after being beaten almost to death,
submitted to the torture named sangtshino
seine, during which he fainted. On recovering
consciousness, he was, on the following day, tortured again; the
executioners beat him with iron bars, putting live coals into his
mouth. Again it was thought he was dead. Thrown into a prison where
he had scarcely room to rest his bruised body, he was soon nothing
but one living sore, and died, after three months of agony, on the
17th February, 1869. His body was left unburied for four days and
nights in the midst of the prisoners.
3. John Iokichi, child at the breast, died of starvation on the 8th
December.
4. Jane Shimo, aged less than a year, died of starvation on the 29th
January.
5. Catherine Soichi, aged less than a year, died of starvation on the
22d February.
6. Peter Sango, aged 4 years, died of cold and starvation on the 12th
March.
7. Marie Mam, aged 59 years, arrested in November, and beaten almost
to death at the time, died of her wounds on the 18th March.
[Page 454]
8. Elizabeth Some, aged 42 years, tortured as in the preceding case,
and died of her wounds on the 14th March.
9. Paul Rekimaten, aged two years, died of starvation on the 29th
March.
10. Madeline Noyo, aged 21 years, died of starvation and cold on the
1st April
11. Teela Yomo, aged 4 years, died of hunger and cold on the 1st
April.
12. Thomas Macajino, aged 4 years, died of hunger and cold.
13. Maria Sercio, aged 4 years, died of hunger and cold.
14. Julia Toichi, aged 4 years, died of hunger and cold.
15. Dominica Fumi, aged 11 years, died of hunger and cold.
16. Domenci Hansuke, aged 6 years, died of hunger and cold.
17. Another child, name unknown, died of hunger and cold.
II. At Uragashira 59 men were locked up on the 16th December, 1868.
Since then their women and children have been added to this number.
This addition took place in the middle of March.
III. The Christians of Mitsunoura, and those of Furejima, are shut up
in the same prison. Their number was at first 60; it is now doubled
by the imprisonment of their women and children.
IV. At Kusubari, on the 3d January, there were only 31 prisoners: now
the women and children share the fate of their brothers and fathers,
as in the prisons above mentioned.
The Christians of these four prisons are almost piled up one upon the
other to such a degree that seventeen persons have only a mat 6 feet
long and 3 broad. They have suffered terribly from hunger. All have
not been tortured. Those who have been so have undergone the torture
known to the Japanese as ichome mitshame sanqshimo
seine. Certain women have been exposed naked to the gaze of
the executioners and or the crowd.
The tortures named above have not been applied with full rigor,
doubtless for fear of causing violent death. Of the tortured
prisoners who have succeeded in escaping from prison, two have been
received in one family, and in spite of assiduous care have not yet
been healed of the wounds inflicted by the sangtshino seine. (They were tortured toward the end of
January.) One had his left leg, and the other his right arm, in an
almost hopeless state.
At Kakuehigarasima and Dainoura the Christians are actually kept
under surveillance in their villages until the return from
Simonosiki of a daikoran, who has gone thither to receive orders
respecting them.
[Untitled]
Legation of the United
States in Japan,
Yokohama, May 18, 1869.
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellencies’
letter of May 1, stating that Yamaguchi Hanzo, the officer who
had been sent to inquire into the alleged persecutions of native
Christians in the islands of Soto, had returned and reported
that no such persecutions had occurred. And in a further
dispatch, dated the 15th instant, your excellencies also state
that the same unreserved denial had been made by Clan Soto, who
had been examined by your excellencies at Yeddo.
I think it therefore my duty to place in the hands of your
excellencies the accompanying detailed statement of information
received by me on this painful subject. From the particulars
therein given, it would appear that as many as four hundred
Christians of both sexes, and all ages, have been arrested; that
many of them have been tortured; and that two men, three women,
and twelve children have died under the treatment they received,
or from the effects of cold and hunger.
Your excellencies cannot fail to be struck with the wide variance
which is observable between the reports they have received and
the statement furnished the foreign representatives, and you
will doubtless see the necessity of carefully prosecuting your
inquiries until the truth shall have been ascertained. I would
desire that this investigation should be effected solely by the
Mikado government without interference on the part of the
foreign representatives. And I, together with my colleagues,
will therefore anxiously await the receipt of the further
communication which your excellencies are so good as to promise
in your dispatch of the 15th instant.
With respect and consideration
R. B. VAN VALKENBURGH, Minister
Resident of the United States in
Japan.
To their Excellencies Date Chieinagong,
Higashi Kuse Chiniio, Okuma Shii,
Ministers for Foreign Affairs.
