and the truth shall make you free.

Q: It seems that Christians have a stronger tendency of anti-Japan?

Few people are aware of it, but when the whole picture is seen objectively, a fact comes to become evident.

A) In Asia, Christians tend to have anti-Japan feeling which is stronger than the others.

 

It is not easy to notice it if you move around only in the Christian world, but there is more anti-Japan feeling among Christians in Southeast Asia than others.

However, it is strange, because It is only China and Korea that hate Japan in the political and private level in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

On the contrary, there are many countries which are called pro-Japan such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan.
However, we are reminded of the fact that even the pastors and spiritual leaders of the above pro-Japan nations seem to have anti-Japan tendency in the understanding of the history.

In the big International Christian conference held in the East Asia, usually the ministry is done with the common understanding that Japanese army was evil.

There are many occasions when Japanese are forced to make apology in the same of intercession and reconciliation, even when there are conferences held in the pro-Japan nations.

This tendency is the same even in the international conference held in Japan.

It is heard many times that Christian guest speakers who come from pro-Japan nations say things like they used to hate Japan in their sermons which they spoke to Japanese

When we see these scenes, we are surprised to know that there is a great gap of pro-Japanese degree between the general public and the Christian world.

Christianity is a religion of love and forgiveness. So they love Japan and they say they have forgiven Japan, which I believe is true.

However, very few people will be willing to pay attention to the history written in this web-site.

There are two reasons for such phenomenon.

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1) 
One reason is that the revival in the Southeast Asia is a revival of the the Greater China. For example, in Malaysia, 60% of the population is Malaysian, 30% is Chinese. The revival is happening among the Chinese people and not Malaysians. Then opinions and ideas are influenced by that of Mainland China.

 


2) Indonesia is generally pro-Japan, as in the article that Japan helped Asian nations such as Indonesia to become independent. However, many of the Christian leaders there do not have a good image about what Japan did in the past, not only because there are many Chinese Christians, but also because it has something to do with the ruling structure (especially in the area of political and economical area).
 
The colonial rule of Holland was more like exploitation using the people rather than direct rule.

During the 350 years while Holland colonized Indonesia, the lives of those who took control of economy and politics and those in the middle class got worse because Japan got Indonesia free from the colonization in 1941, which can be easily expected.

Also, there might have been some people who were suspected as spies and suffered, because they were connected with Holland.

Many of the Indonesian pastors and spiritual leaders who serve internationally and have influence may not come from the consuming public. That is why the Christian society tend to fall into the idea that Japan was evil, compared with the general public.

Therefore, Indonesia is pro-Japan as a whole nation. However, it is a common idea among Christians that Japan was evil.

And this is also related to the fact that there are more Chinese among Christians than other part of the society in Indonesia.

 

During the war, because not a few overseas Chinese had been economically support the Chinese army of Chiang Kai-shek, even if they lived in Indonesia. As such a reason Japan was enemy for them.

 


We still see some Japanese apologize to China and Korea. However, if a group of Japanese make apology to the people of nations other than China and Korea, they are most likely Christians.
When Japanese Christians make apology in other nations repeatedly, each times a wrong history view that Japan is evil is engraved onto the mind of people of other nations.
As such, the cause of the high average of anti-Japan tendency among foreign Christians is in Japanese Christians.