Address to Japanese Dead

1905

At a Shinto service recently performed in honor of the spirits of the dead who fell in the siege of Port Arthur the task of speaking the invocation (saimon) was performed by Gen. Nogi. He read the following:

"This day, the 14th of the first month of the thirty-eighth year of Meiji, I, Nogi Kiten, commander of the third army, with these my comrades, observing due ceremony, offer reverence to you, spirits of officers and soldiers of the third army who have died, for your country.

"More than 210 days have passed since the army landed on the Kwantung peninsula, and throughout all that time you bravely and stoutly fought. You gave your lives to the points of the enemy's weapons. Many a one of you perished amid raging waves and buffeting storms. But your valiant deeds were not in vain.

"If we have seen the enemy's warships completely destroyed in the harbors of Port Arthur, if we have seen his fortresses fall, it has been in truth through the might you left behind you. We, your comrades, who should have shared your fate, are the recipients of a most gracious message from his majesty the commander-in-chief.

"Here, entering Port Arthur, we stand on places overlooking the hills, the rivers, the fortifications that your loyal blood has dyed. Noble spirits with due rites of purification and offering we invoke your presence. Come among us, we pray you, and receive our reverence."

Japanese Government Drawn to Christianity for Country

1899

WANTS A NEW RELIGION

Government of Japan at Present Much Drawn to Everything English

It has been stated on pretty good authority that the leading statesmen of Japan are thinking of making Christianity the established religion of the country, says the Evangelist. When the government of Japan was changed and the mikado assumed his kingly authority one of the first steps taken was the endowment and establishment of the Shinto religion. And Shintoism is so broad and comprehensive a belief that it has frequently allowed Christian services to be held in its temples.

To the American Episcopal church belongs the honor of being the first Protestant body to commence Christian work in Japan, for Bishop Williams established himself at Tokyo as early as 1859 and translated portions of the prayer book and Bible into the Japanese tongue. Should Japan adopt Christianity as a national faith it is not likely that it will take a church exactly to the pattern of either British or American Christianity, but the Episcopal missionaries in Japan believe that the molding of the Japanese mind with regard to Protestant Christianity rests very largely with the Anglican community, especially as the Japanese government is at present much drawn to everything English.

—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, June 21, 1899, page 7.