Life In Japan Is ‘Ruled By Dead’

Press, Issue 30997, 1 March 1966, Page 12

Life In Japan Is ‘Ruled By Dead’

“The whole life of Japan is ruled by the dead, even today,” said Pastor R. A. E. Hessel, who is working with the United Church of Christ in Osaka. He was referring in an interview in Christchurch to the traditional Asian “ancestor-worship.”

In technologically-sophisti-cated Japan of today, where 99 per cent of the population were, he said, indifferent to religion, and, moreover, “terribly materialistic,” the belief in the influence of the dead over the living persisted. This was one reason why church work in Japan was rather slow. Fewer than 0.5 per cent of the people were Christian, though the number of Protestants —400,000 —was increasing by three to 5 per cent each year. Pastor Hessel said Japan had 350 different Shinto and Buddhist organisations. These did not require a personal decision to become a member — a whole family might become Buddhists because the tomb of their ancestors was in a Buddhist temple grounds. Though municipal cemeteries had been established, traditional burying-places were still preferred, partly because of the social standing they brought. In many Japanese homes there were beautiful lacquered shrines where the family prayed to the souls of their ancestors. “That is the kind of religion which is basic to Japan,” he said. “We haven’t found any solution to it, as far as Christianity is concerned.” Certain Christian churches

made total severance of ties with ancestor-worship a prerequisite for baptism. Others compromised, in the belief that the practice no longer had any religious significance. “I personally disagree very thoroughly,” Pastor Hessel said. “I insist that any converts I make do away with this—and I’ve succeeded.” A convert in Japan needed great spiritual strength. While the educational system allowed young people considerable freedom, a university student who had previously attended church without hindrance would run into trouble when he entered society—a “web society,” Pastor Hessel described it. Such a person was faced with ostracism, and had to be strong enough to withstand it. Born in Dusseldorf, Germany, Pastor Hessel spent nine years as a missionary in Japan before 'die war. Deprived of his German nationality by the Nazis, he emigrated to the United States, and is now an American citizen and a minister in the United Presbyterian Church. At present he and Mrs Hessel are on a private tour of New Zealand. Prominent in the local Y’s men’s club in Osaka, Pastor Hessel will attend the national Y’s Men’s conference in Palmerston, Otago, on March 4 to 6.