Religion: Persecution in Japan

Men and women were torn apart by oxen, broken on cart wheels, cut in pieces by hand saws, steamed to death in hot springs. Rich and poor, city folk and farmers—at least 40,000 of the Japanese Christian community of 200,000 souls—"suffered death calmly for the sake of their Christian faith, evincing no resentment against anyone but, on the contrary, offering prayers for the sake of their persecutors." Such was the great Japanese martyrdom which took place 300 years ago when the Christian community founded there by St. Francis Xavier was suppressed. Christianity has not had a single martyr in Japan...