Religion: Peace Talk with Japan

Japan is sending its No. 1 churchman, Bishop Yoshimune Abe, and its No. 1 Christian, trachoma-cured Toyohiko Kagawa, to a peace parley with U.S. church leaders at Riverside, Calif, next week. Its purpose as stated by the Japanese: “Prayer and to explore ways to preserve peace between Japan and the United States.”

U.S. churchmen seem somewhat mystified, but agree that there is much ‘to discuss. Possible added subjects include the treatment of U.S. missionaries in Occupied China; the Japanese decrees replacing foreign-mission executives in Japan with natives; and the severing of U.S. financial ties with the Japanese missions, to which churches here have sent thousands of workers and $100,000,000 in the past 70 years.

Two subjects not likely to be aired are Bishop Abe’s practice of worshiping at the Shinto Shrine at Ise and the decision of the Government-inspired church union to modify the Apostles’ Creed as suggested by the Ministry of Education. Some of the deletions: the Virgin Birth because it was “immoral,” the Resurrection because it was “unscientific and superstitious,” the Last Judgment because it implied that the Emperor could be judged.