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DISKUS Vol.1 No.2 (1993) pp.13-30 CHRISTIANITY AND STATE SHINTO IN COLONIAL KOREA: A CLASH OF NATIONALISMS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS Dr. James H. Grayson I. IntroductionIn 1910, Japan formally annexed the Kingdom of Choson (Korea) and ruled that country as a colonial possession until its defeat in the Second World War in 1945. The condition of the Christian church in colonial Korea was greatly affected by the political and religious policies pursued by the metropolitan government in Japan and by the Government-General of Chosen which had direct responsibility for the governance of Korea throughout the colonial era. The experience of the Christian church in Korea and Japan over the past hundred years has been diametrically opposite. The combined Christian population of Korea including Roman Catholics and Protestants accounts for nearly a third of the contemporary Korean population, whilst the combined Christian community of Japan is barely one per-cent of the national population. Christianity is a strong element of modern Korean society in every respect, whilst in modern Japan Christianity has only a small role to play in society. In modern Korea, Christianity and nationalism are closely associated, whilst in Japan there would appear to be an uneasy relationship between Christian faith and Japanese nationality. In this paper, I explore the reasons why Christianity became so closely associated with Korean nationalism by examining one of the crucial issues which faced Korean Christians during the era of Japanese colonial domination - the Shinto Shrine Question. During the late 1920s and the 1930s, a militant Japanese nationalism arose which saw participation in State Shinto shrine rituals as an outward sign of Japanese patriotism. Korean Christians during the colonial era were required to participate in rites which were considered by them to be both idolatrous and offensive to their own nationalism. This paper examines the ways in which the Japanese colonial government attempted to enforce Korean compliance in these rites, and in what ways the Korean Christians resisted these attempts. In the second section of this paper, I examine the reasons for the rapid and wide-spread acceptance of Christianity in Korea, and in the third and fourth sections I examine the reactions of the Korean Christians to the policies of the Japanese colonial regime. In the fifth section, I contrast the Korean Christian reaction to Shinto nationalism with the reactions of Japanese Christians.
II. The Advent of Protestant Christianity in KoreaAt the end of the nineteenth century, there was a complex set of circumstances which predisposed Koreans of all classes to look favourably on Christianity and to become converts to the new religion. The first set of factors were the religious circumstances. A religious vacuum existed in Korea due to the 500 year domination of Korean culture by the Neo-Confucian thought of the Chinese philosopher Chu Hsi (1130-1200). Because of the vigour with which this system of thought was propagated throughout the Chos period (1392-1910), all other forms of thought were perceived to be heterodox philosophies or religions. Neo-Confucianism permeated all layers of society, making Korea the most Confucian state and society in East Asia.<1> Buddhism was vigorously suppressed as rank superstition,<2> as was the folk religion. Roman Catholicism, which came into Korea at the end of the eighteenth century, was viciously persecuted for three-quarters of a century because Catholics were not permitted to participate in the Confucian ancestral ritual. Catholics perceived this rite to be idolatrous, but to the Confucian scholar it was the outward expression of Confucian filial piety, and as such the moral pillar of society.<3> After five hundred years of domination of the spiritual culture of Korea, Neo-Confucianism had become arid, and moribund. This spiritual vacuum was matched by the dramatic economic and political decline of the state. Plagues, famines, peasant rebellions, bureaucratic corruption, nepotism, and foreign incursions all added to the growing sense of economic and political weakness which led many young Koreans to search not only for new and more scientific knowledge, but also to search for a new set of values and beliefs.<4> The methods adopted by the first missionaries also greatly enhanced the ready acceptance of Protestant Christianity. The translation of the New Testament using the Korean alphabet, Han'g rather than into Chinese characters meant that the Bible was easily accessible to anyone.<5> Because the missionaries from the beginning had encouraged their converts to build a self-propagating, self-sustaining, self-managed church, the Korean church developed deep roots in the local culture. Although the early missionaries were pietistic and evangelical, they also had a strong sense of social concern. Among their first efforts were the establishment of schools and hospitals. By the time of the annexation by Japan in 1910, there was a complete system of Christian-run education from primary to 'university' level.<6> The emphasis which the missionaries placed on education resonated with the Confucian value of education as an end in itself. Likewise, the rigid code of ethics of the pietistic missionaries resonated with the moral code of the Confucian scholars. But whereas the Great Ultimate, the source of everything according to Neo-Confucian thought, was impersonal, the Christian God was personal - a point which would have appealed to many people in a turbulent time.<7> In the generation from the mid-1880s to the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Christianity became firmly emplanted in Korea. In 1910, the year Korea was annexed by Japan, Protestant Christians alone accounted for one per-cent of the population of Korea. The church was growing rapidly with new churches and schools being opened all the time. The Christian community included amongst its members some of the most educated, socially progressive, and patriotic members of society. It was not confined, however, to one region of the country or one class of people. the Korean Church was established in all regions of the nation and amongst all classes. Consequently, the Christian community constituted the one pan-national body of Korean society which could oppose the Japanese on social, intellectual and spiritual grounds.<8>
III. Christian Experience in Colonial Korea to 1930The annexation of Korea by Japan was never accepted by the majority of the Korean people. Consequently, the Japanese administration, the Government-General, from the first was extraordinarily sensitive to criticisms of its rule, or any hints of a movement for Korean independence. Because the authorities saw the Christian Church as the one organized body which might oppose their rule, they attempted to remove the perceived Christian threat in two ways, firstly by the direct suppression of Christian dissent, and secondly by the support of the revival of Buddhism to act as a counterforce to Christianity. It is recorded that the authorities were suspicious of hymns such as "Onward Christian Soldiers" and nervous about organizations such as the Salvation Army.<9> This state of paranoia led very early on to attempts to suppress Christian political and social activity. In October, 1912, students and staff at the Presbyterian-run Kyongsin Boys' High School in Soul were arrested on suspicion of subversive activity. Later, in the northwestern city of Sonch'on more than a hundred persons were arrested on suspicion of participation in a plot to assassinate the Governor-General Terauchi Masatake (1852-1919) as he passed through the city on 29 December, 1910. Of the 125 persons brought to trial, 98 were Christians. Although there was a paucity of evidence against these defendants, 105 persons were sentenced to jail terms. Upon appeal, all but six were released. The convicted persons, all Christians, were sentenced to prison terms of ten years in an attempt to save the face of the Government-General. It is obvious that incidents such as this "Conspiracy Case" were intended to cow the Christian community into acquiescence in the Japanese domination of their country. The unintended effect of this oppression was to associate Christianity in the minds of the ordinary Korean with Korean nationalism.<10> Even before the formal annexation of Korea by Japan, during the period of the Residency-General (1905-1910), the Japanese attempted to control the educational system not only by control of the curriculum but also by attempting to limit Christian influence on Korean education. In 1908, an edict was issued by the Office of the Resident-General that all Korean schools should conform in practice to the Imperial Rescript on Education. The intention of this document, to make loyal subjects of the Emperor, was comprehensible in its own cultural and political context, but in the context of a Korea which was being encroached upon by an imperialistic Japan, it became a goad to Korean nationalism. This edict was revised in 1915 to include mission schools, which had been excluded initially from the provisions of the order. Two provisions of the edict were of especial concern. The order stated that instruction in schools had to be in the "national language", ie., Japanese. Moreover, there was a general stipulation that teachers in private (ie. Christian) schools had to have "proper qualifications", an obvious open-ended phrase which could be interpreted in any way to suit the policy of the moment. Further, although it was not explicityly stated in the decree, it was made clear privately that non-state schools would not be permitted to teach any religious subjects, nor would they be permitted to hold services of worship. This caused a great division in the mission community, which had finally reached an agreement though the assistance of the American Consul. Generally, Methodists tended toward acceptance of Japanese certification of their schools, whilst Presbyterians remained opposed. The situation altered completely after the March First Movement of 1919. The Government-General, in an attempt to placate Christian opinion, created a two-tier system of Certified Schools and Designated Schools. Mission schools were in the latter category, and it was clear that such designation was intended to classify them as being inferior schools. This practice was a subtle way in which the Japanese authorities hoped to turn Korean opinion against Christian schools and Christianity.<11> Christians had a high level of political awareness, a fact which is nowhere more clearly seen than in the composition and organization of the March First Movement of 1919, one of the watersheds of Korean history. Koreans, as were many colonial peoples, were greatly excited by the Peace Conference which followed upon the conclusion of the First World War, and the enunciation of Woodrow Wilson's principles of the right of peoples to the self-determination of their national destinies. Many Koreans saw this as an opportunity to shake off Japanese oppression. A group of men came together and created an organization which spread to all the major towns and cities of Korea. Many of the members of this organization were Christians who utilized the established links of the Christian churches to filter down information about the planned peaceful demonstration against Japanese rule. In fact, it was Christian insistence on non-violence which gave the March First Movement its peaceful character. The Christians refused to participate unless the movement was non-violent. Using the day of the funeral of the late King-Emperor Kojong (r.1863-1907) as the moment for the onset of the Independence Movement, thirty-three persons as Representatives of the People signed the Declaration of Independence, went to Pagoda Park in Soul, read out the Declaration, and turned themselves into the police. Fifteen of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Protestant Christians.<12> Beginning on that date, massive non-violent demonstrations took place throughout Korea, starting with a reading of the Declaration of Independence. Statistics show that approximately ten per-cent of the population took part in these demonstrations. As it is estimated that 57 per-cent of the participants were farmers, the March First Movement cannot be said to have been a movement of the intellectual elite. The organization of this movement was so carefully and quietly done that it took the Japanese administration completely by surprise. Consequently, the reaction was swift and brutal. Japanese government statistics alone state that the police killed more than 7,500 persons, more than twice that number were wounded, and forty-six thousand people were given prison or jail sentences. Compared with the population of the time, these staggering figures give a clear indication of the ferocity of the Japanese suppression of the movement and are a good indicator of why Koreans have a strong distrust of the Japanese. Churches were singled out for particular punishment. Forty-seven churches are known to have been burned down. In one well attested incident, villagers were herded into the local church which was then set on fire. News of this brutal suppression of an undeniably peaceful movement was first brought to the attention of the world by missionaries in Korea who were able to smuggle word out through China.<13> Because of the strong Christian participation in the Independence Movement, because of the Christian influence on the character of the movement, because many people were singled out for persecution because they were Christians, and because notice of the brutality of the Japanese was brought to the world's notice through Christian missionaries, an indissoluble link between Christianity and Korean nationalism was forged. Unfortunately, one of the results of the violent suppression of the movement was the creation of a mood of quiescence amongst the Korean population and the Christian community. During the decade of the 1920s, the element within the Church which emphasized personal piety and shied away from direct social concerns came to dominate the leadership of the Church. This mood of acceptance of the status quo was encouraged by the policy of cultural accommodation which was promoted by the new Governor-General, Saito Makoto (1858-1936). None the less, the link between Korean nationalism and Christianity remained firm and unbroken.<14> Another policy which the Japanese administration carried out throughout the colonial period was the encouragement of Buddhism. A shabby former shadow of itself, Buddhism in late Chos times looked as if it would pass away. That it did not do so is in part due to the efforts which the Japanese colonial government put forth to re-organize and strengthen Buddhism. This was not done for strictly altruistic reasons, but for the purpose of creating a counter religious force to Christianity. Buddhist political and social activity until very recently has been slight indeed. This may attributed to the way in which the Government-General created structures to strengthen and control Buddhism, gave large sums of money to support Buddhist publications and cultural activities, and gave substantial tracts of land in order to ensure the financial security of the Buddhist order. Even though there were patriotic monks who resisted these interferences with Buddhist internal affairs, it is incontrovertible that the Japanese tried to use Buddhism as a tool to further the colonial domination of Korea. In turn this created an impression that Buddhism was not patriotic.<15>
IV. Korean Christians Confront Shinto NationalismFrom the late 1920s on, Korea as the principal dependency of Japan suffered greatly from the internal political changes which were occurring in the metropolitan nation. Although at the beginning of the decade it seemed as if government by political parties might finally take root, by the end of the decade it was becoming clear that the Japanese military and its various factions were beginning not only to control the levers of governmental authority but in some cases to act independently of government. The strength of the military continued to increase from the late 1920s through to the 1940s. By the early 1930s there were attempts to provoke a military takeover of the government, such as the incident of 15 May, 1932. The polite indulgence with which the defendants who were tried for this insurrection were treated is some indication of the acceptability and power of their jingoistic ideas in Japan at that time. Within the army, there emerged two principal groups, the "Imperial Way Faction" led by General Araki Sadao (1877-1966) and General Mazaki Jinzaburo (1876-1981) and the "Control Faction" led by General Nagata Tetsuzan (1884-1935). The later group took a more practical view towards the zaibatsu and the government in order to build a militarily strong Japan, whilst the former group had a more mystical view of divine imperial rule. Although these factions differed in many ways in terms of their political outlook and policies, the rise of these jingoistic military factions helped to cultivate the rise of a nationalism based upon State Shinto. The Shinto nationalism which they fostered in turn supported their own political parties and jingoistic policies.<16> From the late 1920s, as Shinto nationalism came more to the fore, Korean Christians were increasingly faced with the question of how they should respond practically and theologically to this new factor in the colonial rule of their country. The beginning of this new colonial situation may be dated to the erection of the central Shinto shrine for Korea in S ul in 1925 and the enforced attendance at the shrine's ceremonies by students and ordinary citizens. This was not the first Shinto shrine erected in Korea. Probably the first Shinto shrine in Korea was erected to Amaterasu omikami in Inch'on in 1883. Shrines such as these, however, were intended for the use of Japanese residents in Korea and were not officially considered to be State Shinto shrines. Shrines given the latter designation were not considered legally to be religious structures but were said to be places for the performance of patriotic rites associated with the ancestors of the imperial family and the nation. With the construction of the Chosen-jingu in 1925, the religious situation changed dramatically. It was plain that in the future, all Koreans could called upon to perform a "patriotic act" at one of these shrines. By the end of the colonial era in 1945, there were a total of 1,140 shrines associated with the State Shinto cult. Thus, during the colonial era the shrines of an allegedly non-religious (ie. patriotic) cult became prevalent throughout Korea, visibly reminding Koreans of the fact of the colonial domination of their country.<17> The effect of these shrines has been succinctly stated by a historian of Methodist missions: "The shrine question was especially difficult for the Korean Christians, for it touched them both as Christians and as patriots. All aside from its alleged religious implications, Shintoism was an expression of the national culture of Korea's conquerors; if it was incompatible with Christianity, it certainly was anathema to Korean nationalism".<18> The Shinto Shrine Question touched Korean Christians both as patriots and as Christians. It was an offence both nationally and theologically. Objection to the performance of the "patriotic" rites on either grounds or both would be seen - as was intended - to be a political offence punishable by law, and not merely as a misdemeanour or oversight in behaviour. The ground was laid for what was to become the major political, social and religious conflict of the 1930s. Overtly, the conflict could be interpreted to be a conflict of beliefs, between Christian faith and Shinto belief. Covertly, it was a conflict between two nationalisms, Korean patriotism and Japanese jingoistic nationalism. It is an interesting historical fact that a recently missionized, clearly foreign religion had accommodated itself so quickly in Korea that it became the standard bearer of Korean nationalism in little more than a generation. It is also interesting in this context to note that whereas before it had been the more theologically liberal Christians who had been involved in the confrontation with the Japanese authorities, in the 1930s, it was the theologically conservative wing which opposed the power of Japanese colonialism. In 1925, Governor-General Saito, who recognized that there would be resistance to attendance at shrine rituals, issued a statement that the State Shinto rites were dedicated to the nation's ancestors and were therefore patriotic and not religious in character. The Governor-General stated further that prescribed attendance at the rituals was not being used as an attempt to compel Koreans to practice Japanese religion. Moreover, he affirmed the fact that all school pupils would be required to attend such ceremonies. This affirmation created a further and more explicit problem for Christian schools which were already struggling with the question of "Designated Schools". It is interesting to note that this policy would seem to be a contradiction to the general trend of Saito's administration which in the aftermath of the March First Movement had tried to appease Korean citizens by a policy of cultural accommodation and support. While on the one hand seeming to encourage the development of and interest in Korean culture, Saito was also seen to be forcing upon the Korean nation a prime symbol of Japanese colonial exploitation.<19> From the early 1930s, with party politics in Japan going into abeyance and the power of the military taking firmer control of the government, the stricter enforcement of student attendance at shrine rituals became an increasing problem for Christians which affected both the missionary and the Korean Christian. By 1935, pressure was building up to remove from schools and colleges those missionaries who opposed the Shinto practices. The first to be forced to do so was Dr. George S. McCune, President of Union Christian College in P'y ang who left Korea in late 1935. The problem of maintaining open schools under these conditions became so acute that the Northern Presbyterian missionaries in P'y ang voted in June, 1936 to close their college and schools. The Southern Presbyterian mission likewise closed its schools in September, 1937. These reactions to the threat of Shinto nationalism were not, however, wholeheartedly accepted by the parents of students who had been sent home. There was considerable opposition to this loss of one of the best opportunities for Korean children to obtain a good education. Mindful of these problems, the Methodists took a different approach to the Shrine Question. Schools were placed in the hands of Korean Christians and the Methodist Mission in Korea adopted a resolution in 1937 accepting the Government-General's interpretation of the patriotic nature of the rites, which was subsequently confirmed by the Mission Board in America in June, 1938. This enabled the Mission to continue to conduct education and provide Christian religious instruction, although later it could be seen to have seriously compromised the position of Korean Methodists.<20> The measures taken by the Japanese authorities from the mid-1930s on to control mission schools and education was paralleled by their attempts to control the actual denominations themselves. One of the most dramatic incidents concerned the 1938 General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church. Using selected stooges, the Japanese authorities had a resolution brought to the General Assembly which approved of the attendance by Christians at the patriotic rites of State Shinto. Before the convening of the General Assembly key Commissioners were approached by the police and threatened. The General Assembly convened in a very tense atmosphere with the doors to the hall being guarded by policemen "dressed", as one eye witness put it, "as for a riot".<21> The police also intervened to eliminate contrary motions and procedural objections. The General Assembly passed the resolution approving of attendance at shrine rituals and also a further resolution approving conformity to a law which required worship to occur only in those places issued with a government permit. These resolutions were important for the enforcement of a Shinto nationalism. Until the General Assembly had passed these resolutions, it would have been possible for a Korean Presbyterian to say that he could not do so as it went against the tenets of his faith and the practice of fellow believers. A Presbyterian could now no longer do so.<22> Perhaps one of the saddest cases of this period is the example of the Bishop of the Korean Methodist Church, Chong Chun-su (1875-1955), who under extreme police pressure became a puppet of the Japanese authorities. It would seem, however, that one of the senior Methodist laymen may have been ultimately responsible for this situation. In late 1939, Ch became bishop, originally a one-term office. In early 1940, almost immediately upon assuming office, the bishop placed virtually all the prominent church leaders on the inactive membership list, because they were perceived to be anti-Japanese and pro-American. One of the strangest resolutions which this man promulgated during his administration was the forbidding in January, 1944 of the use of any of the books of the Old Testament and the Revelation of St. John, probably because they were seen to contain politically subversive material. Although the Methodist Church had been organizationally compromised, the witness of those laymen who had been proscribed vividly demonstrated their rejection of political interference in the affairs of the church.<23> Just as the Japanese authorities attempted to control the institutional church through manipulation of key members of the establishment, they also attempted to control individual Christian expression of opposition to State Shinto. One missionary who lived through that era states that he has documented evidence of thirty persons who were martyred for their Christian faith,<24> whilst another missionary states that he knows of more than fifty such persons.<25> Undoubtedly, these figures may only be the tip of the iceberg of those Christians who died for their faith in prison, or as the result of brutal treatment by the Japanese colonial police or the kempeitai. Koreans gave their witness to Christianity and against idolatry throughout the country, but the strongest areas of Christian dissent were in the northwestern part of the peninsula, the furthest corner of the southeast, and those areas in Manchuria where the Korean diaspora lived. Those parts of the Korean peninsula mentioned above were the strongest centres of Christianity and were the parts of Korea which had been allocated by the Comity Agreement of 1908 to Presbyterian missions. Following the disastrous General Assembly of 1938, several Presbyterians withdrew from the church, some of whom fled to Manchuria. In northern Manchuria this group and other Koreans living there drew up a covenant which put forth the Biblical teaching on idolatry and condemned those Christians who had compromised on this issue.<26> This group in effect formed a church body similar to the Confessing Church of Nazi Germany. Actions such as these were typical of many Christians from the late 1930s to the end of the colonial occupation. Because these conservative Christians opposed the imposition of the State Shinto cult - the symbol of Shinto nationalism, they are numbered among the great heroes of Korean nationalism. It is important to stress, however, that none of these Christians, eminent or humble, was making a political point. Their protest was exclusively a religious one. While it is certain that virtually all of them also will have harboured feelings against Japanese colonial rule, what motivated these martyrs for Christianity was their faith and their faith alone. Their Christian beliefs also sustained them under extreme persecution - particularly their knowledge that if they were to die they would return home to God. It is not because of their perceived political protest that they have become nationalist heroes, but because of their religious protest. The firmness of their commitment to their religious cause under brutal persecution has helped to give Korean Christianity a deep patriotic cast. Whilst in the early part of the century, liberal patriotic Korean Christians built schools and engaged in social and political activity lending Korean Christianity a patriotic character, it was the religious protest and sacrifice of mid-century conservative Christians which further deepened the patriotic image of the Church. One could say that because the protests of the 1930s were strictly religious in character, the patriotism of the Christians was of a purer type, in that they eschewed the violence engaged in by the political activists. In turn this quality created a climate favourable to the growth of Christianity.
V. Japanese Christians Submit to Shinto NationalismThe reaction of Japanese Christians to the rise of Shinto nationalism and the requirement for attendance at Shinto ceremonies is instructive for its differences from the Korean Christian reaction. J. T. Copplestone notes that "for the Japanese Christians, shrine practices were a part of their general culture and not prima facie alien to them. Furthermore, since the Japanese Christians were loyal to Japan, their leaders realized that radical rejection of shrine obeisance would attach to them the false and unnecessary stigma of being unpatriotic. That would have had the potentiality of provoking the authorities into banning the entire Christian movement as subversive".<27> In this view, Japanese Christian familiarity with the allegedly secular and patriotic nature of the rites would have been conducive to an acquiescence in their government's interpretation of the State Shinto rituals. In addition, the fear of being seen to be unpatriotic and the possible suppression of the public profession of Christian faith may have led many Japanese Christians to be silent on the issue of the Shinto Shrine Question. The problem facing the Japanese Christian was not unlike the problem which faced German Christians at the same time with the creation of the German Christian Church. It is instructive here to note that there was no equivalent of the Confessing Church in Japan. For Koreans the situation was very different because the Shinto rites were both alien and unpatriotic, in addition to which for Christians they were idolatrous. The dilemna of faith versus patriotism became an issue very early on for the Japanese Christian, ironically at about the same time that Christianity was becoming associated with Korean nationalism. The first major insistence of the perceived conflict between faith and patriotism was the 'L se Majest Incident' of 1891 when Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930) refused to bow properly before the portrait of the Emperor Meiji and a copy of the Imperial Rescript on Education. The government's position at that time was that such ritual behaviour was a patriotic act and not an act of religious worship.<28> The reactions of the nationalists to persecute Uchimura and of the Christians to avoid conflict in order to protect the Church set the tone for the reactions to all subsequent confrontations until 1945. The extent of the problem during the period of most intense concern over the Shinto Shrine Question is indicated by a three-fold set of guidelines which was issued by the National Christian Council of Japan in 1937. The Council instructed Christians that 1) they should recognize the national character of the shrines and pay their respects to the personages memorialised in them, 2) they should accept the government's claim that the shrines were not religious in character, and 3) that they should work to eliminate any remaining religious aspects of shrine rituals.<29> In the previous year, the Roman Catholic Church already had accepted the government's claim that shrine rituals were patriotic and not religious. As a result, in 1937 a group of eminent Japanese Christians went to the holiest shrine of Shinto, the Grand Shrine of Ise, where they implored the Shinto kami to strengthen the spirit of the Japanese people and to extend the glory of the Japanese emperor. Also in the same year, Japanese Catholic and Protestant church leaders became involved in government-sponsored movements to explain to the Western world Japan's wartime activities.<30> With the enactment of the Religious Bodies Law of 1940, the situation became even more severe. Not only were most of the Protestant churches forcibly merged into a single church body, the Kyodan, but the format of Christian worship was affected. Portions of the Apostles' Creed had to be removed because they contradicted the divinity of the Emperor, and certain hymns such as "Onward Christian Soldiers" or "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" had to be dropped. In addition, every service of worship had to be preceeded by a five-minute period devoted to obeisance to the Emperor and the singing of the national athemn. During the 1940s, the Kyodan promoted a new syncretic religion called the Imperial Way of Christianity (Kodo Kirisutokyo) which proclaimed that serving God and the Emperor were the same.<31> Although the institutional church substantially gave in to the government's view on the meaning of State Shinto rites, people associated with the Mukyokai (Non-church Movement) such as Uchimura Kanzo, Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961), and Nambara Shigeru (1889-1974) gave a firm witness to the incompatability of Shinto nationalism and Christian faith.<32>
VI. The Aftermath of Shinto Nationalism in Korea and JapanFollowing Liberation from Japan on 15 August, 1945, the religious scene in Korea changed dramatically. State Shinto and Sect Shinto both ceased to function. The Japanese-created united Protestant church immediately fell apart and the old denominations began to re-emerge. Amongst Christians of all denominations, there were acrimonious debates and conflict between those who had compromised themselves on the Shinto Shrine Question and those who had not. There was much debate in all the churches about repentance and reconciliation with regard to the Shrine Question. Resolutions were passed by assemblies and accusations exchanged. In addition, whole groups separated themselves from their main denominational bodies. One of the most important of these groups is the Koryo-pa Presbyterian group who refuse to have fellowship with anyone who conformed. In the view of an American historian of Korea, the controversy over participation in the shrine rituals is the source for much of the fractiousness of the contemporary Korean church.<33> The reaction of the Japanese Church to the defeat of Japan and its own freedom from Shinto Nationalism was strikingly different from the Korean churches's reaction. One scholar states that the Japanese Church rejected the need to examine its war-time complicity in the jingoistic attitudes of the government because the church leadership took the position that the nation itself should repent and that the nation should be rebuilt through faith in Christ. Whilst engaged in an active programme of evangelism, the leadership felt that it was irrelevant and inopportune to examine the role of Christians in accepting the war effort of the Japanese government. It was only when the first treaty was signed between Japan and the Republic of Korea in 1965 that the Japanese Church made an open admission of its complicity.<34>
VII. ConclusionsThe case of Korean Protestantism is an interesting study in the relationship between Christianity, political protest, and nationalism. In many ways it forms a uniquely instructive case. -1. Protestant Christianity became emplanted at a very early period in Korea. During the period of accommodation with Korean society, Protestantism became associated with progressive political and scientific ideas which were thought to be capable of revitalizing the nation. Protestantism thus obtained a patriotic character by extension. -2. The generally perceived patriotic character of Protestantism would be true equally of the more theologically liberal and conservative branches of the Church, although the periods in which these factions were associated with political protest were not the same. -3. The Shinto Shrine Question became a conflict between two forms of nationalism which was in a sense disguised as a religious conflict. -4. In the case of the Government-General, Shinto nationalism was a conscious and deliberate use of a religious faith for nationalistic purposes. Attendance at shrine worship was used by the authorities as a tool for the colonial government to mould the thoughts of the Korean people and to control their behaviour. It was additionally a means to cow the Christian community - a potential source of alternative ideas- into conformity. -5. In the case of the Korean Christians who protested against shrine worship, their protest was unconsciously political and nationalistic. Their protest was primarily religious and secondarily political. Whereas Shinto nationalism was a deliberate, and perhaps, cynical use of religion for political purposes, the Korean Christian protest derived its nationalistic aspect from the context of its protest rather than its intention. -6. Japanese Christians acquiesced in participation in State Shinto rituals because of the unresolved conflict between their own sense of patriotism and Christian faith. In some cases, it led to gross syncretism. -7. In contrast to members of the Japanese institutional church and its leadership, the members of the Non-church Movement provided a clearer Christian witness, perhaps because the institutional leadership felt that they had to preserve the church organization.
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