Reflecting on religious friction in U.S. society

Reflecting on religious friction in U.S. society

Foreigners who arrived on Japan's shores during the closing days of the Edo period and the Meiji period were quick to pick up on Japanese people's religious sense, noticing that they would make New Year's visits to Shinto shrines, conduct Buddhist funerals and celebrate Christmas.

Highlighting this trend in his book "Yukishi Yo no Omokage," author Kyoji Watanabe quotes one British scholar as saying that it was interesting to see the perplexed expressions of the Japanese when one asked them whether they were Shinto or Buddhist. The work also introduces the words of a Dutch officer who commented that history may have shaped Japanese people's perceptions. The officer believed that Japanese people would probably enshrine a Christian icon next to a Japanese deity without any qualms.

It was the religious figures who surprised foreigners more than anything. One Church of England bishop by the name of Smith who took up lodgings at a temple in Nagasaki asked the resident priest for a larger room. At the request the priest cleared away a Buddhist statue and allowed this missionary from another religion to use the Buddhist altar room. To Christians, this act was no doubt hard to believe.

Moving on to today, a church in Florida is planning to burn Qurans on Sept. 11, the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The plans have caused a commotion, with the U.S. government calling for a halt to the move. The situation follows a backlash sparked by plans to erect a mosque near Ground Zero, where one of the attacks occurred.

To a Japanese person who would hand over a Buddhist altar room to someone from a different religion, an act like the one planned in Florida may be difficult to comprehend.

Freedom of speech and expression is an idea that can be traced back to religious tolerance in which people of different religions coexist peacefully. We should not forget that that this tolerance is wisdom that people have arrived at after tasting the tragedy of bloody religious wars.

Protests by Muslims against the burning of their holy book have already begun in Afghanistan, and the U.S. military has warned that the actions of the Florida church could endanger U.S. troops.

As the situation involves faiths that cannot concede ground, it is our hope that U.S. society will not lose its tolerance that enables people to respect each other. ("Yoroku," a front-page column in the Mainichi Shimbun)