The Jesuits arrived in Japan in 1549, the great missionary St. Francis Xavier leading the campaign to convert the island people.Along with them came traders, whose goods were valued even ifthe Godwords of the priests were greeted with respectful curiosity butnot much enthusiasm. Yet a small church grew. In 1597, Japan’s ruler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, came to believe that histroubles were due to a loss of nationalistic fervor. Thus he directed thecleansing that outlawed Christian worship and led to the arrest of twenty-six Christian men, nineteen of them Japanese. Following a monthlongwinter march, the men were crucified on Nishizaka Hill on crosses cutto fit the dimensions of each of the condemned. It is said that when thecolumn of prisoners saw their crosses lying in the wheat field beside thehill, they each embraced theirs, and one of the condemned asked that hishands be nailed to the crossbar. For the rest, chains and iron straps keptthe men suspended until a squad of executioners finished the work bypushing spears into their chests. The men were a mix of ages and backgrounds. Louis Ibaraki wasonly twelve years old. He died with a child’s vision of flying from hiscross into Heaven. John of Goto was nineteen,
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