A Japanese Portrait
April 2, 2011
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Daniel Mitsui
— Comments —
Thomas F. Bertonneau writes:
Regarding Daniel Mitsui’s Japanese “Our Lady of Perpetual Help:” the most Christian city of Japan was, by a terrific irony, Nagasaki, one of the two targets of the late-war atomic attacks.
A modern saint (albeit one yet to be recognized) is Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986). Before World War Two he was the Japanese envoy to the independent nation of Lithuania. During his diplomatic mission, he converted to Orthodox Christianity. Between the German invasion of Poland and the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, he issued something like 2,000 visas to Lithuanian Jews, permitting them to leave the country via Russia in transit to Japan.
Although only one per cent of Japanese are Christian, Christmas is a widely celebrated holiday in Japan. It has become a custom to attend – and to sing along in – performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Christmastide.
