THE ERA OF THE “TODAISHA”

On September 6, 1926, an American-Japanese, Junzo Akashi, arrived in Japan as the Society’s missionary to Japan, Korea and China. He established a branch in Kobe, but this was later moved to Ginza, Tokyo, and finally to Ogikubo, then on the outskirts of Tokyo, where a printing plant was set up. Until the outbreak of World War II, Japan, Korea and Taiwan were covered by full-time Watch Tower colporteurs from Japan. The number of these in Japan reached a peak of 110 in 1938. It seems that there were no congregational meetings, such as the Watchtower study, but emphasis was placed on street meetings and distribution of the Japanese edition of The Golden Age (later, Consolation). In 1938 alone, 1,125,817 magazines were distributed. Akashi gave the organization the name “Todaisha,” meaning “The Lighthouse.”

From the time of the “Manchurian Incident” of September 18, 1931, militarism was very much on the ascendancy in Japan. Accordingly, on May 16, 1933, Akashi and a number of others were arrested and examined by the public procurators on suspicion of having violated the 1925 Peace Preservation law of Japan’s police state. However, they were soon released because of lack of evidence. But further difficulties loomed on the horizon!

After Japan joined Germany in an anti-Communist pact in 1936, all religious bodies came under heavy pressure from the government. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church changed its position with regard to doing obeisance to Shinto shrines, permitting this as a “nonreligious” ceremony! The government asked all religious bodies to send their representatives to the front to pray for Japan’s victory, and most complied. Under the Religious Bodies law of 1939, Buddhist sects and Christendom’s sects respectively were compelled to unite their denominations. In 1944, both the Protestant alliance (Kyodan) and the Roman Catholic Church joined the Japan Wartime Patriotic Religious Association, along with the Shinto and Buddhist sects. How were Jehovah’s witnesses treated during the oppressive rule of the Shinto warlords, supported by their pantheon of “eight million gods”?

A summary report prepared by the Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs in 1947 describes those turbulent days: “In May 1933, Akashi and several of his associates . . . were arrested on lese majesty charges in Chiba Prefecture and the Todai-sha was dissolved. It was reorganized and many members . . . (some 200 in all, including 50 residents of Tokyo) were dispatched throughout Japan, Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan, etc., making speeches and distributing literature [translated] by Akashi. They asserted that the doctrine of the Trinity was false and advocated a ‘Jehovah’ monotheism; that all religions other than that of the Todai-sha were inventions of Satan, and that the political organization of the world was also an invention of Satan causing oppressive war, poverty and disease; that Christ would rise and destroy these satanic inventions in Armageddon and construct the Kingdom of God. Finally, and this was the crux of the case as far as the Japanese courts were concerned, because otherwise they would have had no interest in the doctrines of this or any other religious body, ‘the Todai-sha was assisting in the establishment of Jehovah’s organization and system.’ Since this assertion was considered as a plan to overthrow the Japanese state structure (Kokutai), the members of the Todai-sha were arrested on June 21, 1939, and some were found guilty.”

Volume I of Study of Resistance in War Time, edited by the Institute for Study of Cultural Science, Doshisha University, Kyoto, and published in 1968, gives an extensive report on the activity and persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses in Japan prior to and during World War II. This report is based largely on actual court records. Some of Jehovah’s witnesses, as well as some who have left the truth, were also interviewed. The report mentions the earlier court order of 1933, prohibiting the distribution of The Watchtower and most of the other Society publications, but says that, by 1938, more than 105,000 publications were being produced each month. (These were mostly The Golden Age, later known as Consolation magazine.) Then a description of imprisonments and court trials is given, as detailed in the following paragraphs:

In January 1939, three members of the Todaisha were brought before the draft board. These stated, “We will not worship any creature above Jehovah, nor will we bow toward the Emperor’s palace or his photograph.” They also said: “Since the Emperor is a creature of the original Creator of the universe, Jehovah God, and since today the Emperor is no more than an instrument of the Devil’s wicked rule, we have no desire to worship the Emperor or to swear allegiance to him.” They were sentenced to from two to three years in prison.

On June 21, 1939, in one swoop, 130 others of the Todaisha were arrested​—ninety-one (including Junzo Akashi) in Tokyo and eighteen other prefectures in Japan, thirty in Korea and nine in Taiwan. The Todaisha headquarters in Tokyo were surrounded by more than one hundred armed police, and a thorough search was made. Here, twenty adults and six children were arrested. Akashi, his wife, and second and third sons were put in the lockup at Ogikubo police station.

In August 1939, Junzo Akashi alone was transferred to the Ogu police station. For seven months he was investigated there by special police of the religious department. They used violence in order to extract “confessions” from him. He was tortured day and night, and had as his cell mates poisonous insects, mosquitoes, lice and bugs. He was kicked and thrown repeatedly to the floor, and his face beaten until it was unrecognizable. His whole body was covered with wounds. Finally, according to this Doshisha University report, he gave up and put his seal to anything the police asked of him. After increasingly violent cross-examinations, the police completed their report on Junzo Akashi on April 1, 1940.

On April 27, 1940, Akashi and fifty-two others were charged formally with violating the Peace Preservation law. Akashi himself was also charged with sedition against the government and disrespect for the emperor. On August 27 of the same year, the Todaisha was banned as an illegal organization that incited public disorder. The trial of Junzo Akashi and the fifty-two others continued through 1941 and 1942, during which time one died of illness. Finally, all but one, who responded to the military call-up, were convicted and sentenced. Junzo Akashi received a sentence of twelve years and the others from two to five years of imprisonment.

Police investigations were accompanied by all kinds of violence and torture. Less severe treatment came in the form of cursing and beating, but often sadistic handling resulted in crippling and maiming. Due to the long period of living in unsanitary cells, many became ill or incapacitated. Some died in prison. Families were scattered or disappeared, and many fell into pitiable circumstances.

One of the Todaisha was first confined in Tokyo Yoyogi Military Prison in June 1939, and later released on December 16, 1940. Rearrested in Kumamoto on December 1, 1941, he was held in a small, dark cell for two months with his arms tied up behind his back. He was repeatedly beaten. In August 1942, two military policemen beat and kicked him for an hour and a half before the eyes of his father, and left him half-dead. This was on account of his refusal to bow in the direction of the emperor’s palace. While in the same prison, in midwinter, December 1944, he was stripped of his clothes, his arms were tied behind his back and he was laid out on a wet concrete floor. Bucketsful of water were poured over his face and nose until he was unconscious, and then he was left for several hours until he revived. The same process was repeated again and again. When finally released from Fukuoka Prison in October 1945, he was more dead than alive.

The book Study of Resistance in War Time concludes its report: “But even through persecution of this kind, many of the Todaisha continued to keep their faith, awaiting their release that came in 1945.”

In time, Brother and Sister Ishii were reassigned to colporteur work. On June 21, 1939, they were arrested along with all others of the Todaisha. At that time they were in Kure. They were taken first to Hiroshima, and then sent north to Sendai. Here they were subjected to repeated cross-examinations. The investigating inspector of police told them: “Todaisha has the name of Christian, but actually it is a Jewish secret organization, the KKK.” In their concrete cells the summer heat was unbearable, and in winter they were frozen through and through. Conditions were most unsanitary, with plenty of fleas and lice, and they were permitted to go to the toilet only at set times. They wasted away and had spells of dizziness. They could hear the crazed cries from a nearby cell of a soldier who had been driven out of his mind on the battlefield. For a whole year, they were forbidden to read anything.

It was a pleasure for them to breathe fresh air whenever they were taken out to be examined. On one such occasion, Brother Ishii tried to use the Bible, but the officer said: “Do not answer from the Bible. Answer in your own words. You are demonized, because you always want to use the Bible.” As he tried to explain in his own words what the Bible said, the officer’s face grew angry. He said: “Then we will stop the examination, and you will have no supper tonight. Think it over in your cell.” They were returned to their dark cells. Next day, they were taken out for further investigation. The assistant inspector came in to hear the testimony. “Why don’t you get free from this demonism?” he shouted, at the same time striking Brother Ishii on his head and face with a rope. They heard the noise of other brothers’ being beaten with bamboo fencing swords and being thrown on the ground.

One day the inspector got angry, threw Brother Ishii’s Bible on the floor, stamped on it and, looking him in the face, said: “Aren’t you angry?” “I don’t feel good about it, but I’m not angry,” Brother Ishii replied. The inspector could not understand that, so Brother Ishii explained: “The Bible is a book. We are not saved by that book. But our salvation is promised from our following the things written in the Word of God, having faith in them and carrying them out.” The inspector picked up the Bible, took a handkerchief from the pocket of his uniform, politely wiped the dirt from the Bible and put it back on the desk.

As Brother Ishii’s investigation proceeded, the police showed him a report on testimony given by Junzo Akashi, and which astonished him in that it was a clear departure from the truth. They asked him: “Do you believe Akashi?” He said: “No. Akashi is an imperfect man. So long as Akashi follows the principles of the Bible faithfully, he may be used as God’s vessel. But because his testimony is now entirely different, he is no longer my brother. Therefore, I do not have any relation with him.” Akashi had stated in this testimony that he himself was Christ.

In cross-examining Brother Ishii, the officer tried to make him say that Japan would be defeated by September 15, 1945. Brother Ishii said: “I am not such a prophet, that I can prophesy anything about the year, the month and the day. But victory will not come through the alliance of the Axis Powers.” This police inspector was later purged, but Brother Ishii was released. He returned to Kure. After the war, he made contact with Jehovah’s organization again when, along with his six-year-old son, adopted after his release, he attended the first postwar assembly at Tarumi, Kobe, in December 1949.