The Holy Terror

I read this for a pre-modern Japanese history course and as far as assigned reading goes, it wasn't bad. It's a pretty easy and fast read but a lot of the themes either went over my head or were unrelatable because I'm not Catholic. I had a hard time connecting with the characters; I just couldn't understand what they were going through.This novel tells the story of a fictional Portuguese priest named Sebastian Rodrigues who is modeled after a real priest, Giuseppe Chiara, who went to Japan in 1643 as a Christian missionary. At that time, Christianity was outlawed in Japan and the country had closed off trade with foreign countries. Sailing to and getting into Japan was a hard task in and of itself, but Rodrigues thought it was worth the hardship in order to save the souls of the Japanese. Rodrigues decides to go to Japan as a missionary and also to find out the fate of his mentor, Father Christovao Ferreira. Once Rodrigues lands on Japanese soil with his fellow priest Francisco Garrpe he quickly seeks out Christians with the help of a peasant named Kichijiro whom they met in Macao. Kichijiro takes them to the village of Tomogi where they are hidden in a hut and visited daily by Christians who wish to pray and tell their sins. Eventually, officials raid Tomogi looking for the two priests based on an anonymous tip. The priests flee the village, but not before witnessing the torture and death of two Christians who refused to apostatize. Rodrigues and Garrpe part ways soon after leaving Tomogi. Rodrigues happens upon Kichijiro and they travel together for a short while. Rodrigues finds out that the bounty on his head is 300 silver coins and he believes that Kichijiro will turn him over to the officials. Sure enough, Rodrigues is captured and Kichijiro is rewarded. Father Rodrigues is never physically tortured but he is forced to watch and listen to the torture of others. Throughout his imprisonment he is forced to look within himself for answers. He starts to wonder if there is a God that would allow people to suffer as the Japanese Christians do. Christians are drowned and executed because Rodrigues will not apostatize. It is not until he finally speaks with Ferreira that he tramples on the picture of Christ and apostatizes, saving the lives of three Japanese. Before he steps on the image, he hears the voice of Christ say, "Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men’s pain that I carried my cross." He realizes that it is not the Japanese officials that he is fighting with but his own faith until he is forced to renounce it. It is not until the moment that he apostatizes that he realizes that it was his faith in God that he had to rely on and not God Himself to relieve his suffering.What's funny is at the end the priest finally realizes that you shouldn't get all wrapped up in the institution of religion, you should try to lead by example and live a good moral Christian life. He stood by and watched people die because he wouldn't give up his faith. An apostate pretty much said to him, "You know, Jesus would have apostatized to save these people, it's not what other people think of you, it's what you know in your heart." And I was thinking, well duh, that's what I thought at the beginning and I'm not even Catholic!I wouldn't have read this if I wasn't forced to, but I did enjoy learning more about how the people lived during the time period, so it wasn't a total loss.