The Day God Came on the Radio
This is a story -- a parable, if you will -- of why it's imporant to study other people's religions. More exactly, it's an example of what could happen if you don't try to understand other people's religious traditions. Names of people, places, gods and goddesses have been changed to avoid reader's-bias. At the end, I'll tell you the basis for the story. Now, remember, in order to get the full impact of the story, you have to realize that for the people who believe in this religion, this story is as true as, say, the Genesis account is to a Jew or Christian. Let's call the people who's religion this is the "Islanders" for lack of a better pseudonym.
In the beginning, a god and a goddess were looking out over the world, which was enveloped in water... The god threw down his spear from heaven, and created the first land-mass. He and his wife (the goddess) descended to the earth and made all kinds of creatures and beings, but something went wrong. When the goddess was creating fire, she got badly burnt, and ended up dying. She descended to the underworld, a place of impurity, because her burns had disfigured and damaged her body so badly. The god got lonely, and searched everywhere for his wife. Finally, he found her in the underworld, but she sent him away, lest he become impure because he had been in the underworld. So the god returned to earth and purified himself by jumping in the ocean. When he jumped in the ocean, he created all kinds of other creatures and gods, including the Sun (a god). The Sun had a son, who married a human being, and together they had another son, who was fully divine and fully human, who became the first king of the Islanders.
Every king of the Islanders descended from this son, and was also fully god and fully human. The king, because he was divine, was never heard from or seen in public. When he went outside, he was covered up, and when he had something to say, he had an aide say it for him. In order to preserve their religion from outside influences, the Islanders made their religion the official religion of their nation. The king would often go to the temple and ask his ancestor, the Sun, for advice and wisdom. The nation's schools all taught the special nature of their people, and the divinity of their king, and everyone in the nation knew that their king was a god.
This was the Islander's life for many thousands of years: their king was god, and they were created specially by the gods on the island where the god's spear had landed. Then, one day, the Islanders got into a great war with the other inhabitants of the world. Eventually, after many years of fighting for their country and their king (god) the Islanders were defeated. On the first day of the New Year after their defeat in war, something happened that had not happened before.
God got on the radio.
The king, who was not seen or heard from before, got on national radio and said to all of the Islanders:
"We stand by the people and We wish always to share with them in their moments of joys and sorrows. The ties between Us and Our people have always stood upon mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends and myths.
They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world."
And the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito, renounced his divinity, and destroyed thousands of years of Japanese history, tradition and culture in doing so. God got on the radio and said that he was not God, that the creation account sacred to the Japanese was not true, and that they should not depend on "mere legends and myths."
The question begs to be asked, "Why would he do this?"
Maybe we should ask, "What does this have to do with why we should learn about other people's religions?"
Most of the readers of my blog live in Canada, though there may be some in the United States, or other "Allied" nations from the Second World War.
Your country -- my country -- made the Japanese give up what they had always known to be true: the divinity of their Emperor. Because the leaders of the allied nations did not understand the Japanese religion.
What if Hitler had won the war, and had said to the Pope, "You must tell the world that you are not in the line of Peter, and you do not speak for or on the behalf of God."
What if Saddam Hussein won against the Americans in the first Gulf War and told the Christian leaders "You must disavow Christ's divinity or we will not accept your surrender?"
What if? What if they told the Americans that they must give up free speech, because they just didn't think that it was important? Or that the Civil War must not be taught in school because they thought that politics shouldn't be in education?
What if?
Below, I've included the memo, sent to the Japanese (to the Emperor, really), outlining a condition of the Japanese surrender: The Directive for the Disestablishment of State Shinto. Don't get thrown off by the label "State Shinto" -- it is not a mixing of "church and state". It is not putting religion into government, where it doesn't belong. State Shinto is where we find the creation account that the Japanese people had believed for thousands of years. It's the religion that, according to Japanese scriptures, has the Emperor as the divine head of the Japanese people. The same Emperor who was forced to go on the radio and say that his own divinity was a myth.
That is why we need to learn about other people's religions. So we don't destroy them through our ignorance.
In the beginning, a god and a goddess were looking out over the world, which was enveloped in water... The god threw down his spear from heaven, and created the first land-mass. He and his wife (the goddess) descended to the earth and made all kinds of creatures and beings, but something went wrong. When the goddess was creating fire, she got badly burnt, and ended up dying. She descended to the underworld, a place of impurity, because her burns had disfigured and damaged her body so badly. The god got lonely, and searched everywhere for his wife. Finally, he found her in the underworld, but she sent him away, lest he become impure because he had been in the underworld. So the god returned to earth and purified himself by jumping in the ocean. When he jumped in the ocean, he created all kinds of other creatures and gods, including the Sun (a god). The Sun had a son, who married a human being, and together they had another son, who was fully divine and fully human, who became the first king of the Islanders.
Every king of the Islanders descended from this son, and was also fully god and fully human. The king, because he was divine, was never heard from or seen in public. When he went outside, he was covered up, and when he had something to say, he had an aide say it for him. In order to preserve their religion from outside influences, the Islanders made their religion the official religion of their nation. The king would often go to the temple and ask his ancestor, the Sun, for advice and wisdom. The nation's schools all taught the special nature of their people, and the divinity of their king, and everyone in the nation knew that their king was a god.
This was the Islander's life for many thousands of years: their king was god, and they were created specially by the gods on the island where the god's spear had landed. Then, one day, the Islanders got into a great war with the other inhabitants of the world. Eventually, after many years of fighting for their country and their king (god) the Islanders were defeated. On the first day of the New Year after their defeat in war, something happened that had not happened before.
God got on the radio.
The king, who was not seen or heard from before, got on national radio and said to all of the Islanders:
"We stand by the people and We wish always to share with them in their moments of joys and sorrows. The ties between Us and Our people have always stood upon mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends and myths.
They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world."
And the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito, renounced his divinity, and destroyed thousands of years of Japanese history, tradition and culture in doing so. God got on the radio and said that he was not God, that the creation account sacred to the Japanese was not true, and that they should not depend on "mere legends and myths."
The question begs to be asked, "Why would he do this?"
Maybe we should ask, "What does this have to do with why we should learn about other people's religions?"
Most of the readers of my blog live in Canada, though there may be some in the United States, or other "Allied" nations from the Second World War.
Your country -- my country -- made the Japanese give up what they had always known to be true: the divinity of their Emperor. Because the leaders of the allied nations did not understand the Japanese religion.
What if Hitler had won the war, and had said to the Pope, "You must tell the world that you are not in the line of Peter, and you do not speak for or on the behalf of God."
What if Saddam Hussein won against the Americans in the first Gulf War and told the Christian leaders "You must disavow Christ's divinity or we will not accept your surrender?"
What if? What if they told the Americans that they must give up free speech, because they just didn't think that it was important? Or that the Civil War must not be taught in school because they thought that politics shouldn't be in education?
What if?
Below, I've included the memo, sent to the Japanese (to the Emperor, really), outlining a condition of the Japanese surrender: The Directive for the Disestablishment of State Shinto. Don't get thrown off by the label "State Shinto" -- it is not a mixing of "church and state". It is not putting religion into government, where it doesn't belong. State Shinto is where we find the creation account that the Japanese people had believed for thousands of years. It's the religion that, according to Japanese scriptures, has the Emperor as the divine head of the Japanese people. The same Emperor who was forced to go on the radio and say that his own divinity was a myth.
Directive for the Disestablishment of State Shinto
Orders from the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers to the Japanese Government
15 December 1945
MEMORANDUM FOR: Imperial Japanese Government
THROUGH: Central Liaison Office, Tokyo
SUBJECT: Abolition of Governmental Sponsorship, Support, Perpetuation, Control, and Dissemination of State Shinto
1. In order to free the Japanese people from direct or indirect compulsion to believe or profess to believe in a religion or cult officially designated by the state, and
In order to lift from the Japanese people the burden of compulsory financial support of an ideology which has contributed to their war guilt, defeat, suffering, privation, and present deplorable condition, and
In order to prevent recurrence of the perversion of Shinto theory and beliefs into militaristic and ultra-nationalistic propaganda designed to delude the Japanese people and lead them into wars of aggression, and
In order to assist the Japanese people in a rededication of their national life to building a new Japan based upon ideals of perpetual peace and democracy,
It is hereby directed that:
a. The sponsorship, support, perpetuation, control, and dissemination of Shinto by the Japanese national, prefectual, and local governments, or by public officials, subordinates, and employees acting in their official capacity are prohibited and will cease immediately.
b. All financial support from public funds and all official affiliation with Shinto and Shinto shrines are prohibited and will cease immediately.
c. All propagation and dissemination of militaristic and ultra-nationistic ideology in Shinto doctrines, practices, rites, ceremonies, or observances, as well as in the doctrines, practices, rites, ceremonies and observances of any other religion, faith, sect, creed, or philosophy, are prohibited and will cease immediately.
d. The Religious Functions Order relating to the Grand Shrine of Ise and the Religious Functions Order relating to State and other Shrines will be annulled.
e. The Shrine Board of the Ministry of Home Affairs will be abolished, and its present functions, duties, and administrative obligations will not be assumed by any other governmental or tax-supported agency.
f. All public educational institutions whose primary function is either the investigation and dissemination of Shinto or the training of a Shinto priesthood will be abolished and their physical properties diverted to other uses. Their present functions, duties, and administrative obligations will not be assumed by any other governmental or tax-supported agency.
g. Private educational institutions for the investigation and dissemination of Shinto and for the training of priesthood for Shinto will be permitted and will operate with the same privileges and be subject to the same controls and restrictions as any other private educational institution having no affiliation with the government; in no case, however, will they receive support from public funds, and in no case will they propagate and disseminate militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology.
h. The dissemination of Shinto doctrines in any form and by any means in any educational institution supported wholly or in part by public funds is prohibited and will cease immediately.
1) All teachers' manuals and text-books now in use in any educational institution
supported wholly or in part by public funds will be censored, and all Shinto
doctrine will be deleted. No teachers' manual or text-book which is published
in the future for use in such institutions will contain any Shinto doctrine.
2) No visits to Shinto shrines and no rites, practices, or ceremonies associated
with Shinto will be conducted or sponsored by any educational institution
supported wholly or in part by public funds.
i. Circulation by the government of "The Fundamental Principles of the National Structure", "The Way of the Subject", and all similar official volumes, commentaries, interpretations, or instructions on Shinto is prohibited.
j. The use in official writings of the terms "Greater East Asia War", "The Whole World under One Roof", and all other terms whose connotation in Japanese is inextricably connected with State Shinto, militarism, and ultra-nationalism is prohibited and will cease immediately.
k. God-shelves (kamidana) and all other physical symbols of State Shinto in any office, school institution, organization, or structure supported wholly or in part by public funds are prohibited and will be removed immediately.
l. No official, subordinate, employee, student, citizen, or resident of Japan will be discriminated against because of his failure to profess and believe in or participate in any practice, rite, ceremony, or observance of State Shinto or of any other religion.
m. No official of the national, prefectural, or local government, acting in his public capacity, will visit any shrine to report his assumption of office, to report on conditions of government, or to participate as a representative of government in any ceremony or observance.
2. a. The purpose of this directive is to separate religion from the state to prevent misuse of religion for political ends, and to put all religions, faiths, and creeds upon exactly the same legal basis, entitled to precisely the same opportunities and protection. It forbids affiliation with the government and the propagation and dissemination of militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology not only to Shinto but to the followers of all religions, faiths, sects, creeds, or philosophies.
b. The provisions of this directive will apply with equal force to all rites, practices, ceremonies, observances, beliefs, teachings, mythology, legends, philosophy, shrines, and physical symbols associated with Shinto.
c. The term State Shinto within the meaning of this directive will refer to that branch of Shinto which by official acts of the Japanese Government has been differentiated from the religion of Shrine Shinto and has been classified as a non-religious national cult commonly known as State Shinto or National Shinto.
d. The term Shrine Shinto will refer to that branch of Shinto which by popular belief, legal commentary, and the official acts of the Japanese Government has been recognized to be a religion.
e. Pursuant to the terms of Article I of the Basic Directive on "Removal of Restrictions on Political, Civil, and Religious Liberties" issued on 4 October 1945 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in which the Japanese people were assured complete religious freedom,
(1) Shrine Shinto will enjoy the same protection as any other religion.
(2) Shrine Shinto, after having been divorced from the state and divested of its
militaristic and ultra-nationalistic elements, will be recognized as a religion if
its adherents so desire and will be granted the same protection as any other
religion in so far as it may in fact be the philosophy or religion of Japanese
individuals.
f. Militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideology, as used in this directive, embraces those teachings, beliefs, and theories, which advocate or justify a mission on the part of Japan to extend its rule over other nations and peoples by reason of:
(1) The doctrine that the Emperor of Japan is superior to the heads of other states
because of ancestry, descent, or special origin.
(2) The doctrine that the people of Japan are superior to the people of other lands
because of ancestry, descent, or special origin.
(3) The doctrine that the islands of Japan are superior to other lands because of
divine or special origin.
(4) Any other doctrine which tends to delude the Japanese people into embarking
upon wars of aggression or to glorify the use of force as an instrument for the
settlement of disputes with other people.
3. The Imperial Japanese Government will submit a comprehensive report to this Headquarters not later than 15 March 1946 describing in detail all action taken to comply with all provisions of this directive.
4. All officials, subordinates and employees of the Japanese national prefectural, and local governments, all teachers and education officials and all citizens and residents of Japan will be held personally accountable for compliance with the spirit as well as the letter of all provisions of this directive.
For the Supreme Commander:
[Signed] H. W. Allen
Colonel, A.G.D.,
Asst. Adjutant General
That is why we need to learn about other people's religions. So we don't destroy them through our ignorance.
