A Day that will live in Infamy

December 7 a day that will live in infamy. Pearl Harbor Day.

But here, it was December 8th. And people were at church because it is a feast day of Mama Mary.

One of the untold stories in the west is that of the atrocities committed by the defeated Japanese soldiers, killing civilians as they left Manila...

But another untold story is how they fled into the mountains north of here, starving, seeking for food, and eating what they could, including "monkey meat:.

Years ago, I saw this depressing film:from their point of view.



and the film was remade in 2014.

in the film, one of the soldiers survived so you have hope.

But Shusaku Endo has a short story about a similar soldier who survived, who suffered from PTSS and guilt because he knew the origin of the "monkey meat", and was in despair. Deserted by his family because of his drinking, dying of cancer, he meets a Brazilian nurse working at the hospice, who presents him with hope of redemption: for that nurse had faced a similar dilemma when he was in a plane crash...

Being Endo, it is not the preachy stuff that turns one's stomach, but an underplayed and subtle story of friendship and the forgiveness.

I had the book of his short stories when I was in the USA, but the only book I brought with me was The Samurai, about a Samurai on a trip with the Jesuits to Spain who "converts" for political reasons. The Spanish keep pushing the idea of the glories of Christianity, but in his travels he finds the other side of Christ, when he meets an apostate Japanese priest in a Mexican village, who serves the poor there and teaches him that Christ is the one who is there no matter how poor or forsaken you are.

Joey Velasco: Heal our Land

Endo writes that the Buddhist Japanese will only find Christ as the image of mercy, which is of course what Pope Francis is pushing...

A lot of folks miss the point of the movie "Silence", thinking that it said denying Christ was okay. No, not really. A lot ignore that the Jesuit did this not because he feared torture, but to save Japanese converts from torture.. and like a "brainwashed" soldier, he then joins the other side...

But the ending, where he holds the cross, suggests that in his heart he feels he has committed the unforgivable sin, but still has a tiny hope he will be given mercy.