by Heon-Wook Park

Both Japan and Korea, long said to be culturally and politically “so near, yet so distant,” are now at the threshold of the postmodern age. But while both have passed through all the darkness of the past modern century, their respective assimilation of Christianity has, for some reason, been starkly different: the Korean churches have experienced phenomenal growth, while Japan, though it has become a major economic power, has seen only minimal growth in its Christian community, Of course, the cultural and historical backgrounds of the two countries’ contrasting growth rates were quite different, and the Protestant communities in both places have only short one-century histories. Even so, by the time the sown seeds of the gospel began sprouting, the Korean and Japanese Churches were already developing their own distinctive religious traditions and practices, and, while forced to adapt to differing political conditions of ruler and ruled, they forged their own ecclesial identities.

One common theme that characterizes the past, present, and future of the mission of the Church in both countries is the intertwined problems of indigenization and nationalism. To discern the personal initiatives and directions taken once the gospel of Jesus Christ became rooted in the spiritual soil of each nation, and to grasp how the functioning of the Christian Church as a corporate body impacted on the two societies - these assessments can yield crucial guidelines for the course Christians must now pursue. In Japan, the emperor system has once again become problematic for the Church; in Korea, the yearning for reunification of North and South has awakened the sense of a “national Church.” And the very themes we stress for ourselves seem inescapable even in the breakdown of the old order and the fomenting forces of democracy in Europe. Indeed, these themes were central, I believe, in Jesus’ own messianic movement and in the early Church as well.

Focus of This Study

Within the general framework outlined above, I shall focus specifically on the transplanting of Korean Christianity in the spiritual soil of Japan before and after World War II. Within the close relations and interactions of the two countries, the question of Christian identity was crucial, for Korean Christians did not encounter their Japanese counterparts on an equal basis; rather, they were an ethnic minority forced to assimilate and adjust to the predominant order and values of Japanese churches. It is this process of accommodation and acculturation that is my primary research concern. Inasmuch as I was nurtured in that very Korean Christian community that became rooted in and then prospered in Japanese soil, my study of that transplanted tradition is at the same time an exploration of my own personal roots.
Nonetheless, I hope that in due time my research results will enrich the Japanese-Korean Christian encounter and serve as a stepping-stone for the mission and work of Christianity in Asia.

In recent times, churches in Korea have mounted evangelistic efforts in a number of urban centers in Japan, resulting in various independent denominations and churches. Unfortunately, trends among these churches are still too fluid to permit a comprehensive overview. Accordingly, I must concentrate on earlier evangelistic efforts among the large numbers of Koreans who migrated to Japan after being deprived of their livelihood by Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910. Those efforts were mounted by Korea’s Presbyterian churches (from 1909) and by a joint mission of the Presbyterian-Methodist-Jesus Church (from 1912). These denominational traditions became merged in the formation of the inclusive Protestant communion known as the Korean Christian Church in Japan (hereafter KCCJ), which now boasts a history exceeding eighty years. Of course, the situations of the independent churches will sometimes be reflected dir~tly and indirectly in my account.

Conclusion: Self-Realization and Community in the Gospel

The term “national identity,” which had such positive meaning during the time of Japanese colonial rule, was converted after the postwar division of the nation to propaganda use by the state itself as a means of controlling the people. Then, with the Japanization of lifestyles and values as the generations of Koreans in Japan changed from the first to the second and third, the natural sense of nationality became diluted or even lost. Discrimination against Koreans in Japan aroused energetic efforts to regain setfhood and human rights through highly motivated educational programs aimed at recovery of the usurped Korean culture, history, and language. Even these heroic efforts could not completely free Koreans who were born and raised in Japan from the framework of Japanese values, styles, and habits. Instead, a new age emerged among younger Koreans, who sought a new selfhood in the integration of Japanese and Korean cultures.

Furthermore, the rapid increase in cultural, economic, and political interactions between Japan and Korea brought a new wave of Korean immigrants to Japan, a “new first-generation,” causing discord among older Korean residents in Japan. Of course, the new immigrants gave the old-timers a fresh contact with the home country, but their prolonged presence tended to render the older lifestyles and experiences out-of-date. Whereas the term “nation” once had clear-cut meanings of “state” and “people” in references to Japan or Korean, this clarity was lost in the newcomers’ formation of a community based on integrated values. Thus the sense of “minority” also shifted. Unexpected spin-offs of the new age were the kind of diversity and vague relativity that had also characterized the tensions found in the new age of Jesus and the early Church: between Jewish Christians and Hellenistic Christians, between the Jerusalem church and the church in Antioch, between Christianity and Judaism, between Judea and the Greco-Roman world. But it was precisely in this diverse world that word of the crucified and risen Christ spread and, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, overcame all barriers and controls, enabling various peoples to come together and blend their ethnic identities and values into a community of love that remains a model for all times. This was an indigenization of the gospel that, as so often is the case, was not achieved by intellect but was experienced as a spiritual happening. So it was with the Holy Spirit Movement in the formative phase of Korean Christian history. Those who would overlook this truth suffer from what Dilschneider (1973:333) has called “acute spiritual deficiency.” Perhaps today the challenge of prayer retreats and spiritual healing among sects and free churches is a warning bell to us all.

If the gospel of Christ, that overcomes yet fulfills the law, should move once again among Koreans who live in Japan, it will surely bring forth a community with restored selfhood and common life that is at the same time both ethnic and yet open to the whole world. And this could serve as a small example of the way we can live in the midst of diversity and engage in cultural encounters with the rest of Asia.