Critical History of Christianity in Japan
Christianity in Japan can be a major theme in study of global history, culture, and religions.
Since Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552) came to Japan in the Period of Warring States of Japan or around 1550 to preach gospels, Christianity played a key role behind the mainstream history of Japan.
Ken Joseph argues that Nestorian Christianity, more accurately identified as East Syriac Christianity or the Church of the East, existed in Japan before the arrival of Xavier.
The first known appearance of organized Christianity in Japan was the arrival of the Portuguese Catholics in 1549. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan with three Japanese Catholic converts intending to start a church in the Nagasaki area. The local Japanese people initially assumed that the foreigners were from India and that Christianity was a new "Indian faith". These mistaken impressions were due to already existing ties between the Portuguese and India; the Indian city of Goa was a central base for the Portuguese East India Company at the time, and a significant portion of the crew on board their ships were Indian Christians.
Under Hideyoshi and then under the succeeding Tokugawa shogunate, Catholic Christianity was repressed and adherents were persecuted. During these times, many Christians were killed in Japan, some by crucifixion; most famously, the twenty-six martyrs of Japan were tortured and crucified on crosses outside Nagasaki to discourage Christianity in 1597. Following a brief respite that occurred as Tokugawa Ieyasu rose to power and pursued trade with the Portuguese powers, there were further persecutions and martyrdoms in 1613, 1630, and 1632. By this point, after the Shimabara Rebellion, the remaining Christians had been forced to publicly renounce their faith. Many continued practicing Christianity in secret, in modern times becoming known as the "hidden Christians" (kakure kirishitan).So, while the Tokugawa clan governed Japan between 1600s and 1868, Japan closed the door to shut out Christian missionaries, though the samurai regime kept trade ties with China and the Netherlands only thorough the port city Nagasaki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Japan
However, when the Tokugawa shogun surrendered to the anti-Tokugawa and pro-imperial samurai camp, the new government of Japan promoted modernization and Westernization of Japan, allowing Western missionaries to be engaged in mission activities. With the end of the samurai era or the start of the Meiji Restoration of the imperial authority, Christianity started to be publicly taught in Japan, especially, through newly founded mission schools.
However along with the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the Second World War, the Japanese military leaders who seized political power of the Empire of Japan came to suppress Christianity, calling it a religion of enemies.
It is after WWII that complete freedom of religion was fully observed in the Japanese society. Americans who occupied Japan after WWII had a great influence on Japan in this context. General MacArthur, who presided over occupied Japan from August 1945 to April 1951, and his staff intentionally tried to introduce Christianity or Christian cultures into various fields of the Japanese society. Even an idea of the Constitution of Japan was drafted by General MacArthur himself. Many articles of the new Constitution reflected influences of a special team formed under MacArthur to help Japanese formulate the fully democratic Constitution. And most of the members of the team expressed strongly their Christian conviction to present model provisions to Japanese officials in charge of drafting the new peace-oriented Constitution.
So, it is after 1945 or the end of WWII that the whole Japanese public have come under indirect but effective influences of Christianity in its 2000-year long history.
The Second World War has such a meaning featured by Christianity for Japan.
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Joh 6:24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.