About the Project

The five interview excerpts showcased in this project represent a small part of a larger, ongoing research project that will be developed into a number of academic publications. The interview excerpts are complemented by short essays with background information in this "Introduction" section of the project The transcripts are available in both the original Japanese and as English translations. Edits to the interviews are indicated where appropriate. [...] indicates that there is some missing text, while editorial insertions in the text are bracketed to show that they were not on the audio. Some small additions have been added to the interviews for flow and for readability.

UNESCO "Hidden Christian" Cultural World Heritage Sites in the Gotō Islands 

In 2018 UNESCO registered twelve locations as "Hidden Christian sites" across the regions of Nagasaki and Amakusa, including ten villages, the remains of a castle, and one cathedral. Of these sites, four are found on the Gotō Islands, two being the remains of ruined villages and two being villages that are still occupied today. Researcher Gwyn McClelland began this oral history project  by investigating these four sites. 

The four locations of Hidden Christian heritage, namely, 1. Hisaka Island; 2. Egami Village, Naru Island; 3. Kashiragashima Island, and 4. Nozaki Island; constitute sites with an important legacy in the twenty-first century that draw our attention to shared understandings of Buddhist, Shinto, Hidden Christian (Sempuku and Kakure), and Catholic traditions and the cultural hybridity of religious traditions therein.

A 2017 International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) report to UNESCO relates in some depth the evidence of these Hidden Christian traditions, their relics, and the building of churches after the ban on Christianity was lifted. The ICOMOS report also notes that "…the continuing presence of actively-worshipping Christians, the continuing use of the agricultural lands and ongoing worship at shrines, and within church buildings… contribute to the Hidden Christian narrative."

ICOMOS recommended that "oral history projects which record the beliefs and memories of current generations of local people" would assist in conserving our knowledge about the overall cultural world heritage of the region. Out of the five interview excerpts included here, only those on Hisaka Island are conducted on one of the World Heritage sites, as Hisaka Island in its entirety is one of the sites.

Subjective Views in Oral History

Oral historians often emphasize how the very subjectivity of interviews sheds light on history in new ways (see especially Miyamoto Fujie and Jitsuo's interview, Nakamura Mitsuru's interview, as well as Lesson Plan #4). There are moments of emotion in the interview with the Miyamotos, a married Catholic couple, that suggest how they live with a traumatic generational inheritance that has traveled across time. Even one hundred and fifty years later in a place like Hisaka Island, where the Rōya no Sako incident occurred, that history is deeply felt. 

Thus, one aspect of Hidden Kirishitan heritage considered here is the possibility of postmemory, or the transference of trauma through the generations. Notice how Jitsuo emphasizes that his parents were the first to explain about what happened at Rōya no Sako, and how he was "forced" to learn about it from texts. For the Miyamotos, the memory of the trauma that Fujie's ancestor was caught up in is both a personal one, and also of religious importance, as it relates to their martyrdom history and to wider experiences in the Nagasaki region. At the end of their interview excerpt, listen for Fujie saying her grandfather's name: "Masagorō," so quietly, it is only just picked up by the microphone.

Is Fujie's reverence because the name holds an importance and sacred relevance for her? Our interview in the family lounge room on the southern coast of Hisaka Island some 158 years later comes to an abrupt halt as Fujie gathers her thoughts about her ancestor. The name, Masagorō, was Fujie's personal link to this trauma. Masagorō was put in the jail for his Hidden Christian beliefs, and his remains, the couple tell us, were included in the martyr's hill site in the center of the island. The reader of the texts on this project might consider how each interview demonstrates intersections and imbrications between both the personal, familial postmemorial type memory, and broader public knowledge about Hidden Christian histories on the Gotō islands.

Japanese Translation: Nobuko Sakatani