Excerpt from Christianity in Japan: 1859-1883
Christianization of Japan does not simply mean a conversion of heathens, nor an uplifting of the ignorant to a higher enjoyment of civilized life as is often supposed by the American public; but it involves a far wider question. It is, in short, an attempt to reconstruct the Oriental idea upon the basis of the Occidental principle, or to implant the seeds of Christian truth into already cultivated and fertilized soil, or, in other words, it is another crusade of the western nations against the Asiatic nations in a different form and from different motives.
The struggle between the Orient and the Occident is nothing new. For centuries the East and West regarded each other as irreconcilable enemies, and the borders of Europe were a permanent battlefield between these two antagonistic forces. While they were thus struggling with each other there sprang up two distinct civilizations, each differing diametrically from the other. One, starting from the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, went westward through Europe and America and developed into the Christian religion. The other, rising at the foot of the Himalaya, moved eastward to the extremity of Asia and appeared in Buddhism and Confucianism. The one characterizes a free state; the other, an absolute monarchy. One is a positive principle; the other, a negative principle. These two diametrically opposed principles, the twins of the world"s history, which fought for their supremacy for so many centuries without ever coming to peaceful terms, happen to meet again in Japan today after each has completed its civilization in its own direction. What will be the outcome of this second meeting? Will it be the renewal of the old endless struggle?
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