Superstitious Far Eastern religions have an irrational tradition of reverence to the rulers of the country. For instance the Chinese Emperor was termed the “Son of Heaven” (Tian Zi) whereas the Japanese Emperor is known as the “Heavenly Sovereign” (Tenno) with the difference that the Japanese Emperor was also, as the extension of one superstitious belief, perversely regarded as a living divinity.
Amaterasu is known as the sun goddess in the superstitious religion of Shintoism, and the Japanese Emperor is falsely deemed to be her descendent. For this reason every word from him and everything he touches is considered supposedly sacred and allegedly divine. Even the collection of his poems is ignorantly considered to be a supposed sacred scripture, and people in his service are regarded as intermediaries of the divine.
This superstitious belief in the supposed divinity of the emperor declined with the arrival of Buddhism and Confucianism in the country in the 6th century. The internal disorder prevalent in the country weakened the emperor’s influence over the people. At the end of the 8th century the Fujivara dynasty came to power, but the aristocracy revolted and a civil war lasting centuries broke out. In 1192 one of the aristocracy, Yoritomo Minamoto defeated the rest of the warring fractions and acquired power under the title of “Shogun” (military dictator), beginning a new era of military rule. Yoritomo made this title hereditary and therefore controlled the rest of the aristocracy. The emperor on the other hand continued his existence as a sovereign spiritual leader, albeit without political powers.
FROM STATE SHINTOISM TO AGGRESSIVE JAPANESE NATIONALISM
In 17th and 18th century Japan new movements envisaging a revival of Shintoism emerged. The most important of which was the National Learning Movement. It set out to put the superstitious Shinto religion at the centre of Japanese society, thus reducing the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism to a minimum. This movement was to become the leading force behind the creation of state Shintoism. Japan until the second half of the 19th century was a feudal society ruled by Shoguns, but in 1867 re-established the primacy of the monarchy with the Meiji Restoration.. This new era began with Mutsuhito taking the name of Meiji, and this monarchy rules to this day (indeed, the Japanese imperial family is the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world, its rule beginning roughly around the year 660 BC). He was also the architect of making Shintoism the state religion with total control over it.
The monarchy was at the core of this extreme nationalist system of “State Shintoism”. The emperor was a “father” figure, a spiritual leader and the head of state. State Shintoism concentrated on sermons in shrines supervised by the emperor. The Shinto ministry, as a part of the government, controlled the shrines. This ministry passed laws restricting the movement of other religions, sects and schools of thought. The 1889 constitution made it obligatory for the Japanese people to revere all Shinto shrines as a duty to the fatherland. All 100,000 Shinto shrines were controlled by the government, Shinto became mandatory in all education and the emperor’s sacredness was further strengthened by laws passed by politicians.116
This was an oppressive regime reminiscent of Pharaoh’s government, related in the Qur’an, as divinity was perversely ascribed to the head of state just as it was in the case of Pharaoh.
THE PERVERSION OF WORSHIP OF THE EMPEROR
State Shintoism was not wholly compatible with the Japanese Shinto religion until the 19th century. The emperor and his government created new rules by the day, and the so called sacred scriptures were written and rewritten by the state administration. Basil Hall Chamberlain, an expert on Japans at the Tokyo University was drawing attention to that era’s Japan in his famous book titled The Invention of A New Religion.117 He was relating the following in his work on the empire, those who worked in its service and how they created a new religion:
Mikado-worship and Japan-worship — for that is the new Japanese religion — is, of course, no spontaneously generated phenomenon. Every manufacture presupposes a material out of which it is made, every present a past on which it rests. But the twentieth-century Japanese religion of loyalty and patriotism is quite new, for in it pre-existing ideas have been sifted, altered, freshly compounded, turned to new uses, and have found a new centre of gravity. Not only is it new, it is not yet completed; it is still in process of being consciously or semi-consciously put together by the official class, in order to serve the interests of that class, and, incidentally, the interests of the nation at large.118
As the author states, the new superstitious and perverse religion of State Shintoism began to be created towards the end of the 19th century. As it was not a faith based on Divine revelation, the traditions and erroneous beliefs by the name of Shintoism could be easily adapted to the needs of the regime without it being considered “strange” by society. Thus, State Shintoism became the means to an end of the ascending fascist tendencies of the Japanese empire. The official religious teachings were frequently making references to the so called sacredness of the Japanese emperor and nation, and introduced gradually the lie of the supremacy of the Japanese race over all other nations. As a consequence of this baseless and nonsensical idea, racism and hostility towards foreigners emerged. However, the people’s interest in Buddhism continued to worry the state administration which sought to minimize the place of Buddhism in Japanese society. Basil Hall Chamberlain describes this situation as follows:
The common people, it is true, continued to place their affections on Buddhism, the popular festivals were Buddhist, and the temples where they buried their dead were Buddhist. The governing class determined to change all this. They insisted on the Shinto doctrine that the Mikado allegedly descended in direct succession from the native goddess of the Sun, and that he himself is supposedly a living god [Surely Allah is beyond that] on earth who can justly claim the absolute fealty of his subjects. Things such as laws and constitutions were but magnanimous gifts on His part, not in any sense popular rights. Of course, the ministers and officials, high and low, who carry on His government, are to be regarded not as public servants, but rather as executors of supreme — one might say supernatural – authority.119
Whereas Japan had been closed community to the outside world for centuries, during the Meiji era know-how and technology from Western societies were acquired with great interest. Great importance was placed on the army and navy, and Japan acquired a military capability strong and aggressive enough to defeat China and Russia. Economic growth driven by radical nationalist sentiments required ever greater natural resources and greater markets and consequently led to colonialist ambitions. A patriotism that considered violence as an appropriate means, at least in their own eyes, developed and Japan descended into aggression, fascism and imperialism that had no regard for the rights of other nations.
Japan attacked and made war with China (1894 – 1895) and then Russia (1904 – 1905); they easily won both. In the 1930’s they occupied Manchuria and committed unbelievable atrocities against the civilian population in their war against China. In 1937, Japanese forces occupied the city of Nanking, China where 300,000 innocent people became subjected to an orgy of torture, rape and genocide. During the Second World War Japan attacked Malaysia, Singapore, New Guinea, Manila and Java. These wars further increased the power of State Shintoism. Chamberlain describes the conquest policies of the “New perverse Shinto Religion” as follows:
All military successes were ascribed to the miraculous influence of the Emperor’s virtue, and to the virtues of His Imperial and divine ancestors — that is, of former Emperors and of Shinto deities. Imperial envoys were regularly sent after each great victory to carry the good tidings to the imaginary Sun Goddess at her great shrine at Ise. Not there alone, but at the other principal Shinto shrines throughout the land, the cannon captured from Chinese or Russian foes were officially installed, with a view to identifying Imperialism, Shinto, and national glory in the popular mind. The new legend is enforced wherever feasible — for instance, by means of a new set of festivals celebrating Imperial official events.120
A work titled “History of Religious Statism and Buddhism in Japan” explained that Japans imperialism was founded on “State Shintoism”. During the war with China (1937-1945), the Prime Minister at that time, Hiranuma Kiichiro, pointed out that “All religions should be made to comply with Japan’s national policies and should in no way conflict with the strategy of the empire” he also said, «Those who act differently will be punished.». Laws were passed that assured the government’s total control over all religious entities, but these laws were used to promote aggressive nationalism and a fascist and imperialistic consciousness was imposed on the masses through the education system.121
Schools were the most prominent means of the State Shinto’s propaganda. History was taught with an imperialist spin. Likewise military and naval training was based on the principle that the emperor is paramount. Members of the armed forces were expected to be totally loyal to the emperor and criticism was absolutely forbidden. History was shaped by this new perverted religion and “rewritten” accordingly, and the status of the emperor was strengthened by ever new mythological legends. This aggressive and biased worldview that considered the Japanese superior to all other races blinded the Japanese people and its effect, together with the pressure applied by the Japanese generals, drew the country into the Second World War.
THE END OF STATE SHINTOISM: THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Decisions taken by the emperor and the army could not be questioned and the whole Japanese nation was forced into submission unconditionally. Japan entered a military alliance with Germany and Italy in 1939 and sank or crippled a majority of the American navy’s Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on the 7th of December 1941. In this way, Japan declared war on the greatest military power on earth and at the same time paved the way to its own demise. In the final stages of the war, Japan decided to continue the war despite the fall of Italy and Germany, suffering heavy losses in the process. The Second World War was brought to an end with the two atomic bombs dropped by American bombers on the 6th of August 1945 on Hiroshima, and on the 9th of August 1945 on Nagasaki. More than 100,000 people perished, tens of thousands suffered crippling injuries, and these two large cities were simply wiped off the face of the earth. In addition, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan on August 9th, 1945 as well, and thus created another front. Japan could no longer withstand these pressures and capitulated on the 14th of August 1945 and on the 2nd of September 1945 Japan officially signed her unconditional surrender.
The Second World War also ended State Shintoism. Japan was prohibited from forming an army or producing arms and her security was underwritten and guaranteed by the United States. American forces occupied all of Japan. The Japanese emperor made his historical speech on the radio, in which he proclaimed that Japan had lost the war and declared that he was “neither a divinity nor a sacred personality”(Surely Allah is beyond that). The empire was dissolved. Japan’s new constitution separated the state from religion and State Shintoism was replaced with “temple Shintoism” (Cinca Shinto).
At present temple Shintoism continues to have a relationship with the royal family, albeit without any underlying political functions. The emperor Hirohito who ascended to the throne in 1926, died on the 7th of January 1989. He was succeeded by his eldest son Prince Akihito who was crowned in November 1990. At present the emperor of Japan is a symbolic figurehead.
The great devastation suffered by the Japanese empire became a historical proof of the fact that Shintoism was a false belief. Just as the Nazi defeat in the Second World War proved the falseness of the racist and pagan Nazi ideology that had promised to deliver a “thousand year German Empire”, so too was the pagan Shinto religion that proclaimed racial supremacy exposed as a fraud. People who believe in this erroneous religion prepare their own demise in the cause of worshipping false idols besides Allah.
Allah explains the error of such people as follows:
Say: “Call on those you make claims for besides Allah. They have no power over even the smallest particle, either in the heavens or in the earth. They have no share in them. He has no need of their support.” (Surah Saba’: 22)
For most people in present-day Japan, religion consists more or less of talking to idols and prayers for success and happiness, especially around the New Year holiday. However there are around 180,000 larger or smaller sects in Japan as the derivatives of Shintoism and Buddhism, or bizarre and perverse sects that idolize Thomas Edison and electricity (Denshinkyo), sexual organs or even mountains.122 The most prominent sects in Japan are Tendai, Shingon, Jodo Shinshu, Nichiren, Tenrikyo, Konkokyo, Secho No Le and Omotoleyo. Islam on the other hand rejects all perversions of religion in all nations and commands the worship of the Most Compassionate and Merciful Lord and Sole Proprietor of the universe. Allah says in Surat al-Baqara:
Those are the people who have sold guidance for misguidance. Their trade has brought no profit; they are not guided. (Surat al-Baqara: 16)
Islam and Far Eastern Religions 