SHINTO CULT RE-APPEARS IN JAPAN

By a Specia1 Correspondent SAPPORO, Japan
MISSIONARIES in Japan view with misgiving recent attempts to revive the nationalistic cult of Shinto by some Japanese political and financial leaders.
The Kogakkan University— a Shinto establishment—reopened in March for the first time since General Douglas McArthur closed it at the end of the second world war. It is a revival of the pre-war Jingu Kogakkan, which became ramous during the war for its system of Misogi training.
This training was used for leaders who advotaled "service to the state through industry" and was also the basic training course for the Japanese Kamikaze (suleide) pilots of World War II. It centred on purification through bathing in ihe cold waters of the Isuzu River, near he Shrine, centre or Japanese Shinto.
'FOREIGN'
Before the war, governmentbacked Shinto nearly stifled missionary work on the ground that the Church was foreign.
Leaders of the re-established university are the Prime Minister, Hayato Ikeda, and former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida. Their claim is that they support freedom and democracy but want to give the students "a backbone based on the Japanese spirit inherited from the age of the gods", (The word Shinto means "age of the gods").
he dean of the university, Kenichi Hirata, has stated that he still believes the emperor to be his god. He added: "The emperor, who has inherited the blood and throne of Amaterasu Omikami (Sun Goddess), is a human being, but at the same time a god in spirit Anyway, we want to send out graduates with backbone into governmental and civilian organisations--especially in the field of journalism".
In spite of its top level backing, the new school is seen by some observers as doomed to failure. Some Japanese see Shinto as a revival of the things which led to the last war, and most Japanese dread the thought of another one.