A strong possibility that the Japanese may turn to Christianity after their defeat is seen by the. Rev. James Ryan Hughes, M.M., editor of the Honolulu Catholic Herald, and before the war a Maryknoll missionary in Japan.
Fr. Hughes points out that the Japanese are a people of two extremes. The two mast probable courses open to them after the war, he believes, are either complete isolation, such as followed the failure of the Japanese conquest of Korea 350 years ago, or, with Shintoism and the emperor myth undermined by Allied victory, a move towards a full Christian life.
" In this second possibility." the missioner states, " lies the hope of per manent peace in the Pacific. The closed-door reaction would condemn 80,000,000 people td starvation, bodily and spiritually. The nations of the world owe it to themselves to forestall such disaster in their hour of triumph."
Fr. Hughes points out that since 1524. when Christianity was introduced in their land, individual Japanese have shown themselves willing by the thousands to die In testimony of their faith, Ire said.