Happy Fourth of July. If you want more content I have another channel where I talk about pointless stuff. Just released a video about Transformers 2. Thanks for the support! th-cam.com/video/IMa57_itILY/w-d-xo.html
Well the Founding Fathers excluded Women, Black people, and oppressed gay people so who cares about their lukewarm accomplishments. Rebel Canadians had better policies. No joke.
Kinda disappointed you didn’t mention Oda Nobunaga. He was actually pretty open to Westerners and Christians, allowing them to set up churches under his rule
I'd say the issue with that is while yes, he was open to Christians, he also wasn't open to potential dissenters. Look at what he did to the Ikko Ikki and you might get an idea of what would happen if Christians continued growing
I don't know his openness to Western stuff is greatly exaggerated you just got to look depictions of him wearing Western style armor even though there is no actual evidence for that whatsoever.
Which he only did for practical reasons, not out of sympathy for their cause. Like Tokugawa, did he find them to undermine his authority, the result would have been the same and westerners and Christians would have been purged from Japan
I like the idea that “Those that live by the Sword, die by the sword” would be interpreted entirely different by Samurai and would read it as a reference to seppuku
Psalm 144 "Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me." A Christian Samurai would be quite terrifying indeed.
@pyropulse Chill dude! I wasn't engaged in a debate in order to accuse me of misquoting scripture. It was just fun way of thinking what verses a Christian Samurai would use, that also align with his profession.
I would imagine Japanese Catholicism becoming a new Eastern Rite (like Byzantine Catholicism). So, still Catholic, but much more local aesthetic. May even start a new category of rites (Western Rites, Eastern Rites, Far Eastern Rites)
I think that'd be unlikely. When the Roman Catholics conducted their missions they tended to homogenize their churches. It wasn't until more recently with Vatican II that the Catholics have become more open to liturgical and cultural differences. The Eastern Rite churches really only exist because they rejoined the Catholic communion as already formed churches, not new ones.
@@Frazier16 theoretically, but that is different than pure aesthetic/cultural differences. That would likely mean the Japanese church would have to have an irreconcilable split in theology with the rest of the Catholic church
There definitly would have been a unique aesthetic. Japanese christian artwork is some of my favority kinds of art so i cant imagine what japanese cathedrals would be like in their own right. Along with the fact that the posibility of a japanese pope is greater than 0%
"Japanese christian artwork is some of my favority kinds" - I've watched Evangelion so I can support this! (Even though Anno does not follow Christianity and mostly just thought Angel imagery looked cool and never expected the show to be seen by Westerners)
@@jakespacepiratee3740 He took themes from the book of Revelation to write his plot; definitely directly inspired by Christianity, especially the ending.
@@bustavonnutz He also said that if he knew Evangelion was going to be viewed by Westerners he probably would not have included Western religious imagery. Presumably because he didnt want to offende anyone?
There's a movie by Martin Scorsese called "Silence" staring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver. It's about two Portuguese missionaries looking for their mentor in this time period and it really goes into detail in the post rebellion era. Amazing acting, and really just beautifully shot.
@@ErickeTR No not really. Kingdom of Heaven is a historical hot mess that includes butchering and mixing up historical figures and mindsets. Silence really showed some deep zealotry levels the modern world really doesn't grasp. The way The Japanese shogunate targeted the believers instead of the missionaries was in fact true. And its well documented. As is how the average Japanese farmer's interpretation of Christianity. They took it fairly literal, and the Shogun did see it as a threat to their control over the population, and what the Europeans did to other places around the world, hence the near immediate cut off from the outside world.
OK, imagine an Assassins Creed game, taking place during the Shimabara rebellion. The Templars would influence the rebels, obviously. The Shogunate would probably be intolerant like in Revelations, and the Assassins would have pretty free reign.
@@undeadzebra6016 Actually no. The Assassin's Creed Mirage was set to be taking place in the 9th century Baghdad. Yep, we going back to the Islamic Golden Age.
The manga "Amakusa 1637" was pretty much about this, involving six time-travel teens going back in time to the titular date to take part in the Shimabara Rebellion.
Portuguese influence was actually the exact thing that caused the Latin alphabet to take roots in Vietnam and eventually edge out the Chinese-based writing system. The Catholic population of Vietnam was ballooning as well, and they also had ties to the Philippines, until the monarchy stamped Christianity out and it has stuck at around 10% of the total population since then. So if you want to see an East Asian alternative history to Japan's conflict with the Christian faith, look South East.
I'm guessing an alphabet of something like Aa /a/ Bb /ᵐb/ > /b/ Cc /k/ Ch ch /t͡ɕ/ Çç /s/ Dd /ⁿd/ > /d/ Dj dj /d͡ʑ/ > /ʑ/ (upon merger, is dropped in favour of ) Ee /e/ Ff /ɸ/ > /h/ (remaining /ɸ/ in loanwords is spelled either or ) Gg /ɰ/ (Portuguese /g/ lenites to something like [ɰ])' Gu gu /ᵑgw/ (gu is used over gü because Late Middle Japanese didn't have /gw/ before front vowels.) Ii /i/, /j/ Jj /ʑ/ (also sometimes used for /ç/ under influence from Spanish) Ll ll /rː/ Mm /m/ Nn /n/ Nh nh /ɲ/ (Introduced later) NG ng /ᵑɡ/ > /g/ ( is used for /Nɰ/ nrr [ɴ] (only at the end of words) Oo /o/ ÓÓ óó /ɔː/ ÔÔ ôô /oː/ Pp /p/ Qu qu /kw/ (likely to become more common because of loanwords) R r /r/ (possibly replaced with at one point) Rr rr /h/ (Introduced later) S s /ⁿz/ > /z/ (replaced with word initially after they merge) T t /t/ TÇ tç /t͡s/ Uu /u/ Xx /ɕ/ Zz /dz/ > /z/ Note: geminate /r/ is spelled sample words: Nifonrr (japan) > Nirronrr Porutongaru (Portugual) キリシタン Cirixitanrr (Christian) > Cilixitianrr ガラナ Guarana (Guarana) プリンシペ purinhxipe サウダージ saudaji トタン totanrr トタン panrr
What is it with the Iberian Peninsula and having random people live in there from different places, Portugal has the Successor of the Templars, the Religion of the Assassins and a Japanese Minority that came from an expedition by a Japanese Lord.
Not really sure that it was actually the case as the biggest reason why Latin-Viet was used as a writing system is because it's easier to educate a large swathe of people on how to write than Nom-Viet so the left-wing government in Vietnam after the liberation wars just choose it. Catholic in Vietnam was constantly being overshadowed by folk-Buddhism and it's role on building the Vietnam national identity (which was built as a response towards the repressions by China during their 1000 years rule). So even if they got a better leg to stand on (a less repressive government for example), they would still have to contesting a literal national religion.
@@orbrat212 this one is not alternate history, it focuses on the shimabara rebellion in extreme detail. From build up, myths that showed up during the rebellion and international intervention in the conflict.
I'm disappointed that you neglected to mention the fact, that Christianity had existed in Japan even before the Portuguese: Nestorian Christianity, which arrived to Japan even before Buddhism, but quickly died out. It was quite big in China too, before it got banned in the 9th century.
Fun fact: There was a manga I read during my weeb times called Issak where a Japanese solider from the late sengkou/ early edo went to fight in the thirty years war check it out it’s pretty good and realistic (apart from him hitting targets with his musket from more then 100 meters)
The other POD I can see happening is if Oda Nobunaga lived longer- he had a stronger military state and had significant conflicts with the Shinto powers in Japan. He was fairly friendly to Portugal- indeed he was one of the first daimyo’s to use firearms in his armies. Had he become shogun I can see Christianity growing stronger in Japan
Hah! I was about to make a comment to this effect, i do believe if Nobunaga did not die, Japan would be Christian. He was a big reverse weeb and firmly anti-traditionalistic.
Nobunaga was a straight up Westaboo. He wore western style armor, drank red wine and converted to Christianity. If the Honnouji Incident didn’t happen he could totally have spread Christianity
@@mr.anderson2241 He wasn't a Christian himself, but Nobunaga was a huge weeb for the Portuguese. Everything they did, he wanted to appropriate in some way, turning a lot of western military traditions and technologies that the Portuguese brought with them into an early hybrid Euro-Japanese war machine. I agree that had he not died when he did, and the Oda clan became shogun, he and his successors might be a lot less hostile to the Christians than the Tokugawa were - leading to Christianity taking over the country not through force, but through the slow state-sponsored benign neglect of traditions
I don't see Japanese completely converting to christianity, Japan through history has been very diverse when it comes to faith. The idea of only embracing one religion would be a bit strange and foreign to Japanese. Perhaps Christianity becomes one of the religions in Japan like Shinto and Buddhism, never completely displacing these religions. Perhaps there would be some edicts and laws passed where Christians are allowed to live and exist in Japan but proselytizing and converting would be highly limited or banned. As of 1700s Christianity would still exist in Japan with a small but notable christian minority across Japan.
Yeah, like the occasional practices of syncretism done by the Kakure/Hidden Christians. I believe there is even a small Shinto shrine in their honor, but I can't remember the name of it.
Problem with that is that Christianity has historically been very intolerant of other religions. It’s either all Christian, or the Christians will strive to make it all Christian.
The thing is - syncretism and Christianity don't go well together. I cannot imagine a universe where a sizeable practicing Christian population exists in Japan and it isn't actively trying to destroy the other faiths present. Buddhism accepts gods or other supernatural beings so Kami are no problem. Shinto accepts Buddha as just another Kami to worship. And Confucianism is more of a philosophy, even the more religion-like Neoconfucianism is more focused on hot takes about the basic structure of the world than to pay attention to dieties. However for Christianity, there is only one God, one holy plan and one worldly structure, so all of the faiths listed above are a no-go.
Another possible divergence point: had Japan been Christianized in the 16-1700's, it may have been seen as a more viable partner state for European powers, and thus may have been perceived as a more favorable option than the United States of America when Russia was considering whom to sell Alaska to in 1867... interesting possibilities to imagine a Japanese-American conflict in the northern Rocky Mountains as a result of the inevitable Yukon Gold Rush (whenever someone eventually did find gold there)
Not-much-fun-fact: in 1932, students of the Jesuit Sophia University in Tokyo refused to offer reverence at the (in)famous Yakusuni Shrine due to contradiction with their Catholic Faith. This was one of very few instances of open disobedience in Fascist Japan, and I would love to learn more about local resistance during the war, especially Christian ones.
@@kulabster8916 Constitutional Monarchy, they even had a house of representatives and parliament. The IRAA wasn't even fascist and had no elements of fascism. Simply because they were with the Axis doesn't mean they were fascist.
@@kulabster8916 fascism was more of a Europe thing. Japan was just playing the West's game in colonialism and adopted some fascist beliefs. They myth making part of fascism made more sense as Japan was older than Italy or Germany.
Even in our timeline, during the Meiji period (1868-1912), some Japanese scholars wanted to abolish the Japanese writing system for Nihon-Shiki Romaji, and several texts were published in Romani but it didn't catch on. If Japan became Catholic and saw Latin as the holy language of the church, I think it probably would've caught on. As for different Japanese words that sound the same, accent marks can be used over vowels. Both "chopsticks" and "bridge" are "hashi" in Japanese, but you can just distinguish between the rising or falling pitches of the two words with accent marks (hashí/hashì).
@@krunkle5136 Having a boring world is only a problem for people well off enough and safe enough to amuse themselves with the problems of other countries. Everyone else especially the most worst off are quite happy to live in a boring world where they don't have to worry about getting decapitated for looking directly at their ruler's face and at least getting treated with a base level of respect for being a fellow human.
@@krunkle5136 The Japanese themselves complained how hard Kanji is and the Edo Period is pretty much the root cause of many of Japan's issues today(the Yakuza for example)
@@genghiskhan5701 could you explain the latter part? I still see the idea of removing kanji as a bastardizing of the language. It's hard, but with that it necessitated a robust school system to educate kids successfully. I don't see what's bad with 'hard'. It's a space efficient and beautiful script when learned. Maybe something easy to look over in an era when anything can be replaced with an app, everything expedient.
@@krunkle5136 A language being hard no matter how pretty it looks just isn't preferable for efficiency. People in this era actually appreciate the aesthetic of things far more than in the past. Practicality was always extremely appealing hence why they were tempted to change their writing system. Ex: There is no way Japan would easily replace its writing system today due to cultural significance but back then it was a real possibility.
I came across work from a Christian Metal group a few years ago named Imari Tones which opened my eyes to how little Christianity is represented in the Japanese population.
@@thefutureisnowoldman7653 I mean 9f you think about it Christianity is very metal, specially Catholicism and Orthodoxy, eating the meat and drinking the blood of its own God and placing the thing that killed its God everywhere, sometimes with the symbol of the dead God still in the torture object that killed the God. Very Metal.
As a Christian, if Japan had become Christian instead of killing if off. I feel that WW2 would have never happened. The Japanese form of Eastern racism and imperialism at the time would have never developed because they would have recognized how all human beings are crested in the image of God and therefore have the same worth and value. That mixed with the command of loving your neighbor as yourself and praying and loving your enemies would kind of made it hard to kick things off.
You forgot about Daitenku Taro Jurai from the small mountainous village of Shingō in the Aomori Prefecture. He had a brother named Isukiri who was crucified by the Romans around the first week of April in 33 AD in place of Daitenku who them fled back to northern Japan, married a farmer's daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids, lived a peaceful life farming garlic, and died at the ripe old age of 106.
A Spanish-Japanese-American War sounds interesting. It could even have become the Great War -- *_SOMETHING_* was going to become the Great War, after all, whether it was the Franco-Prussian War or the Russo-Japanese War.
I think it would be more likely, interesting, and complicated if Japan syncretized to Christianity. That is, if their form of Christianity still had enough Shinto in its theology and practices for the Pope to consider them heathens.
Perhaps a new sub sect. But there is historic precedent of the Pope (or the Khalifs) tolerating fringe traditions in far away recently converted regions.
@@Hortifox_the_gardener It’s possible the Japanese Catholics could have become another branch of eastern Catholics like the Indian Catholic Church or byzantines
I’m not so sure about this, since clearly most Japanese converts were very zealous in their views and would probably be ardently Catholic, along with the fact the few remaining Christian’s after the suppression kept pretty close to basic Christian doctrines and when the Meiji period came about allowing religious freedom the majority of them returned back to mainstream Catholicism
I'd imagine they'd look a lot like the Celtic Christians of the early Middle Ages or Mexicans today: officially in communion with the Roman Catholics today, but keeping many native traditions
Just wanted to say I've been subscribed for along while and you always entertain and inspire not only my imagination but my love history and with the gaining acceptance of our lost history I kinda think the scenarios that have actually played over the millennia are and the alternative history you so aptly describe are more and more likely in one form or another
Another reason the shogunate tolerated Christianity was because they were unhappy with the power and influence Buddhist monks had. Interestingly they were reluctant to challenge them directly because they thought they'd be punished in the afterlife if they started killing monks, so they were happy this new religion was eroding their influence without them having to do anything directly. Another interesting thing is that Catholic/Protestant rivalry played a role in Christianity's decline in Japan. William Adams, the "English Samurai" played a notable role in convincing the shogunate that the Jesuits were up to no good. There would eventually be a rather brutal movement against Buddhism too during the Meiji Restoration where it was nearly wiped out in Japan.
After finishing my Bachelors of Commerce abroad in Japan in 2018 (omg its been over 6 years 🙃) a phrase I heard multiple times from multiple people was that the average Japanese are born Shinto, married Christian, and die Buddhist. Phrase has stuck with me since then and I'm not sure how accurate it is exactly, as I was only there for my last semester, but I did go see tons of shrines and also wedding advertisements that seemed very Christian in that aspect. I kind of respect the traditional aspects of culture and how they are able to blend such parts of religions peacefully together.. well in the 21st century anyways
10/10 would recommend the Martin Scorsese movie Silence, it’s about Portuguese missionaries going to Japan during this time period and witnessing what the Shogun was doing to the converts and why he was doing it.
EH the modernist aspects being added was kinda of a turn off(priests doing apostasy is super unlikely historically speaking)like how they added modernist aspects to Troy which end up butchering the Illiad's story
Even if Christianity in Japan had the same numbers/influence as Shintoism and Buddhism, the Japanese would still practice it for its aestheticism instead of ideology. Most Japanese use religion only for ceremonial/ritual purposes-weddings, funerals, retreats-and not really for guidance to daily life. The liberalization of Japanese society by the post-WWII constitution, which the United States had a significant hand in writing, in many ways dismantled idolization of supreme beings over the common people. Anyone who visits Japan during Christmas time would think the country is Christian for having so many lights and decorations, but it’s just for aesthetics at the end of the day. I’d even go as far as saying aestheticism IS Japan’s dominant “religion” 😆
But Christianity is neither Shintoism nor Buddhism. Christianity has a doctrine system which is far more stricter than Shintoism for example. In order to be regarded as a Christian you must agree with it's teachings. It's not enough to just dress like a Christian, but to also believe its theology.
Also Christmas has a very different significa in Japan, beign considered a romantic Holiday, (the same thing happened with South Korea), it's because of the import of the very consumerism driven Christmas of the US.
They CURRENTLY use religion for mostly ceremonial reasons, which is in response to the nationalization of Shinto in the 20th century. It's unlikely this would be true in an alternate Japan that adopted Christianity 300 years before
@@xunqianbaidu6917 The rituals are created by the theology, not the other way around. Christians drink the blood of their God because that's what their theology teaches.
Also a possibility in this scenario is that Japanese christianity diverges from catholicism and becomes its own thing due to their distance and lack of direct control by Europeans
I would say trade would keep the influence going. The Philippines and Mexico had the Pacific between them but ended up with similar flavors of Catholicism.
@@nunyabiznes33 Both had direct control from Spain. You cannot convince me that Quetzalcoatl wouldn't be turned into an Angel if the Aztec Empire had converted and kept its independence. I mean, they turned Brigid into a Saint, so, yeah.
Considering how conservative Japan is with its culture, I'd assume that in the modern day Japan would likely be one of the most christian countries in the world.
Interesting idea, if the Otomo clan had spread Catholicism throughout Japan. Seems like no matter what, the Russo-Japanese war was going to happen at some point.
I think Japan would influence East Asia even less because of the Christianity. The conservative ideologies in Ming and Joseon combined with already present anti-Japanese sentiment from the imjin wars would cause Korea and China to push Japan even further away. I could see Japan getting closer with western powers instead and maybe even taking up the mantle of colonization by colonizing Ryuku and Taiwan a century earlier.
I think the key problem is neither country would have even attempted that without *also* dramatically changing the situation at home for both countries. A China that colonizes the Americas for instance, would not have started in the Americas.
Ironically, they might have ended up more religious than a lot of European nations at the time. Also would have either skipped WWII or been on the other side.
@LocalShadow No, Japan still probably would have fought Russia. But in this timeline they would just not join the Axis. They'd probably not even end up in conflict with the Americans if they had settled their issues during the Spanish-American War and if the Philippines remains Spanish.
@@darken2417 I doubt the Philippines will remain Spanish since a strong independence movement was already occuring at that time which the Japanese might support if they still took the mantle of "Beacon of Asian Independence"
@@genghiskhan5701 The Philippines having had a strong independence movement is actually a myth. Before the Spanish-American war Aguinaldo (Revolutionary) was very unpopular even after independence. The Filipinos fought very loyally for Spain against the Americans, partially due to zealotry against American protestantism. The independence movement only really gained steam after American occupation but even then they didn't exactly fight fiercely for independence, it was all done through American law. Let me put this into perspective. Spanish-American war ended in 1902. Mostly religious insurgency was carried out till like 1913. And independence through a peaceful process only happened in 1934. So under occupation by the Americans who imposed a foreign language onto them and were protestant there was a bit of religious backlash which lasted for a decade before things cooled down then they just waited for two more decades until their proposal for independence was accepted. Now imagine the Philippines remaining under Spain; same language(Spanish used to be majority language), same culture (essentially), and the Philippines as the "Pearl of the Orient" had been receiving enormous investment by Spain for prestige and state of the art infrastructure projects. Look the Philippines just wouldn't have broken away without outside intervention. They couldn't even push out the Americans or the Japanese and wouldn't even be as motivated as they were against them.
@@genghiskhan5701 The Philippines would probably still end up in American hands since nothing in this timeline is gonna prevent the Spanish-American War. It would be probably be an issue between America and Japan. You see your only other Catholic neighbor get invaded by these Protestants, are you gonna be friendly with those invaders? They'd probably not join the Axis later but they'd also likely not going to ally with America.
Similar to this, I wonder if you could ever do a video about what would have happened if the Taipang Rebellion succeeded, and China had a very eastern inflected, sycretic Christiniaty. Sever million people and a emperor/pope considered appointed by God, all with the belief of the cross behind them would have been a very scary prospect indeed.
Very nearly happened. It was part of the reason that America bombed Japan with nuclear weapons. The Russians were planning on invading from the north, so you likely would have wound up with a communist north as a result if it had all been down to land combat. In a way, that was at least one benefit of the atomic atrocity, because it meant that Japan capitulated rapidly, and remained intact.
@@robertgronewold3326 and if Japan was given the 'Korean Treatment' its possible that General Mcarthur's request to use Nukes during the actual Korean War might have happened!
@@jakespacepiratee3740 I don’t think so-if we assume Truman refused to use the atomic bombs in 1945 in this scenario, I can’t see how he’s more likely to do so in 1951/2
@@warlordofbritannia Well, because they havent used them yet and they might be in a rush to finish the War hot off of WW2's shoes? General Mcarthur requested use of a Nuke during the latter-half of the Korean war.
At 9:00 it talks about the possibility of the Latin alphabet being used in japan in this alternate history. I visited some churches in Taiwan and found that in addition to Chinese characters there were also many bibles written using the alphabet, one of the brothers told me about how early missionaries had created a romanized written script for Taiwanese which is in use to this day because at the time their was no written form of the local language in wide usage. (Taiwanese is fairly widely used minority language different from Taiwan's official language of Mandarin Chinese which uses Traditional Chinese characters) This is obviously a very different situation than Japan which already had a strongly established writing system at the time of this alternate history but it was interesting to see roman characters being used for taiwanese.
There is another reason for Japan's isolation. According to the memoirs left by Yuko Omura, one of Hideyoshi Toyotomi's vassals many Japanese were taken away by Westerners, mainly Portuguese merchants. They were then sold overseas as slaves. At this time, Europeans were engaged in the slave trade all over the world, and Japan was no exception. It is said more than 50,000 Japanese were taken overseas. Tenshō embassy, who was visiting abroad during this period, testified that he saw Japanese women being forced into sex slavery in South America, Macau and Europe, where they should not have existed. Hideyoshi then ordered Coelho, the head of the Jesuits in Japan at the time, to return the Japanese who had been sold into slavery. Hideyoshi then issued a decree banning the slave trade in Japan. Hideyoshi realised that the Christian invasion of Japan was underway and predicted that if Christianity continued to spread in Japan, Japan would become a Western colony.
Thank god that Japan never falls prey to Christianity. While I love and doesn't dislike this religion. The way it was expanded in the past by force is not something I feel comfortable about it at all. God is not at fault here. It's the people spreading this and using it for their own benefits.
I imagine that the emperor could become something like a hereditary bishop, despite the protests of the pope, and could perhaps claim to be descended from some saint or something similar to the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia
"What if China's warring state period never ended?" would be a great subject to talk about, what would Chinese society revolve around if there hadn't been a stability to enforce Confucius belief?
Would there even be a China? I wonder if the hypothetical modern "Chinese" would look to the Zhou dynasty like Europeans do to Rome.. Would the feudal system continue in China? How would these continuing warring states react to outside powers? I really hope someone would make a What If video about it..
Crusading Samurai… man I wish we could see that. Like the Arabs are preparing for the crusaders to go through Anatolia and they just see a bunch of Japanese having a giant cross and are just charging behind them
I'd love for you to do an alternate history on cultural movements like "what if modernism happened earlier" or if certain artistic movements never occurred or literary figures (or even works like the oddysey) never existed
I'd think that Japanese Christianity would more or less become its own denomination due to sheer distance much like the Coptic or Ethiopian Orthodox Churches. Maybe it will be a mix of Christianity and Shintoism/Buddhism.
I tend to agree that it would blend Shinto traditions with Catholicism and be something similar to the Coptics who blend the Ancient Egyptian elements with Christian faith.
But that never really happened. Timor-Leste for example converted but never became its own denomination. What would be more likely is that they'd think they are regular Catholics. Say they are regular Catholics. And follow most of the basic doctorine. But like the Catholics of rural Africa and far out places like Timor, they'd mix local traditions and remnants of former religions into Catholicism unknowingly
@@luizmatthew1019 That's because Timor Leste was colonized by the Portuguese, so their religion was much more strictly maintain as Catholic as opposed to Japan, which would convert independently of colonial expansion.
I find the implication of there being much distance from the Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches from the origins of Christianity very strange. It only seems distant to Westerners but in reality those are some of the oldest Christian churches there are in lands where Christianity was adopted much earlier and was far more prominent in than in so many of the European nations at that time that we call the "West" today.
@@asurrealistworld4412 The reason for that is the Vatican. Look at the nominal "first divide" between the Eastern and Western Church. The leaders in Rome through the aged liked to think they have a certain absolutism with regards to what is the "correct" faith.
I feel like Japan would just be so far removed from the Rome and the Catholic world that they'd never be "Catholics" in the traditional sense. A lot can be gained from analyzing the Taiping rebellion in China and the version of Christianity that formed under it. This wasn't a strict western version of Christianity, but rather one heavily influenced by all aspects of Chinese society. In this case, we see the religion mold much more toward the society it found itself in, rather than vise-versa. I see no reason why this would be different for Japan. Take Buddhism, for example. Rather than completely transforming Japan, the faith integrated into and conformed with Japanese society. Granted, Buddhism is very different from Catholicism, but with the aforementioned distance from Rome, I think it'd allow Japanese Christianity enough space to develop separately and take on many Japanese characteristics.
I feel that too, above all after British and Dutch (aka Protestants) became more prominent on sea trade and the Russians (Orthdox) came around too. I feel like they would toyed around with all three versions and breaking on their own Version at the end.
I agree, I'd imagine they would instead treating formerly Shinto deities as patron saints rather than gods as a form of syncretism, with malevolent spirits like the Jorogumo and kitsune being reframed as demons sent by the Devil.
Christianity can be pretty malleable. As long as you don't mess with the core doctrines of the faith, Christianity can flourish while influencing and being influenced by the native culture. I also think Christianity has more values in common with collective oriented communities as opposed with individual oriented communities. Maybe Christianity would have been very popular in China and Japan if it wasn't banned.
I think the difference here is that in Japan there would a very high presence of the Jesuits before the reformation, so I do think there would be some sincretic practices but it wouldn't be different from Mexican Christianity for example.
I say an interesting idea would be how the Japanese would "Adapt" Christianity. Maybe they'd consider Amateratsu and God as the same entity/aspects of each other, or maybe all the Japanese Shinto deities as associates/creations of "God" rather than Gods themselves.
That's just conversion by sincretism, a thing that the Jesuits did you use to covert the native Americans, like equating God A to Saint B, and with time relinquishing the ideia that those gods were a thing at all. Like the word used for the Christian God in the Guarani language is Tupan, the name of the thunder God in Guarani mythology.
Most likely, some of the Japanese gods would be adopted as saints. Calling them angels or different aspects of the christian god would probably seem too heretical. Apparently, the Irish goddess Brigid was syncretized as a saint.
@@krunkle5136 Boring in your biased and crusted-over eyes. I'm a Far Easterner and a proud Christian, so get out of here with your antitheistic nonsense. "Ohhh I'm so cool and edgy I hate krischuns look at me" lmao stfu
This sort of thing happened when the missionaries used Buddhist terms to preach. Instead of "Deus" they used "Dainichi," which is the Japanese name for the Buddha Mahāvairocana. It basically resulted in confusion.
I want a story where there are multiple realities, and they combine, resulting in every available space in the habitable zone that isn't occupied by a planet being filled by an alternate earth, but only our earth has space travel.
i would also like to add a little detail: catholicism ( the type of christianity the portuguese, spanish, and french follow) used to do a lot of syncretism in their mission to convert the masses of whatever place they arrived at. they mixed the cultural elements and beliefs of the people they wanted to convert with christianity, they harmonized worldviews together. thats why there are places like mexico and peru (all of the spanish speaking latin american world really) that have a lot of catholics, but still practice a lot of traditions that come from the indigenous population, with a christian spin on it per say. i wonder how that would have looked like if they tried that with japan.
Not gonna lie, when you mentioned Tokugawa being the reason for Christianity being weeded out, I was kinda expecting Sekigahara to end with Mitsunari Ishida winning.
DUDE. This is one of your videos I decided to watch at a later date, and I happen to miss one of the plush sales. I've been a fan of your channel since like 2018 and I have not been able to get a single one of your amazing plushies, since I don't always watch videos the instant they are are released. I know you probably get this a lot, but I am begging you to either rerelease some of the plushies or release new ones for longer amounts of time and not just for a week or two.
Why the ‘70s? Because that’s when Mao kicked the bucket and China started transitioning into a state capitalism economy? Or in connection to Nixon’s policy of detente?
@@warlordofbritannia it was when brezhnev took charge and was seen more favorably by the CCP leadership. Plus, a change in soviet leadership could be the reason why the two would rapproch due to Kosygin's proposed reforms being the model Xiaoping followed.
8:43 why would it happen? It didnt happen in the philippines and they got the same missionaries, i dont think that if the japanese embraced catholicism that they would blend buddist elements with it
One thing to consider: During the early 19th century when Spain was under Napoleon's control he sold French possessions in north America to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. Would it not be possible the Philippines would have been offered to Japan for a monetary sum?
I'm super late to this, but I had assumed the timeline would be simply a matter of Sekigahara - most of the Christian daimyo were part of the so called "eastern alliance". Perhaps if any number of the battle's turncoats had decided not to join Tokugawa.
To me the more interesting and more likely alternate historic possibility is possibly from Japan adopting Protestantism from the Dutch instead of Catholicism from the Portuguese, which could possibly resort in an interesting fusion/assimilation of Japanese traditional beliefs and Christian ones, similarly to what happened in Rome and other parts of Europe during the spread of Christianity, which resulted in the integration of various pagan beliefs and customs into Christianity. In this timeline you would basically have a Japan whose entire cultural identity is this strange fusion between Eastern beliefs and Western ones and would possibly result in Christianity being integrated into larger Japanese cultural beliefs and traditions similarly to how Buddhism did.
I think Japan could've colonized specially Indonesia. Portugal needed to travel from Goa in India to reach Japan, as it was the only port where they actually built Carracks. Malacca was just for trade and the Chinese monitored Macao constantly. A Catholic Japan would mean that Nagasaki would've turned into an actual Shipyard. Allowing Portuguese Carracks to be built in Japan, and also giving Japan access to Carracks. Eventually the Spanish arrive, and they achieve the Galleon. With the Galleon, together with Portugal and Spain, they can open up China, specially if they focus on naval warfare. The Japanese were insanely good at reverse engineering. Also with Japan building a proper Fleet, and with good relations with Spain and Portugal, this would weaken the Dutch East India Company, it wouldn't be as influential and powerful as in our time. Also with an actual nation in the Far East that is Catholic, the more zealous Spanish and Portuguese could actually continue the Crusades and focus on India and Indo China. Japan already had bad relations with Korea and China. So finding excuses to expand their territory for religious reasons, would make sense. Also the Portuguese and Spanish would benefit from Japan, as they could get large military support unlike the British, French or Dutch. It completely breaks the order of the Entire Far East Trade. As Japan would become the Sea Power, giving privileged status to Portugal and Spain, meaning they don't have to fear losing their colonies, like they did.
Then Japan will never be the lowest crime rate or no crime right at all in the present, but Japan will become one of the highest crime rate countries if that happen. Look, the number one highest crime rate countries that are on top are Christian countries.
A strong emperor or shogun earlier on would’ve worked too. A personal invitation for a Papal delegation to convert the nation would be both prestigious (sainthood for sure) for any Pope and it would’ve given Japan any necessary leverage to fend off Portuguese and Spanish influence.
Now do the if China became Christian under the Tapping Rebellion. The Christian rebels actual came within 40 miles of China’s capital at one point in the Rebellion.
Hey Cody, you’re probably not gonna see this, but I’ve been working on this alternate history where Siam becomes a superpower and was wondering if there was any way of getting your thoughts on it
I'm curious about how Japan may have had influence on Hawaii first as a stop point between itself and Spanish America, and later as a potential imperial holding. It could be in a better place to colonize it than the US did was given that the US didn't have a large pacific port until they took California in the Mexica American war.
That's an interesting scenario. The Americans mostly annexed Hawaii because they needed it as coaling station between the mainland and the Pacific possessions they took from Spain (Philippines and Marianas). There were American businesses (mostly sugar plantations) but it wasn't an interest to the US gov't until then. If Japan became Christian then they might indeed build a presence in Hawaii before US gov't get there. Maybe the Hawaiian monarchy last longer in this timeline by pitting the two against each other?
I think the point of divergence of this timeline could be simply that Oda Nobunaga doesn’t die in the Honoji incident and lives longer, he was friendly to christians, no need of longer Sengoku. And don’t discard japanese crusaders, a unifier would still have problems with the unemployed ronin and could choose to do as Toyotomi did and send them in a conquest.
in japan you have to pay the priest to pray for your deceased loved ones, something like on the 7th day, the 7th month, 7th year...etc rather like an indulgence. as a teacher in a japanese school i used to teach in said to me... thats why japanese priests drive nice cars!
13:32 they origally tolerated critanity becuase of cool clocks they conudlt use becuase they had a completely different time system (they were jezuite clocks btw)
Turn the bible into a manga. Release the New Testament first and let those volumes float around. Explicitly don't make into an anime so it gets more coverage that it must be this hardcore manga that could never get animated so more people read it. Then after some years release the Old Testament as an origin story and have a Berserk artist work on some of the imagery since the old testament has some metal shit in there. Considering how hard shows like Hellsing Ultimate represent christian/cathcolic tones, I can totally see a manga bible doing ridiculously well.
I do not expect Jan Matejko painting(Zaprowadzenie chrześcijaństwa) in Japan alt history video. Nice Cody! Both video and including in it this painting. ;)
Japan will not be japan anymore, japan is unique because they preserve their ancient way of life, and SHINTO is not just religion but their unique way of life
what if Oda Nabunaga didn't die but succeeded in unifying Japan, and he let himself be baptised and refused the title of Shogun, instead claiming the title King of Japan?
Happy Fourth of July. If you want more content I have another channel where I talk about pointless stuff. Just released a video about Transformers 2. Thanks for the support! th-cam.com/video/IMa57_itILY/w-d-xo.html
What if japan won the imjin war
Happy Fourth of July 🇺🇸
Happy 4th, we’re talking about Japan
Well the Founding Fathers excluded Women, Black people, and oppressed gay people so who cares about their lukewarm accomplishments. Rebel Canadians had better policies. No joke.
Im Italian, what's the 4th of July?
Thank you for the shout-out, appreciate it!
Loved the video man!
@Kurtis boo
That is a great video you made
666 likes
Ukraine is gay. I did a video proving that the NATO logo has a swastika in it.
Kinda disappointed you didn’t mention Oda Nobunaga. He was actually pretty open to Westerners and Christians, allowing them to set up churches under his rule
No video about Japan is complete without at least one mentioning of Oda Nobunaga
And he was assassinated. He he not been assassinated, Japan would be a very different place.
I'd say the issue with that is while yes, he was open to Christians, he also wasn't open to potential dissenters. Look at what he did to the Ikko Ikki and you might get an idea of what would happen if Christians continued growing
I don't know his openness to Western stuff is greatly exaggerated you just got to look depictions of him wearing Western style armor even though there is no actual evidence for that whatsoever.
Which he only did for practical reasons, not out of sympathy for their cause. Like Tokugawa, did he find them to undermine his authority, the result would have been the same and westerners and Christians would have been purged from Japan
“There was Christianity in Japan until there wasn’t”
That is frighteningly accurate.
Not quite. There were a few Christians left when missionaries returned, having passed the faith from parent to child orally for 250 years.
@@andrewpatton5114Exactly thousands practiced in secret same in other countries where Christianity is persecuted
@@braxtonjones6163 funny how christians went from being persecuted to being the largest persecutors of all time
If only all nations could be so lucky
@@nodnarbleahcim5097wdym by that? Why do u hate Christianity?
I like the idea that “Those that live by the Sword, die by the sword” would be interpreted entirely different by Samurai and would read it as a reference to seppuku
Psalm 144
"Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.
He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples
under me."
A Christian Samurai would be quite terrifying indeed.
Samurai: this jesus guy really knows whats up
Death before Dishonour
- How about a life after death?
They’d basically be Joshua Graham from Fallout New Vegas
*We can’t expect for God to do all the work*
@pyropulse Chill dude! I wasn't engaged in a debate in order to accuse me of misquoting scripture. It was just fun way of thinking what verses a Christian Samurai would use, that also align with his profession.
Japan would literally have the power of God and Anime on their side.
Lmao
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
I doubt anime, as we know it, would even exist in an alternate Christian converted Japan.
@@andrewtodaro2874 Is this because of the differences in global conflict during the first half of the 20th century in this alternate timeline?
*screaming intensifies*
I would imagine Japanese Catholicism becoming a new Eastern Rite (like Byzantine Catholicism). So, still Catholic, but much more local aesthetic. May even start a new category of rites (Western Rites, Eastern Rites, Far Eastern Rites)
I think that'd be unlikely. When the Roman Catholics conducted their missions they tended to homogenize their churches. It wasn't until more recently with Vatican II that the Catholics have become more open to liturgical and cultural differences. The Eastern Rite churches really only exist because they rejoined the Catholic communion as already formed churches, not new ones.
Pope would eventually have to decide if Japanese Christianity should be tolerated or not
I think it could became a different Branch of Christianity. Like Ethiopian Orthodox
@@Frazier16 theoretically, but that is different than pure aesthetic/cultural differences. That would likely mean the Japanese church would have to have an irreconcilable split in theology with the rest of the Catholic church
Be even more confusing when the Orthodox got to Japan. Japan has a rather sizable population of them and they're...certainly unique.
There definitly would have been a unique aesthetic. Japanese christian artwork is some of my favority kinds of art so i cant imagine what japanese cathedrals would be like in their own right. Along with the fact that the posibility of a japanese pope is greater than 0%
Maybe it would be similar to Eastern Orthodoxy artwork? Prioritizing symbolism over realism.
"Japanese christian artwork is some of my favority kinds" - I've watched Evangelion so I can support this!
(Even though Anno does not follow Christianity and mostly just thought Angel imagery looked cool and never expected the show to be seen by Westerners)
@@jakespacepiratee3740 He took themes from the book of Revelation to write his plot; definitely directly inspired by Christianity, especially the ending.
@@bustavonnutz He also said that if he knew Evangelion was going to be viewed by Westerners he probably would not have included Western religious imagery.
Presumably because he didnt want to offende anyone?
either japanese architecture or a mix of japanese and gothic
There's a movie by Martin Scorsese called "Silence" staring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver. It's about two Portuguese missionaries looking for their mentor in this time period and it really goes into detail in the post rebellion era. Amazing acting, and really just beautifully shot.
Unfortunately they did that same thing as in Kingdom of Heaven, where they put modern mindset and perspectives in characters from centuries ago.
it was an amazing movie i watched it
@@ErickeTR No not really. Kingdom of Heaven is a historical hot mess that includes butchering and mixing up historical figures and mindsets.
Silence really showed some deep zealotry levels the modern world really doesn't grasp. The way The Japanese shogunate targeted the believers instead of the missionaries was in fact true.
And its well documented. As is how the average Japanese farmer's interpretation of Christianity. They took it fairly literal, and the Shogun did see it as a threat to their control over the population, and what the Europeans did to other places around the world, hence the near immediate cut off from the outside world.
@@ErickeTR Interesting, I saw Silence as well. Could you give examples of the modern mindset/perspectives in that film ?
It was a pretty good movie
OK, imagine an Assassins Creed game, taking place during the Shimabara rebellion. The Templars would influence the rebels, obviously. The Shogunate would probably be intolerant like in Revelations, and the Assassins would have pretty free reign.
There is an assassins creed game in development right now that takes place in japan
@@undeadzebra6016 Actually no. The Assassin's Creed Mirage was set to be taking place in the 9th century Baghdad. Yep, we going back to the Islamic Golden Age.
@@TheStarcoMarco Assassins Creed Red is gonna be set in Japan though.
For me an AC game should take place during the bakumatsu period.
You have an interesting idea. 😂
The manga "Amakusa 1637" was pretty much about this, involving six time-travel teens going back in time to the titular date to take part in the Shimabara Rebellion.
Added to my list, thanks for the mention
@@MegaLucky0013 silence a movie by Scorsese is much better
Portuguese influence was actually the exact thing that caused the Latin alphabet to take roots in Vietnam and eventually edge out the Chinese-based writing system. The Catholic population of Vietnam was ballooning as well, and they also had ties to the Philippines, until the monarchy stamped Christianity out and it has stuck at around 10% of the total population since then. So if you want to see an East Asian alternative history to Japan's conflict with the Christian faith, look South East.
we do actually have a few christian japanese filipinos in the philippines...
I'm guessing an alphabet of something like
Aa /a/
Bb /ᵐb/ > /b/
Cc /k/
Ch ch /t͡ɕ/
Çç /s/
Dd /ⁿd/ > /d/
Dj dj /d͡ʑ/ > /ʑ/ (upon merger, is dropped in favour of )
Ee /e/
Ff /ɸ/ > /h/ (remaining /ɸ/ in loanwords is spelled either or )
Gg /ɰ/ (Portuguese /g/ lenites to something like [ɰ])'
Gu gu /ᵑgw/ (gu is used over gü because Late Middle Japanese didn't have /gw/ before front vowels.)
Ii /i/, /j/
Jj /ʑ/ (also sometimes used for /ç/ under influence from Spanish)
Ll ll /rː/
Mm /m/
Nn /n/
Nh nh /ɲ/ (Introduced later)
NG ng /ᵑɡ/ > /g/ ( is used for /Nɰ/
nrr [ɴ] (only at the end of words)
Oo /o/
ÓÓ óó /ɔː/
ÔÔ ôô /oː/
Pp /p/
Qu qu /kw/ (likely to become more common because of loanwords)
R r /r/ (possibly replaced with at one point)
Rr rr /h/ (Introduced later)
S s /ⁿz/ > /z/ (replaced with word initially after they merge)
T t /t/
TÇ tç /t͡s/
Uu /u/
Xx /ɕ/
Zz /dz/ > /z/
Note: geminate /r/ is spelled
sample words:
Nifonrr (japan) > Nirronrr
Porutongaru (Portugual)
キリシタン Cirixitanrr (Christian) > Cilixitianrr
ガラナ Guarana (Guarana)
プリンシペ purinhxipe
サウダージ saudaji
トタン totanrr
トタン panrr
What is it with the Iberian Peninsula and having random people live in there from different places, Portugal has the Successor of the Templars, the Religion of the Assassins and a Japanese Minority that came from an expedition by a Japanese Lord.
Or look to East Timor
Not really sure that it was actually the case as the biggest reason why Latin-Viet was used as a writing system is because it's easier to educate a large swathe of people on how to write than Nom-Viet so the left-wing government in Vietnam after the liberation wars just choose it.
Catholic in Vietnam was constantly being overshadowed by folk-Buddhism and it's role on building the Vietnam national identity (which was built as a response towards the repressions by China during their 1000 years rule). So even if they got a better leg to stand on (a less repressive government for example), they would still have to contesting a literal national religion.
I remember reading a book on this topic "Christ's Samurai" by Jonathan Clements, if your're interested in this topic, I recommend it immensely.
there's an alternate history novel for everything, huh?
@@orbrat212 this one is not alternate history, it focuses on the shimabara rebellion in extreme detail. From build up, myths that showed up during the rebellion and international intervention in the conflict.
@@liquidmarble2545 ah i see
@don't be surprised no?
Adding to this, for the Chinese experience of christian rebellion, read God' Chinese Son. The Taiping rebellion was nuts.
The world of “I have the power of God and Anime on my side” basically
I'm disappointed that you neglected to mention the fact, that Christianity had existed in Japan even before the Portuguese: Nestorian Christianity, which arrived to Japan even before Buddhism, but quickly died out. It was quite big in China too, before it got banned in the 9th century.
Boo hoo
You said it yourself, it died out quickly, therefore not really worth mentioning.
I need a video of the history of the Nestorians those guys went to the end of the world preaching Jesus
Yh true
The mongols had a sizeable population of nestorian Christian's
Of course that ended later when most mongols ended up converting to islam
There were also a lot of hidden Christians in Nagasaki but that kinda ended when you know, the nuke hit
Fun fact: There was a manga I read during my weeb times called Issak where a Japanese solider from the late sengkou/ early edo went to fight in the thirty years war check it out it’s pretty good and realistic (apart from him hitting targets with his musket from more then 100 meters)
was he using a musket? - I was for sure he was using a rifle in that.
@@abhijeetshrestha1502 could have been a rifled musket. Issak's musket was specially hand crafted my his master.
The other POD I can see happening is if Oda Nobunaga lived longer- he had a stronger military state and had significant conflicts with the Shinto powers in Japan. He was fairly friendly to Portugal- indeed he was one of the first daimyo’s to use firearms in his armies. Had he become shogun I can see Christianity growing stronger in Japan
Hah! I was about to make a comment to this effect, i do believe if Nobunaga did not die, Japan would be Christian. He was a big reverse weeb and firmly anti-traditionalistic.
Nobunaga was a straight up Westaboo. He wore western style armor, drank red wine and converted to Christianity. If the Honnouji Incident didn’t happen he could totally have spread Christianity
@@00Rennah yeah same. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to think of Nobunaga
@@SeanHiruki oda was a Christian?
@@mr.anderson2241 He wasn't a Christian himself, but Nobunaga was a huge weeb for the Portuguese. Everything they did, he wanted to appropriate in some way, turning a lot of western military traditions and technologies that the Portuguese brought with them into an early hybrid Euro-Japanese war machine.
I agree that had he not died when he did, and the Oda clan became shogun, he and his successors might be a lot less hostile to the Christians than the Tokugawa were - leading to Christianity taking over the country not through force, but through the slow state-sponsored benign neglect of traditions
I don't see Japanese completely converting to christianity, Japan through history has been very diverse when it comes to faith.
The idea of only embracing one religion would be a bit strange and foreign to Japanese.
Perhaps Christianity becomes one of the religions in Japan like Shinto and Buddhism, never completely displacing these religions.
Perhaps there would be some edicts and laws passed where Christians are allowed to live and exist in Japan but proselytizing and converting would be highly limited or banned.
As of 1700s Christianity would still exist in Japan with a small but notable christian minority across Japan.
Yeah, like the occasional practices of syncretism done by the Kakure/Hidden Christians. I believe there is even a small Shinto shrine in their honor, but I can't remember the name of it.
I think Christianity would just be a bit more prevalent in Japan, particularly in the southern islands and cities like Nagasaki
Problem with that is that Christianity has historically been very intolerant of other religions. It’s either all Christian, or the Christians will strive to make it all Christian.
I wonder how that society would view the Kami. As angels? Demons? Are Yokai Demons.
Very interesting.
The thing is - syncretism and Christianity don't go well together. I cannot imagine a universe where a sizeable practicing Christian population exists in Japan and it isn't actively trying to destroy the other faiths present. Buddhism accepts gods or other supernatural beings so Kami are no problem. Shinto accepts Buddha as just another Kami to worship. And Confucianism is more of a philosophy, even the more religion-like Neoconfucianism is more focused on hot takes about the basic structure of the world than to pay attention to dieties. However for Christianity, there is only one God, one holy plan and one worldly structure, so all of the faiths listed above are a no-go.
Another possible divergence point: had Japan been Christianized in the 16-1700's, it may have been seen as a more viable partner state for European powers, and thus may have been perceived as a more favorable option than the United States of America when Russia was considering whom to sell Alaska to in 1867... interesting possibilities to imagine a Japanese-American conflict in the northern Rocky Mountains as a result of the inevitable Yukon Gold Rush (whenever someone eventually did find gold there)
Not-much-fun-fact: in 1932, students of the Jesuit Sophia University in Tokyo refused to offer reverence at the (in)famous Yakusuni Shrine due to contradiction with their Catholic Faith. This was one of very few instances of open disobedience in Fascist Japan, and I would love to learn more about local resistance during the war, especially Christian ones.
Japan wasn't Fascist??
@@CausticSpace what were they then?
@@kulabster8916 Constitutional Monarchy, they even had a house of representatives and parliament. The IRAA wasn't even fascist and had no elements of fascism. Simply because they were with the Axis doesn't mean they were fascist.
@@kulabster8916 Fascism is a system where the people is divided according to their sectors under State maintenance. Japan wasn't anything like this.
@@kulabster8916 fascism was more of a Europe thing. Japan was just playing the West's game in colonialism and adopted some fascist beliefs. They myth making part of fascism made more sense as Japan was older than Italy or Germany.
Hey great video! You know, your channel has been so inspirational, you have encouraged me to start my own journey on the internet. Thanks!
Huh, maybe I should try this out in Victoria III
Even in our timeline, during the Meiji period (1868-1912), some Japanese scholars wanted to abolish the Japanese writing system for Nihon-Shiki Romaji, and several texts were published in Romani but it didn't catch on. If Japan became Catholic and saw Latin as the holy language of the church, I think it probably would've caught on. As for different Japanese words that sound the same, accent marks can be used over vowels. Both "chopsticks" and "bridge" are "hashi" in Japanese, but you can just distinguish between the rising or falling pitches of the two words with accent marks (hashí/hashì).
That would be such a loss. I'm convinced the spread of Christianity has made the world a much more boring place.
@@krunkle5136
Having a boring world is only a problem for people well off enough and safe enough to amuse themselves with the problems of other countries.
Everyone else especially the most worst off are quite happy to live in a boring world where they don't have to worry about getting decapitated for looking directly at their ruler's face and at least getting treated with a base level of respect for being a fellow human.
@@krunkle5136
The Japanese themselves complained how hard Kanji is and the Edo Period is pretty much the root cause of many of Japan's issues today(the Yakuza for example)
@@genghiskhan5701 could you explain the latter part?
I still see the idea of removing kanji as a bastardizing of the language.
It's hard, but with that it necessitated a robust school system to educate kids successfully.
I don't see what's bad with 'hard'. It's a space efficient and beautiful script when learned. Maybe something easy to look over in an era when anything can be replaced with an app, everything expedient.
@@krunkle5136
A language being hard no matter how pretty it looks just isn't preferable for efficiency. People in this era actually appreciate the aesthetic of things far more than in the past.
Practicality was always extremely appealing hence why they were tempted to change their writing system.
Ex: There is no way Japan would easily replace its writing system today due to cultural significance but back then it was a real possibility.
I love that history of Japan reference in the beginning lmao
Where
@@houseplant1016 0:39
@@EbonySaints Ah that, thanks! Legend!
I came across work from a Christian Metal group a few years ago named Imari Tones which opened my eyes to how little Christianity is represented in the Japanese population.
lol Christian mEtal
@@thefutureisnowoldman7653 I mean 9f you think about it Christianity is very metal, specially Catholicism and Orthodoxy, eating the meat and drinking the blood of its own God and placing the thing that killed its God everywhere, sometimes with the symbol of the dead God still in the torture object that killed the God. Very Metal.
@@jackyex Many Western Christians hated Metal and considered Satanic with no real evidence.
@@jakespacepiratee3740 and many protestants tought that Catholics were Satanic demon polytheistic worshipers, so yeah.
@@thefutureisnowoldman7653 I mean, Tony Iommi is a Catholic, and he invented Heavy Metal as we know it.
As a Christian, if Japan had become Christian instead of killing if off. I feel that WW2 would have never happened. The Japanese form of Eastern racism and imperialism at the time would have never developed because they would have recognized how all human beings are crested in the image of God and therefore have the same worth and value. That mixed with the command of loving your neighbor as yourself and praying and loving your enemies would kind of made it hard to kick things off.
Jesus Christ would've done the same thing as the Japanese. I bet you would still crucify him today if he condemns this stupid expansionist shit.
Well, World War 2 was largely the German empire anyway. They might 've kept their distance though
You forgot about Daitenku Taro Jurai from the small mountainous village of Shingō in the Aomori Prefecture. He had a brother named Isukiri who was crucified by the Romans around the first week of April in 33 AD in place of Daitenku who them fled back to northern Japan, married a farmer's daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids, lived a peaceful life farming garlic, and died at the ripe old age of 106.
A Spanish-Japanese-American War sounds interesting. It could even have become the Great War -- *_SOMETHING_* was going to become the Great War, after all, whether it was the Franco-Prussian War or the Russo-Japanese War.
I think it would be more likely, interesting, and complicated if Japan syncretized to Christianity. That is, if their form of Christianity still had enough Shinto in its theology and practices for the Pope to consider them heathens.
Perhaps a new sub sect. But there is historic precedent of the Pope (or the Khalifs) tolerating fringe traditions in far away recently converted regions.
@@Hortifox_the_gardener It’s possible the Japanese Catholics could have become another branch of eastern Catholics like the Indian Catholic Church or byzantines
Similar to the Taiping rebellion in China
I’m not so sure about this, since clearly most Japanese converts were very zealous in their views and would probably be ardently Catholic, along with the fact the few remaining Christian’s after the suppression kept pretty close to basic Christian doctrines and when the Meiji period came about allowing religious freedom the majority of them returned back to mainstream Catholicism
I'd imagine they'd look a lot like the Celtic Christians of the early Middle Ages or Mexicans today: officially in communion with the Roman Catholics today, but keeping many native traditions
Just wanted to say I've been subscribed for along while and you always entertain and inspire not only my imagination but my love history and with the gaining acceptance of our lost history I kinda think the scenarios that have actually played over the millennia are and the alternative history you so aptly describe are more and more likely in one form or another
Another reason the shogunate tolerated Christianity was because they were unhappy with the power and influence Buddhist monks had. Interestingly they were reluctant to challenge them directly because they thought they'd be punished in the afterlife if they started killing monks, so they were happy this new religion was eroding their influence without them having to do anything directly.
Another interesting thing is that Catholic/Protestant rivalry played a role in Christianity's decline in Japan. William Adams, the "English Samurai" played a notable role in convincing the shogunate that the Jesuits were up to no good.
There would eventually be a rather brutal movement against Buddhism too during the Meiji Restoration where it was nearly wiped out in Japan.
Sheesh.
Today's fact: You breathe on average about 5 million times a year.
Time to make a streak
Cool
That’s a lot of oxygen
Tnx
Thank you
After finishing my Bachelors of Commerce abroad in Japan in 2018 (omg its been over 6 years 🙃) a phrase I heard multiple times from multiple people was that the average Japanese are born Shinto, married Christian, and die Buddhist. Phrase has stuck with me since then and I'm not sure how accurate it is exactly, as I was only there for my last semester, but I did go see tons of shrines and also wedding advertisements that seemed very Christian in that aspect.
I kind of respect the traditional aspects of culture and how they are able to blend such parts of religions peacefully together.. well in the 21st century anyways
10/10 would recommend the Martin Scorsese movie Silence, it’s about Portuguese missionaries going to Japan during this time period and witnessing what the Shogun was doing to the converts and why he was doing it.
EH the modernist aspects being added was kinda of a turn off(priests doing apostasy is super unlikely historically speaking)like how they added modernist aspects to Troy which end up butchering the Illiad's story
Even if Christianity in Japan had the same numbers/influence as Shintoism and Buddhism, the Japanese would still practice it for its aestheticism instead of ideology. Most Japanese use religion only for ceremonial/ritual purposes-weddings, funerals, retreats-and not really for guidance to daily life. The liberalization of Japanese society by the post-WWII constitution, which the United States had a significant hand in writing, in many ways dismantled idolization of supreme beings over the common people. Anyone who visits Japan during Christmas time would think the country is Christian for having so many lights and decorations, but it’s just for aesthetics at the end of the day. I’d even go as far as saying aestheticism IS Japan’s dominant “religion” 😆
But Christianity is neither Shintoism nor Buddhism. Christianity has a doctrine system which is far more stricter than Shintoism for example. In order to be regarded as a Christian you must agree with it's teachings. It's not enough to just dress like a Christian, but to also believe its theology.
Also Christmas has a very different significa in Japan, beign considered a romantic Holiday, (the same thing happened with South Korea), it's because of the import of the very consumerism driven Christmas of the US.
They CURRENTLY use religion for mostly ceremonial reasons, which is in response to the nationalization of Shinto in the 20th century. It's unlikely this would be true in an alternate Japan that adopted Christianity 300 years before
@@xunqianbaidu6917 The rituals are created by the theology, not the other way around. Christians drink the blood of their God because that's what their theology teaches.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 But they do it because it's in the Bible, they wouldn't do it otherwise.
Also a possibility in this scenario is that Japanese christianity diverges from catholicism and becomes its own thing due to their distance and lack of direct control by Europeans
@Bosnia sucks There was also Eastern Orthodoxy coming from the Russian side.
The Phillipines is very close, I don't think it would diverge much.
The Spanish Philippines is just a boat away
I would say trade would keep the influence going. The Philippines and Mexico had the Pacific between them but ended up with similar flavors of Catholicism.
@@nunyabiznes33 Both had direct control from Spain. You cannot convince me that Quetzalcoatl wouldn't be turned into an Angel if the Aztec Empire had converted and kept its independence. I mean, they turned Brigid into a Saint, so, yeah.
Fun fact there is a Russian orthodox cathedral in Japan, and it's stood sence the early 1800s I believe
Considering how conservative Japan is with its culture, I'd assume that in the modern day Japan would likely be one of the most christian countries in the world.
Interesting idea, if the Otomo clan had spread Catholicism throughout Japan. Seems like no matter what, the Russo-Japanese war was going to happen at some point.
Agreed. After all European powers were always at war even when they shared the Same denomination of religion.
@@doncarlin9081such is the game of empire
I think Japan would influence East Asia even less because of the Christianity. The conservative ideologies in Ming and Joseon combined with already present anti-Japanese sentiment from the imjin wars would cause Korea and China to push Japan even further away. I could see Japan getting closer with western powers instead and maybe even taking up the mantle of colonization by colonizing Ryuku and Taiwan a century earlier.
It would be like Americas. Complete copy paste of Europe.
What If Japanese or Chinese colonized Americas instead of Europeans ?
will be an interesting video
How about what if East Asia colonized the world while Europe remained Isolated basically the reversal of what happened
difficult WI but definitely interesting scenarios
@@Zeerich-yx9po Exploration, just like Europeans did.
I think the key problem is neither country would have even attempted that without *also* dramatically changing the situation at home for both countries. A China that colonizes the Americas for instance, would not have started in the Americas.
Ironically, they might have ended up more religious than a lot of European nations at the time. Also would have either skipped WWII or been on the other side.
@LocalShadow
No, Japan still probably would have fought Russia. But in this timeline they would just not join the Axis.
They'd probably not even end up in conflict with the Americans if they had settled their issues during the Spanish-American War and if the Philippines remains Spanish.
@@darken2417
I doubt the Philippines will remain Spanish since a strong independence movement was already occuring at that time which the Japanese might support if they still took the mantle of "Beacon of Asian Independence"
@@genghiskhan5701
The Philippines having had a strong independence movement is actually a myth.
Before the Spanish-American war Aguinaldo (Revolutionary) was very unpopular even after independence.
The Filipinos fought very loyally for Spain against the Americans, partially due to zealotry against American protestantism.
The independence movement only really gained steam after American occupation but even then they didn't exactly fight fiercely for independence, it was all done through American law.
Let me put this into perspective. Spanish-American war ended in 1902. Mostly religious insurgency was carried out till like 1913. And independence through a peaceful process only happened in 1934.
So under occupation by the Americans who imposed a foreign language onto them and were protestant there was a bit of religious backlash which lasted for a decade before things cooled down then they just waited for two more decades until their proposal for independence was accepted.
Now imagine the Philippines remaining under Spain; same language(Spanish used to be majority language), same culture (essentially), and the Philippines as the "Pearl of the Orient" had been receiving enormous investment by Spain for prestige and state of the art infrastructure projects.
Look the Philippines just wouldn't have broken away without outside intervention. They couldn't even push out the Americans or the Japanese and wouldn't even be as motivated as they were against them.
@@genghiskhan5701 The Philippines would probably still end up in American hands since nothing in this timeline is gonna prevent the Spanish-American War.
It would be probably be an issue between America and Japan. You see your only other Catholic neighbor get invaded by these Protestants, are you gonna be friendly with those invaders? They'd probably not join the Axis later but they'd also likely not going to ally with America.
Similar to this, I wonder if you could ever do a video about what would have happened if the Taipang Rebellion succeeded, and China had a very eastern inflected, sycretic Christiniaty. Sever million people and a emperor/pope considered appointed by God, all with the belief of the cross behind them would have been a very scary prospect indeed.
Not really much a change since unlike the Japanese emperor that is a living god, the Chinese emperor simply have the Mandate of Heaven.
Here is another interesting Japan-related scenario: What if Japan was split like Korea after WW2?
Very nearly happened. It was part of the reason that America bombed Japan with nuclear weapons. The Russians were planning on invading from the north, so you likely would have wound up with a communist north as a result if it had all been down to land combat. In a way, that was at least one benefit of the atomic atrocity, because it meant that Japan capitulated rapidly, and remained intact.
that would have been great
@@robertgronewold3326 and if Japan was given the 'Korean Treatment' its possible that General Mcarthur's request to use Nukes during the actual Korean War might have happened!
@@jakespacepiratee3740
I don’t think so-if we assume Truman refused to use the atomic bombs in 1945 in this scenario, I can’t see how he’s more likely to do so in 1951/2
@@warlordofbritannia Well, because they havent used them yet and they might be in a rush to finish the War hot off of WW2's shoes? General Mcarthur requested use of a Nuke during the latter-half of the Korean war.
At 9:00 it talks about the possibility of the Latin alphabet being used in japan in this alternate history.
I visited some churches in Taiwan and found that in addition to Chinese characters there were also many bibles written using the alphabet, one of the brothers told me about how early missionaries had created a romanized written script for Taiwanese which is in use to this day because at the time their was no written form of the local language in wide usage. (Taiwanese is fairly widely used minority language different from Taiwan's official language of Mandarin Chinese which uses Traditional Chinese characters)
This is obviously a very different situation than Japan which already had a strongly established writing system at the time of this alternate history but it was interesting to see roman characters being used for taiwanese.
There is another reason for Japan's isolation. According to the memoirs left by Yuko Omura, one of Hideyoshi Toyotomi's vassals many Japanese were taken away by Westerners, mainly Portuguese merchants. They were then sold overseas as slaves. At this time, Europeans were engaged in the slave trade all over the world, and Japan was no exception. It is said more than 50,000 Japanese were taken overseas. Tenshō embassy, who was visiting abroad during this period, testified that he saw Japanese women being forced into sex slavery in South America, Macau and Europe, where they should not have existed. Hideyoshi then ordered Coelho, the head of the Jesuits in Japan at the time, to return the Japanese who had been sold into slavery. Hideyoshi then issued a decree banning the slave trade in Japan. Hideyoshi realised that the Christian invasion of Japan was underway and predicted that if Christianity continued to spread in Japan, Japan would become a Western colony.
Well i mean in a wired twisted way the u.s. kinda does control Japan in a way, sooo Japan did become a western vassal
Not many likes to this comment. 😅 Too much truth can be uncomfortable.
Thank god that Japan never falls prey to Christianity.
While I love and doesn't dislike this religion.
The way it was expanded in the past by force is not something I feel comfortable about it at all.
God is not at fault here. It's the people spreading this and using it for their own benefits.
As Bill Wurtz puts it :
“Is loving Jesus legal yet?”
Japan : *No*
OK sure, said the Emperor who moved the capital to the East, and implemented a government and military that was pretty western.
😭😭 kings and generals and u are like in the top ten of my favorite history channels its so cute to hear u shout them out 😭😭😭😭
Jesus could walk on water,
babies are 85% water,
I can walk on babies
I am
In prison.
I imagine that the emperor could become something like a hereditary bishop, despite the protests of the pope, and could perhaps claim to be descended from some saint or something similar to the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia
Saint Amatarasu even!
What if Japan colonized New Zealand?
We would get to see a crossover involving Naruto's Shadow Clones and Jango Fett's clone army.
"What if China's warring state period never ended?" would be a great subject to talk about, what would Chinese society revolve around if there hadn't been a stability to enforce Confucius belief?
Would there even be a China? I wonder if the hypothetical modern "Chinese" would look to the Zhou dynasty like Europeans do to Rome.. Would the feudal system continue in China? How would these continuing warring states react to outside powers? I really hope someone would make a What If video about it..
Which one
@@notengocreatividadparaunno1419 The one after Spring and Autumn Period
There wouldn't be a China.
@@perry6660 I mean, it would be at most a region of Asia.
As a Christian I can confirm what was said at 3:10.
Crusading Samurai… man I wish we could see that. Like the Arabs are preparing for the crusaders to go through Anatolia and they just see a bunch of Japanese having a giant cross and are just charging behind them
I'd love for you to do an alternate history on cultural movements like "what if modernism happened earlier" or if certain artistic movements never occurred or literary figures (or even works like the oddysey) never existed
I'd think that Japanese Christianity would more or less become its own denomination due to sheer distance much like the Coptic or Ethiopian Orthodox Churches. Maybe it will be a mix of Christianity and Shintoism/Buddhism.
I tend to agree that it would blend Shinto traditions with Catholicism and be something similar to the Coptics who blend the Ancient Egyptian elements with Christian faith.
But that never really happened. Timor-Leste for example converted but never became its own denomination.
What would be more likely is that they'd think they are regular Catholics. Say they are regular Catholics. And follow most of the basic doctorine. But like the Catholics of rural Africa and far out places like Timor, they'd mix local traditions and remnants of former religions into Catholicism unknowingly
@@luizmatthew1019 That's because Timor Leste was colonized by the Portuguese, so their religion was much more strictly maintain as Catholic as opposed to Japan, which would convert independently of colonial expansion.
I find the implication of there being much distance from the Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches from the origins of Christianity very strange. It only seems distant to Westerners but in reality those are some of the oldest Christian churches there are in lands where Christianity was adopted much earlier and was far more prominent in than in so many of the European nations at that time that we call the "West" today.
@@asurrealistworld4412 The reason for that is the Vatican. Look at the nominal "first divide" between the Eastern and Western Church. The leaders in Rome through the aged liked to think they have a certain absolutism with regards to what is the "correct" faith.
An amazing interpretation of history I loved this version of our time
I feel like Japan would just be so far removed from the Rome and the Catholic world that they'd never be "Catholics" in the traditional sense. A lot can be gained from analyzing the Taiping rebellion in China and the version of Christianity that formed under it. This wasn't a strict western version of Christianity, but rather one heavily influenced by all aspects of Chinese society. In this case, we see the religion mold much more toward the society it found itself in, rather than vise-versa. I see no reason why this would be different for Japan. Take Buddhism, for example. Rather than completely transforming Japan, the faith integrated into and conformed with Japanese society. Granted, Buddhism is very different from Catholicism, but with the aforementioned distance from Rome, I think it'd allow Japanese Christianity enough space to develop separately and take on many Japanese characteristics.
I feel that too, above all after British and Dutch (aka Protestants) became more prominent on sea trade and the Russians (Orthdox) came around too. I feel like they would toyed around with all three versions and breaking on their own Version at the end.
I agree, I'd imagine they would instead treating formerly Shinto deities as patron saints rather than gods as a form of syncretism, with malevolent spirits like the Jorogumo and kitsune being reframed as demons sent by the Devil.
Yh same way the hui muslims managed to integrate into chinese society
Christianity can be pretty malleable. As long as you don't mess with the core doctrines of the faith, Christianity can flourish while influencing and being influenced by the native culture.
I also think Christianity has more values in common with collective oriented communities as opposed with individual oriented communities. Maybe Christianity would have been very popular in China and Japan if it wasn't banned.
I think the difference here is that in Japan there would a very high presence of the Jesuits before the reformation, so I do think there would be some sincretic practices but it wouldn't be different from Mexican Christianity for example.
I say an interesting idea would be how the Japanese would "Adapt" Christianity.
Maybe they'd consider Amateratsu and God as the same entity/aspects of each other, or maybe all the Japanese Shinto deities as associates/creations of "God" rather than Gods themselves.
That's just conversion by sincretism, a thing that the Jesuits did you use to covert the native Americans, like equating God A to Saint B, and with time relinquishing the ideia that those gods were a thing at all. Like the word used for the Christian God in the Guarani language is Tupan, the name of the thunder God in Guarani mythology.
Most likely, some of the Japanese gods would be adopted as saints. Calling them angels or different aspects of the christian god would probably seem too heretical. Apparently, the Irish goddess Brigid was syncretized as a saint.
Thus removing animism and adopting monotheism, the most boring theism.
@@krunkle5136 Boring in your biased and crusted-over eyes. I'm a Far Easterner and a proud Christian, so get out of here with your antitheistic nonsense. "Ohhh I'm so cool and edgy I hate krischuns look at me" lmao stfu
This sort of thing happened when the missionaries used Buddhist terms to preach. Instead of "Deus" they used "Dainichi," which is the Japanese name for the Buddha Mahāvairocana. It basically resulted in confusion.
I want a story where there are multiple realities, and they combine, resulting in every available space in the habitable zone that isn't occupied by a planet being filled by an alternate earth, but only our earth has space travel.
i would also like to add a little detail: catholicism ( the type of christianity the portuguese, spanish, and french follow) used to do a lot of syncretism in their mission to convert the masses of whatever place they arrived at. they mixed the cultural elements and beliefs of the people they wanted to convert with christianity, they harmonized worldviews together. thats why there are places like mexico and peru (all of the spanish speaking latin american world really) that have a lot of catholics, but still practice a lot of traditions that come from the indigenous population, with a christian spin on it per say. i wonder how that would have looked like if they tried that with japan.
What if Luxembourg converted to Buddhism
It would be the world sole superpower ofc
@Tecno blade. 🤓
@@abhiprakash74999 it already is the world super power 😎😎👍
Not gonna lie, when you mentioned Tokugawa being the reason for Christianity being weeded out, I was kinda expecting Sekigahara to end with Mitsunari Ishida winning.
DUDE. This is one of your videos I decided to watch at a later date, and I happen to miss one of the plush sales. I've been a fan of your channel since like 2018 and I have not been able to get a single one of your amazing plushies, since I don't always watch videos the instant they are are released. I know you probably get this a lot, but I am begging you to either rerelease some of the plushies or release new ones for longer amounts of time and not just for a week or two.
I would love a vid on if the Sino-Soviet split never happened or was patched up in the 70s. It would be so cool to see where you think it would go.
Why the ‘70s? Because that’s when Mao kicked the bucket and China started transitioning into a state capitalism economy? Or in connection to Nixon’s policy of detente?
@@warlordofbritannia it was when brezhnev took charge and was seen more favorably by the CCP leadership. Plus, a change in soviet leadership could be the reason why the two would rapproch due to Kosygin's proposed reforms being the model Xiaoping followed.
This is my favorite video
10:35 ethiopia forgotem on the background be like 😔👍
They’d probably develop their own version of Christianity that blends with Japanese culture more.
Kinda like Mormonism but for the Japanese
@@DanTheMan4176 Maybe, but without a bullsh*t prophet with separate private revelations.
"the holy samurai vs the forces of hell"
Sounds like a badass movie title doesn't it?
8:43 why would it happen? It didnt happen in the philippines and they got the same missionaries, i dont think that if the japanese embraced catholicism that they would blend buddist elements with it
10:47 that depiction of a steamship is absolutely wild. I love it
catholic samurais is the best thing ive ever seen
Now I feel compelled to do this in EU4
Who are you?
@@eagle-tn6br I see an imposter
One thing to consider: During the early 19th century when Spain was under Napoleon's control he sold French possessions in north America to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.
Would it not be possible the Philippines would have been offered to Japan for a monetary sum?
I'm super late to this, but I had assumed the timeline would be simply a matter of Sekigahara - most of the Christian daimyo were part of the so called "eastern alliance". Perhaps if any number of the battle's turncoats had decided not to join Tokugawa.
The Dutch and Spain: * dies *
Japan converting to trade: “hold on, this whole operation was your idea”
Japan: Fine, I'll do it myself! (captures Philippines and Indonesia)
To me the more interesting and more likely alternate historic possibility is possibly from Japan adopting Protestantism from the Dutch instead of Catholicism from the Portuguese, which could possibly resort in an interesting fusion/assimilation of Japanese traditional beliefs and Christian ones, similarly to what happened in Rome and other parts of Europe during the spread of Christianity, which resulted in the integration of various pagan beliefs and customs into Christianity. In this timeline you would basically have a Japan whose entire cultural identity is this strange fusion between Eastern beliefs and Western ones and would possibly result in Christianity being integrated into larger Japanese cultural beliefs and traditions similarly to how Buddhism did.
I also think about this, imagine the Japanese believing that the Kamis are the angels of God
I think Japan could've colonized specially Indonesia.
Portugal needed to travel from Goa in India to reach Japan, as it was the only port where they actually built Carracks. Malacca was just for trade and the Chinese monitored Macao constantly.
A Catholic Japan would mean that Nagasaki would've turned into an actual Shipyard. Allowing Portuguese Carracks to be built in Japan, and also giving Japan access to Carracks.
Eventually the Spanish arrive, and they achieve the Galleon. With the Galleon, together with Portugal and Spain, they can open up China, specially if they focus on naval warfare.
The Japanese were insanely good at reverse engineering.
Also with Japan building a proper Fleet, and with good relations with Spain and Portugal, this would weaken the Dutch East India Company, it wouldn't be as influential and powerful as in our time.
Also with an actual nation in the Far East that is Catholic, the more zealous Spanish and Portuguese could actually continue the Crusades and focus on India and Indo China.
Japan already had bad relations with Korea and China. So finding excuses to expand their territory for religious reasons, would make sense.
Also the Portuguese and Spanish would benefit from Japan, as they could get large military support unlike the British, French or Dutch.
It completely breaks the order of the Entire Far East Trade.
As Japan would become the Sea Power, giving privileged status to Portugal and Spain, meaning they don't have to fear losing their colonies, like they did.
It's interesting. I agree with that, it makes sense.
It was their lost in the end to reject Christianity.
If Japan would have converted to Christianity then Prime Minister Abe would be in heaven right now...
Then Japan will never be the lowest crime rate or no crime right at all in the present, but Japan will become one of the highest crime rate countries if that happen. Look, the number one highest crime rate countries that are on top are Christian countries.
Video idea: what if the Mechelen Incident didn’t happen and the original Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) and subsequent Dyle Plan went ahead.
A strong emperor or shogun earlier on would’ve worked too. A personal invitation for a Papal delegation to convert the nation would be both prestigious (sainthood for sure) for any Pope and it would’ve given Japan any necessary leverage to fend off Portuguese and Spanish influence.
Now do the if China became Christian under the Tapping Rebellion. The Christian rebels actual came within 40 miles of China’s capital at one point in the Rebellion.
5 million chinese died tho
The day a Japanese will say 'DEUS VULT' will be the greatest day in history.
I would say araki including jesus as the main plot point of part 7 a huge success
Hey Cody, you’re probably not gonna see this, but I’ve been working on this alternate history where Siam becomes a superpower and was wondering if there was any way of getting your thoughts on it
I'm curious about how Japan may have had influence on Hawaii first as a stop point between itself and Spanish America, and later as a potential imperial holding. It could be in a better place to colonize it than the US did was given that the US didn't have a large pacific port until they took California in the Mexica American war.
That's an interesting scenario. The Americans mostly annexed Hawaii because they needed it as coaling station between the mainland and the Pacific possessions they took from Spain (Philippines and Marianas). There were American businesses (mostly sugar plantations) but it wasn't an interest to the US gov't until then.
If Japan became Christian then they might indeed build a presence in Hawaii before US gov't get there. Maybe the Hawaiian monarchy last longer in this timeline by pitting the two against each other?
I think the point of divergence of this timeline could be simply that Oda Nobunaga doesn’t die in the Honoji incident and lives longer, he was friendly to christians, no need of longer Sengoku.
And don’t discard japanese crusaders, a unifier would still have problems with the unemployed ronin and could choose to do as Toyotomi did and send them in a conquest.
Literally the power of God and anime.
in japan you have to pay the priest to pray for your deceased loved ones, something like on the 7th day, the 7th month, 7th year...etc rather like an indulgence. as a teacher in a japanese school i used to teach in said to me... thats why japanese priests drive nice cars!
I would pay thousands of dollars to get a full-on analytical "what if Japan had converted to Judaism?" only to see a Japanese take on a kugel.
Why would that happen?
My godfather is Japanese and one of the most Christian faith based people I know.
My great grandma was from imperial Japan and was Christian. So neat
That’s awesome
Honestly I’d like to see a part 2 focusing on the aftermath of this all the way to the 20th century if possible.
This is the only alt timeline where hentai doesn’t exist
I wanna see the Spanish/Japanese-American War now.
13:32 they origally tolerated critanity becuase of cool clocks they conudlt use becuase they had a completely different time system (they were jezuite clocks btw)
Turn the bible into a manga. Release the New Testament first and let those volumes float around. Explicitly don't make into an anime so it gets more coverage that it must be this hardcore manga that could never get animated so more people read it. Then after some years release the Old Testament as an origin story and have a Berserk artist work on some of the imagery since the old testament has some metal shit in there.
Considering how hard shows like Hellsing Ultimate represent christian/cathcolic tones, I can totally see a manga bible doing ridiculously well.
I do not expect Jan Matejko painting(Zaprowadzenie chrześcijaństwa) in Japan alt history video. Nice Cody! Both video and including in it this painting. ;)
Japan will not be japan anymore, japan is unique because they preserve their ancient way of life, and SHINTO is not just religion but their unique way of life
what if Oda Nabunaga didn't die but succeeded in unifying Japan, and he let himself be baptised and refused the title of Shogun, instead claiming the title King of Japan?
Japan: **Becomes Christian**
Philippines: *"Welcome my Friend"*