Color was given to this idea by the fact that the foreigners still secretly or openly paid court to Hideyori. Iyeyasu became more vigilant as his suspicions increased, and, resolving to crush this spirit of independence and intimidate the foreign emissaries, met every outbreak with bloody reprisals. In 1606, an edict from Yedo forbade the exercise of the Christian religion, but an outward show of obedience warded off active persecution. In 1610, the Spanish friars again aroused the wrath of the government by defying its commands.
In 1611, Iyeyasu obtained documentary proof of the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state. The chief conspirator, Okubo, then governor of Sado, was to be made hereditary ruler by the foreigners.
Iyeyasu now put forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he believed to be a pestilent breeder of sedition and war. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits, and hundreds of native priests were embarked by force on board junks and sent out of the country.
In 1615, Iyeyasu pushed matters to an extreme with Hideyori, who was then entertaining some Jesuit priests; and, calling out the troops of Kiushiu and Kuanto, laid siege to the castle of Osaka. A battle of unusual ferocity and bloody slaughter raged on the 9th of June, 1615, ending in the burning of the citadel, and the total defeat and death of Hideyori and thousands of his followers.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
