In the battle of Sekeghara, A.D. 1600, the shogun of the house of Minamoto came off victorious. Taking up his residence at the castle town of Yedo, he and his successors swayed the destinies of the beautiful island; and no sooner was he established as supreme military dictator than the persecution of both foreign and native Christians was renewed with fury. Such of the daimios as embraced Christianity were prohibited on political grounds from favoring the new religion; two hundred foreign missionaries were ordered on pain of death to quit the country. The greater number departed. Only a few souls, who preferred death to abandoning the cause of Christ which now numbered over two million souls, refused to obey the mandate. Concealed in remote village inns, or in nooks and corners of the mountain regions, they stole out at night to teach, encourage, and pray with their persecuted followers. One by one they were discovered, taken prisoners, and each put to death; while the native Christians were hunted down and killed like wild beasts.
Finally came the awful tragedy of Shimbara in 1637, when thirty thousand Christians were massacred, and whoever escaped and was retaken was hurled from the summit of Takaboko-Shima into the foaming waves of the beautiful harbor of Nagasaki. Then the spread of Christianity in Japan seemed to be effectually arrested.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
