Christmas approaches. Christian or not, the mind turns to Christian themes.
What are the Christian themes? Love. Forgiveness. Meekness. Turn the other cheek. The kingdom of heaven.
Once upon a time Japan almost turned Christian. In 1549, a Basque missionary named Francis Xavier became the first to preach the word of Christ on Japanese soil. In 1638, a Christian-led uprising of starved peasants in the impoverished domain of Shimabara near Nagasaki was crushed with such genocidal fury as to bury the "pernicious doctrine" for 250 years.