AHC: Eastern Orthodoxy in Japan

Delta Force

Banned
I was researching Imperial Japanese Navy officers when I came across Ibō Takahashi, who was born into an Eastern Orthodox samurai family and became an admiral in during World War II. I assume his family would have converted to Eastern Orthodoxy sometime before the Sakoku Period. I also assume such conversions were exceedingly rare, because Takahashi is the first Japanese Orthodox I have read about, and the Wikipedia list of Japanese Orthodox contains only five people besides Takahashi.

I'm wondering what kind of PoD might have resulted in Eastern Orthodoxy becoming more common in Japan, preferably before the Sakoku Period.
 
I assume his family would have converted to Eastern Orthodoxy sometime before the Sakoku Period.
On the contrary, have you heard of St. Nicholas Kasatkin? The majority of Japan's tiny Orthodox population seem to have been converted during the post-restoration era. Likely that would have been uncomfortable during the Russo-Japanese war. Later more so in WW2 when the Orthodox church was persecuted by the militarist government and the Russian Revolution cutting off most sources of outside funding for the Japanese Orthordox Church.
 
I was researching Imperial Japanese Navy officers when I came across Ibō Takahashi, who was born into an Eastern Orthodox samurai family and became an admiral in during World War II. I assume his family would have converted to Eastern Orthodoxy sometime before the Sakoku Period. I also assume such conversions were exceedingly rare, because Takahashi is the first Japanese Orthodox I have read about, and the Wikipedia list of Japanese Orthodox contains only five people besides Takahashi.

I'm wondering what kind of PoD might have resulted in Eastern Orthodoxy becoming more common in Japan, preferably before the Sakoku Period.
Maybe if the Byzantine Empire somehow manages to find a sea route to the Orient...
 

Sulemain

Banned
Maybe if the Byzantine Empire somehow manages to find a sea route to the Orient...

Catholicism managed it, so it's a possibility in a No Islam scenario.

Of course, the way the Catholics managed to gain a foot hold with due to the intellectual, thelogical, etc, pressure/ideas of the Counter-Reformation.
 

Delta Force

Banned
On the contrary, have you heard of St. Nicholas Kasatkin? The majority of Japan's tiny Orthodox population seem to have been converted during the post-restoration era. Likely that would have been uncomfortable during the Russo-Japanese war. Later more so in WW2 when the Orthodox church was persecuted by the militarist government and the Russian Revolution cutting off most sources of outside funding for the Japanese Orthordox Church.

It's quite surprising that someone with Takahashi's background managed to rise so high in the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War I, especially during World War II. Perhaps his samurai background helped? The Shogun and other authorities in Japan tended to be less strict (using that term rather loosely) towards Catholic nobles relative to Catholic commoners. Perhaps a similar level of tolerance was practiced with other nobility into the militarist period?

Catholicism managed it, so it's a possibility in a No Islam scenario.

Of course, the way the Catholics managed to gain a foot hold with due to the intellectual, thelogical, etc, pressure/ideas of the Counter-Reformation.

As with many things in history, geography played a major role too. There were several seafaring Catholic nations, while Russian naval and maritime interests have always been focused more on things closer to home.
 
It's quite surprising that someone with Takahashi's background managed to rise so high in the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War I, especially during World War II. Perhaps his samurai background helped? The Shogun and other authorities in Japan tended to be less strict (using that term rather loosely) towards Catholic nobles relative to Catholic commoners. Perhaps a similar level of tolerance was practiced with other nobility into the militarist period?
Oh boy, we could get into a whole nother debate about how dysfunctional the promotion system was in Japan. Because everything was so politicized about the military and things had become dominated by factional rivalry, things were a mess. In one military unit your superior might refuse to schedule you for promotion because you were from a samurai family. While in the division stationed in the next prefecture, the equivilant ranked officer over there might refuse your promotion because you weren't from a samurai family. While another might care about it only because your family had fought against his during the Boshin War. And yet another might not care about your family roots at all, but wants you to purchase his book (a surprisingly short, yet surprisingly compelling essay on why the west can kiss Nippon ass) before he approves your promotion.

The complete mess of a system played a major part in the radicalization and militarization of the dysfunctional military later on.

As for the topic at hand though, the persecution against the church that happened seemed to be primarily in the form of forcing foreign/Russian priests and bishops to retire, and replacing them with native Japanese Orthodox Christians. So its possible as a fullblooded native Japanese, Takahashi's religious beliefs might not have been as much of a hindrance to him as it would appear.
 
Last edited:
Top