Christianity in the Japanese Empire: Nationalism, Conscience, and Faith in Meiji and Taisho Japan

This dissertation explores the relationship between Christianity and the rise of the Japanese empire, especially from the 1880s to the 1930s. A preoccupation with the empire, and the relationship between Japan and Asia, deeply informed how Japanese Christians---both those who supported and opposed imperialism---formulated specifically Japanese forms of Christianity in Meiji and Taisho Japan. Existing Western scholarship on Japanese Christianity has tended to emphasize the relationship between Japanese converts and the missionaries who converted them. These works often limit their study of Japanese Christians to their role in debates on issues narrowly defined as domestic concerns. Such studies do not engage with the degree to which the question of empire permeated every level of Japanese social, intellectual, and cultural life.;Given the diversity of experiences, activities, and beliefs among Japanese Christians, my aim is not to write a comprehensive history of Japanese Christianity in this period; instead, I focus on members of one denomination, the Nihon Kumiai Kirisuto Kyokai, or Japanese Congregational Church, because this denomination's decentralized administrative structure resulted in a wider range of theological positions and approaches to ministry than that of the other mainline Protestant denominations. By conducting a close reading of Japanese Christian theological arguments and social critique, I hope to expand on the understanding of how some Japanese Christians developed and adapted Christianity in a way that reconciled Christian belief with newly constructed notions of Japanese identity and empire, as well as how others developed theologically based critiques of imperialism and militarism.;My dissertation explores the intersection of Japanese Protestantism and imperialism in three distinct settings. The first, which focuses on the urban church, includes a study of important debates among Japanese Protestants such as how (and perhaps whether or not) Christians could demonstrate their loyalty to the Japanese state, and different ways that church leaders and their congregations responded to significant social and political events, such as Japan's entry into war with Russia. The second section, on the colonies, addresses the Kumiai Kyokai's fascination with Korea---culminating in a ten-year long attempt to establish a mission there following Japan's colonization of Korea in 1910--- and the extension of this mission into Manchuria and Shanghai in the 1920s following anti-Japanese protests in Korea and China in 1919. The final section, on the rural church, focuses on the Annaka church in Gunma Prefecture, one of the oldest Kumiai Kyokai churches, and its minister Kashiwagi Gien, to consider the impact of imperialism on Japan's countryside, and how Kashiwagi's experiences as a rural minister informed his unusual critique of the state and imperial expansion.