People have often regarded a specific person or group as being different, and excluded them. Exclusion is a universal phenomenon, and it sometimes is manifested spatially. Still, exclusion is a complicated phenomenon because buildings that are related to groups of people who are different are not only destroyed but can also be converted by exclusionary groups. Such buildings include various narratives, memories, or discourses of exclusion, so it is possible to call such converted buildings “landscapes of exclusion.” The purpose of this research is to analyze the process that generated “landscapes of exclusion” for Catholics on Amamioshima in the 1930’s.
Catholicism came to Amamioshima in the early Meiji era. Originally, the local religious groups called Noro or Yuta tried to exclude Catholicism from Amamioshima, but many people believed Catholicism would contribute to the education, medical treatment, and welfare of people on Amamioshima, and they were baptized. From the late Meiji era to the early Showa era, Catholicism was generally regarded as being different; however, because Catholicism contributed to the social welfare of people on Amamioshima, it was not excluded until the 1930’s. Catholics established a mission school called the Oshima Girls’ High School at a local assemblymen’s behest, but Catholicism became the target of suspicion because many missionaries were Canadian. As a result, the mission school was closed through an opposition movement among some locals. Owing to this incident, Catholicism was excluded socially and spatially by various local people: journalists, local assemblymen, military men, and local residents. Eventually, all Catholic workers were excluded from Amamioshima, and most believers were forced to abjure their faith. They were prohibited from gathering and praying by the local residents, and the Catholic community collapsed until the end of World War II. As a result, the unique Japanese ideological space, known as Japanese Imperialism, was expanded in Amamioshima prior to the rest of the country.
In addition, the real estate of Catholics was not sold but instead became public property. This paper addresses the case of the Renga-Midou chapel in Naze City. In the process of conversion, Renga-Midou was given the mantle of Naze City’s future prosperity and became the symbol of Japanese Imperialism and its justification for the exclusion of Catholics from Amami-oshima and Japan. In this act the symbol of Renga-Midou was changed from being a symbol of Catholicism to one of Japanese Imperialism, while at the same time creating a “landscape of exclusion.” This was related to the situation of Amamioshima, which was an unstable borderland in the modern Japanese ethnic nation-state.
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