Epilogue: I Survived

The Crucifixion of the Twenty-Six Saints

December 19, first year of Keicho. Nagasaki Nishizaka.

Fifteen years since Raquel left Japan. Now at this very place, twenty-six devout Christians are about to be crucified. Six foreign Franciscan missionaries. Three Japanese Jesuit priests. And seventeen Japanese believers who accompanied them. Among them is a twelve-year-old boy.

The twenty-six Christians, captured in Kyoto and having their ears cut off, walked through the bitter cold of harsh winter on a death march of over three hundred ri from Kyoto to Nagasaki. Now, their bodies bound to crosses are already decaying. However, their souls have not yet lost their radiance.

The magistrate of Omura Domain reads aloud the proclamation. The thousands of people filling the hill fall silent as if struck dumb.

Japan is a divine nation that has revered Shinto and Buddhist teachings since ancient times, governing the country thereby. However, in recent years, those who came from the Southern Barbarians calling themselves padre have preached foreign teachings, bewitched people's hearts, destroyed temples and shrines, and scorned the laws of Japan.

In the fifteenth year of Tensho, this was already prohibited, and it was proclaimed that the padre should be returned to their homeland and believers urged to convert. However, recently those who came from Luzon claiming to be ambassadors have violated the previous prohibition, openly preaching in the capital and leading many to follow them. This clearly constitutes contempt for the law.

Therefore, these persons and their disciples, together with Japanese believers, have been captured and transported from Kyoto to Nagasaki to demonstrate their crimes to the realm, and shall be crucified at the execution ground of Nishizaka. The execution is ordered to the subordinates of the Nagasaki magistrate, and executioners shall carry it out.

Henceforth, should anyone preach this foreign teaching or accept it, their entire clan shall be sentenced to death. The padre and their followers shall be promptly sent back to their homeland.

This is proclaimed to make known throughout the realm.

December 19, first year of Keicho

Taiko Toyotomi Hideyoshi

When the proclamation is read, executioners with long spears stand one each to the left and right of the condemned. At the signal, they raise their spears. They pierce the hearts from under the prisoners' armpits. The suffocating smell of blood fills the execution ground. The thousands of spectators cry out, and some weep at the horrific execution that claims even young children as victims. However, after the execution ended and several months passed, people returned to their daily lives, and the twenty-six Christians who met their tragic deaths were gradually forgotten.

The Inquisition

Approximately ten hours after the twenty-six Christians were crucified in Nagasaki. In Mexico City, a city in Nueva España, approximately ten thousand kilometers from Nagasaki. In this city, two conversos were about to be subjected to the Inquisition. A public trial being held in the central Zocalo square was the first in a year. Despite the early hour, the square was packed with people whose curiosity about this rare spectacle could not be suppressed. In the center, an inquisitor reads the verdict.

In the name of the Lord

We, the inquisitors who reside in Mexico City, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Nueva España, having received authorization from the Roman Pope and the King of Castile to oversee the Holy Office of the Inquisition, hereby pronounce judgment.

Defendant Gracia Núñez de Santángel. A doctor from Viseu in the Kingdom of Portugal, belonging to a New Christian family line. Based on the testimony of reliable witnesses, we determine that the defendant, in Viseu, deceived a Christian child under the pretext of treatment, killed him, and using his blood performed heretical rituals, greatly blaspheming the Most High Lord and His Holy Church. To escape this great sin, she fled Portugal and wandered through various ports and nations from Goa, Malacca, Macao, Hirado, Manila, to Acapulco.

Defendant Diego Rodríguez de Évora. A person from Évora in the Kingdom of Portugal, servant to Raquel. Also belonging to a New Christian family line. This person supported his master Gracia's flight, together toured various ports, secretly observed Jewish law, and scorned the sacraments of the Holy Church.

Though both outwardly posed as Catholic believers, it has been revealed that they did not eat pork, rested on the Sabbath, and in Acapulco presented false baptismal certificates to avoid inspection.

Though given merciful reprieve and admonition, neither showed signs of repentance, and their obstinate refusal to abandon their apostate and heretical beliefs is clear.

Therefore, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, according to canon law and the regulations of this Holy Office, we place both outside the protection of the Catholic Church, commit them to secular authority, and declare that they shall be burned at the stake according to law and custom.

As the Church is a merciful mother and does not desire to shed human blood, we earnestly request that the secular executors carry out the sentence in a manner befitting the salvation of souls.

This judgment is pronounced before God and man at the Auto de Fe in Mexico City on February 5, 1597.

Chief Inquisitor Fray Alonso de Villacorta

Clerk Gaspar Núñez de la Serna

Raquel and Diego, dressed in sanbenitos, listen silently as Chief Inquisitor Fray Alonso makes this pronouncement. Their custody is transferred from the inquisitor to the executioner. The death march from the square to the execution ground begins. Spectators line the route. Some hurl abuse while others offer prayers.

"We've finally been caught," Raquel says to Diego.

"Yeah. But I have no regrets. We did what we had to do."

At these words, Raquel nods silently. There is no fear of death in their expressions.

They arrive at the execution ground. The executioner binds them to stakes. At their feet, oil-soaked firewood is piled high. An attending monk gives a final sermon.

"Daughter, son, even now the Lord does not abandon you. Though your flesh shall be burned by flames, your souls can be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven through repentance. The path you have walked is full of apostasy and heresy, scorning the Holy Church and its sacraments, refusing true salvation.

But now humble your hearts here and recite with us the declaration of faith. Lord Jesus forgave sinners even upon the cross. If you refuse this with your lips, your souls shall sink into eternal fire. But if you accept this now in your hearts, the flames shall only take your flesh. Your souls shall be embraced by light and rest in His presence. Come, pray with me."

To this sermon, both remain silent. The monk's face is stained with deep despair. Watching this scene, members of the crowd whisper among themselves.

"The ropes are loosened, aren't they?"

"Probably."

"Then I'll bet two reales on the woman. She's acting tough, but once the fire is lit she'll surely scream and immediately cross herself and jump out."

"Then I'll bet on the man."

Before the whispering crowd, an executioner holding a torch quietly advances before the two. He casually tosses the torch. The fire immediately becomes a raging blaze, and the smell of burning resin fills the entire area.

"What's wrong, Diego? Weren't you going to confess? This is your last chance."

Raquel whispers to Diego. A small smile even appears on her face. The face of a woman who lived her life to the fullest and used up her soul to the very end shines in the morning sun.

"Damn fool... I... must fulfill my promise to Aron to the end. I must tell him that his daughter fought well to the very end..."

Large tears flow from Raquel's eyes like a bursting dam.

"Diego... for taking on the task of watching over this tomboy... and getting caught up in this... I'm sorry... our long journey together was quite enjoyable..."

Raquel, groaning from the intense smoke, says this while turning toward Diego. Diego no longer answers. Even more intense smoke attacks Raquel, clouding her consciousness. In her delirium, Raquel offers a quiet prayer to the other lives that sustained her own life. The sun rising in the eastern sky delivers its final light to those eyes, nearly invisible from the smoke.

(Beyond that eastern sky lies Japan. Under that light, I truly survived.)

Eventually, the flames consume everything. When the spectators' long-awaited show ended, they returned to their unchanged daily lives as if nothing had happened.

At the tragic site where twenty-six devout Christians were crucified, statues now stand conveying their way of life to the present, gently looking down upon the city of Nagasaki. However, no one any longer knows of the lives of the two Jews who were burned at the stake on the same day in a foreign land far beyond Japan.

(The End).