12Photo: Kirishitan Bunko LibraryAdmiral Yamamoto to the left of Crown Prince Hirohito (later, Emperor Showa) at the center holding papers. Contributed by Fr. Shinzo Kawamura, S.J. / Fr. Kawamura is a Professor in the Department of History at Sophia University. He received his doctorate in History from Georgetown University. His research focuses on the history of cultural exchange between Japan and Europe, Kirishitan history, and European Christian history.25Yamamoto Shinjiro (1877 – 1942) was both a pious Catholic and an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. His life spanned the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods. In the Taisho (1912 – 1926) period, he was a close aide to Japanese crown prince Hirohito and ar-ranged for him to meet with the Pope in Europe. Because of his involvment with the Kirishitan Bunko Library during his lifetime, Yamamoto’s fam-ily in 2013 donated more than 2,500 of his letters and photographs to the library. But who exactly was Shinjiro Yamamoto?Admiral Shinjiro Stephano YamamotoShinjiro Yamamoto was born in Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1891, he entered Gyosei High School, founded in Tokyo by French missionaries. He lived in the school’s dormitory and learned French and English. On December 24, 1893, at the age of 16, he was baptised by Fr. Alphonse Henrique and took the name Stephano Yamamoto Shinjiro.As a Christian, Yamamoto was torn between becoming a priest or following his long-held desire to join the navy. Fr. Henrique encouraged Yamamoto to pursue a career as a serviceman. He went on to graduate from the naval academy and became a Rear Admiral in 1900.Yamamoto had audiences with Pope Leo XIII in 1902 and with Pope Pius X in 1908, and met with Pope Benedict XV three times in 1917, 1919, and 1921. After his 1938 audience with Pope Pius XI, he visited Brazil as a representative of the Pope.There is no other example in Japanese history to match Yamamoto’s six different audiences with three Popes.The audience of 1921 is of particular note. Yamamoto had been appointed to the Household of Crown Prince Hirohito (later, Emperor Showa) as a translator and French instructor. He ac-companied Hirohito to Europe and was able to realize a meet-ing between Hirohito and the Pope at that time.At this meeting, Hirohito was so impressed by the powerful Episodeinfluence of the Catholic church, with its around 300 million members worldwide, that he told Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo that the involvement of the Catholic Church would be vital to avoiding war in Asia. Even after war ulti-mately broke out, Japanese envoys were sent to the Vatican to discuss possibilities to hopefully restore peace.Yamamoto can be viewed as one of the driving figures of the Japanese Catholic Church from the Meiji period onward. He was instrumental in gaining the understanding necessary to es-tablish a Catholic university in Japan (now, Sophia University). He was also a great benefactor supporting the founding of Sophia’s Kirishitan Bunko Library through the establishment of the Institute for Christian Culture that began with the pur-pose of supporting collaborative research and collection of his-torical materials related to Japanese Christian history. The Kirishitan Bunko Library continues its activities catalog-ing and creating digital images of donated materials for pub-lic viewing.Shinjiro Yamamoto: Dedicated to God and Country
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