Japan-Philippines Relations

Part 9 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin: the fourteen young men in blue standing before execution, the clogs on which their children had written their names, and the record of the fourteen Japanese executed — names, ranks, hometowns and ages.

Part 8 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin, “The Truck to the Fourth Gate”: fourteen Japanese death-row prisoners, handcuffed and in wooden clogs, are taken by truck to the execution building, and the chaplain faces each one in the waiting room.

Part 7 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin: the names of Mr. Mihara Kikuichi and the others on the execution order, eight Buddhists and six Christians, and a dream that had come true.

Part 6 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin, “The Secret Execution Order”: the evening of January 19, an unexpected dinner invitation from the warden, Dr. Nelson’s grave face, and the words “The execution is about to begin.”

Part 5 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin: the Christmas-to-New-Year festivities at Muntinlupa, the Japanese war criminals’ mahjong tournament and “Iwato-za” variety show, and a dream told in a brief moment when the shadow of death had lifted.

Part 4 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin: after finishing a New Year letter, he prays on a rise overlooking Laguna Lake and the Montalban mountains, and comforts the war criminals as Filipino prisoners’ families arrive.

Part 3 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin: a New Year’s letter to the families of war criminals in Japan, quoting Kobo Daishi, and a faith that does not waver even before the possibility of execution.

Part 2 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin: New Year’s greetings to the Red and Blue groups at Muntinlupa, a dream’s shadow that will not lift, and the friction of faith and training behind the prison walls.

Part 1 of the memoir of prison chaplain Kagao Shunin, who lived among Japanese death-row war criminals at Muntinlupa in the Philippines: New Year’s morning, 1951, and a dream that foretold an execution.