What came was Japan. For many years a threat and a power to deal with, Japan now makes its move on Korea. The entire country is to be a Japanese colony, with the accompanying Shinto religion. Koreans, for cultural reasons, and also because Christ now means so much to so many of them, reject the Shinto "missionaries" . The Japanese then begin to arrest Christian leaders, and the persecution begins.

As an excuse for their actions, and all persecutors have deemed it necessary to have such an excuse, they claim that believers are planning to kill the newly imposed governor. For "political" reasons, therefore, three Christians are immediately tortured to death. Nine are exiled with no trial. 123 others are brought to "trial" in June of 1911. Some have already signed confessions under torture, though they repudiate these "confessions" later. No one is permitted to produce witnesses. Nearly all of the 123 are given prison sentences of up to ten years.

But believers stand up. The missionaries get the news of these horrible happenings to western nations, many of which already are forming a low opinion of Japanese ways. To "save face", an action critical to eastern peoples, the Japanese release all but six of the prisoners!

Then they announce to the Presbyterians of America that all they will have to do for the release of the six is to confess to the Japanese government their sorrow and their guilt for having sent these missionaries and caused all this trouble. The Presbyterians refuse. But by 1915, pretending to be magnanimous before a watching world, all prisoners are freed.

The method of "telling on" bad governments has worked many times through the years. It is why Kim Jong Il keeps his prisons a secret today. And it is why believers like myself and a host of others, continue to expose him before what we hope will be a watching world.