I visited a white church standing in a place called Kaminoshima on December 27th in 2014.
Kaminoshima (God's Island), which was reclaimed after WWII, used to be an island you could only access by boats. For its inconvenient location, quite a few Hidden Christians (Kakure Kirishitan in Japanese) hid out on this island during the Edo Period when Christianity was forbidden. Some Japanese Christians were martyred here. One martyr was thrown into the sea from Takahoko Island which you can see in front. To me, the white and shining statue of the Virgin Mary standing at the cape seemed to be not only watching over our safe voyage but also was praying for the martyrs' spirits to rest in peace.
