In Our Time: The Shimabara Rebellion

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1637-8 Christian uprising in Japan known as the Shimabara Rebellion. In the 1630s, Japan was ruled by the Tokagawa Shoguns, a military dynasty who, 30 years earlier, had unified the country, ending around two centuries of civil war. In 1637 a rebellion broke out in the province of Shimabara, in the south-east of the country. It was a peasants' revolt, following years of bad harvests in which the local lord had refused to lower taxes. Many of the rebels were Christians, and they fought under a Christian banner. However, the central government's response was merciless