Ashort walk from the entrance of Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki there is a boulder that’s big enough to seat one person. To anyone walking by, the stone looks ordinary: there is no evidence of masonry or any carvings. But this stone has a story. It is called the “torture stone” and it was used to inflict an untold amount of suffering on Japan’s Christians for more than 300 years.
The torture was simple: they were forced to sit on the stone until they renounced the faith. It did not matter how long the procedure took. Christians were given just two choices: either revert to local religion and customs or remain sitting on the stone exposed to the elements.
