Long before America’s black ships entered Tokyo Bay in 1853, Nagasaki served as Japan’s window to the West. In 1640 a Dutch trading party was allowed to stay there after the expulsion of the Spanish and Portuguese. The ‘Hollanders’ assured their hosts of the relative pliancy of their brand of Christianity, demonstrating their good Protestant faith by firing a few shells at the Japanese Catholics huddled in Hara Castle.
Source:
Ham, Paul. “Chapter 2: Two Cities.” Hiroshima, Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martins Press, 2014. 35. Print.
In Japanese popular fiction, the catholic church is always this overbearing and thoroughly corrupt bureaucratic moloch that runs shady businesses on all levels of society.