THE SlLK ROAD IN MODERN TIMES

We have previously mentioned the Silk Road, and the Hada peoples' relations with this important commercial highway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Japanese Islands. In 1939, during the Sino Japanese War, I was the civilian administrator of Shansi Province in China, for the Japanese army.

In those days, a young Chinese Moslem boy named Chang was working in my office as a factotum. The boy worked hard, was quite charming, and I grew very fond of him . One day he entered my office, and asked that I give an advance on his salary Upon inquiry, he explained that an uncle of his was setting out on a journey to Jerusalem. "Jerusalem!" I was startled. How in the world could his uncle get to that city! The coast of China were all blockaded by the Japanese Navy, and it was a virtual impossibility for a ship to enter or leave a Chinese port without official permission. I thought to myself, "Perhaps the boy thought I was a Christian, and if he mentioned Jerusalem, it would be an easy mark for money." However, after questioning him a bit further, it was discovered that his uncle was indeed going to Jerusalem, war or no war. He was to leave on a camel caravan. It seemed that these caravans still left several times a year for Mecca and Jerusalem as they had done for thousands of years, traveling over the high mountains and arid deserts of Central Asia on the Silk Road. Although in disuse as a major commercial highway for some years now, it was nevertheless still being used by many people even in these modern times. As a matter of fact, it is reported that the traffic on the Silk Road has actually increased since the last war.

The most astonishing discovery I made was the fact that the people of the village where the boy lived, although professed Moslems, were actually the descendants of people from the Middle East who had been forcibly converted to Islam. They ate no pork products, nor did they eat the hind quarters of sinews of cattle. Formerly they had lived in the Kaifeng-fu area, but after a series of mishaps, which took place in a war fought a hundred years ago, they had moved to the city of Yuncheng. Yes, the boy was telling the truth. The people were Moslems, but of Middle Eastern ancestry. There lived in Yuncheng the Reverend and Mrs. Brom who were Swedish missionaries. Rev. Brom knew all about the Silk Road and mentioned that it was still very much in use. He also knew of many colonies in China of these former Middle East who had come from Palestine, the most important of which was the city of Kaifeng-fu, the capital of Honan Province. Located in the center of a net work of canals along the Yellow River, the city had become a very important commercial center, and had been used as a provincial capital by five different dynasties.

Three stone monuments in Kaifeng-fu attest to the history of the Silk Road in China. One of them bears an inscription stating that the people from the Middle East first came to China in the Han period (202 B.C.E . 220 C .E.). Another furnishes us with the information that the Middle Eastern people arrived in Kaifeng-fu before 225 B.C.E. Strong evidence exists that the Hada people were part of this great Middle Eastern immigration into China; and that sometime around the beginning of the common era, they left their homes, and came to live in Japan.

Remains of synagogues and ritual baths and houses of the Middle East, are still to be seen in Kaifeng-fu. Rev. Brom stated that many Nestorian Christians had also come through the Silk Road, but much later, at the beginning of the seventh century. It must be borne in mind that these Nestorian Christians were actually Judeo-Christians, and entirely of Semitic stock. Today the descendants of these early Nestorians live mainly in Shansi Province. They have long since lost their original faith, and today most of them are Taoists, Moslems, and Buddhists. One of the goals of the China Inland Mission, Rev. Brom's organization, was to win back these descendants of the Nestorians to Christianity.

After learning all this information, I dispatched a full report to my superiors in the Japanese Imperial Army. An answer was not long in coming. Marked Secret Order, the Japanese Army was ordered not to interfere with traffic along the Silk Road, and to provide any aid necessary to the Moslem Caravans plying the route. Undoubtedly, this order was given to win the loyalty of the 30 million Moslems in Inland China, who had been persecuted and oppressed for centuries as a religious minority by other Chinese sects.

Another interesting story that suggests the Silk Road settlement in northern China is narrated by a friend of mine, Dr. Isamu Kawase, director of Kawase Grassland Farming Research Institute.

During World War II, Dr. Kawase was sent to northern China by the Bureau of Development of Asia on a special mission to investigate the growth condition of Alfalfa and of sheep called Kanyan. This Kanyan sheep is quite unique in that, unlike ordinary Mongolian sheep, it has a long and fat tail almost suspending to the ground.

What is unique about this tail is that it is the sheep's storage room for energy and nutriment: from spring time to autumn, then the pasture is covered with grass, the sheep eats in excess and stores surplus fat in his tail. The tail swells up with suet and weighs as much as several kilograms. But when winter comes, the stored surplus fat is dissolved in the blood and sustains the life . The Kanyan sheep can be found even today in the northwestern part of China.

Moreover, Dr. Kawase was flabbergasted to find exactly identical sheep grown in Israeli kibbutzim. He was told that they are native to Israel and called "Awashi" in Hebrew. His further research revealed that Awashi are also bred on a small scale in Iran and Iraq.

Dr. Kawase believes that the Kanyan were brought to northern China near the Yellow River by the Silk Road in the Han Period. Along with the sheep the Middle East also introduced horses, a further indication of Middle Eastern existence in ancient China.

It has always been a source of amazement how little the world in general, and historians in particular, know about this Silk Road, and of the events which transpired there. The meaning of the Silk Road has great significance for Japan, for here may be found the modern cultural roots of that nation. Most important of all, Middle Eastern Hada people brought to Japan the culture religion, and treasures of the West through this road; but most important, they infused into the blood-stream of these islands the rich, religious ethical heritage of the Middle Eastern people.