The Battle of Amami Oshima

Life is grim on Amami Oshima, an island in the typhoon-swept East China Sea, 200 miles southwest of Japan. The islanders are beset by leprosy, poverty, poisonous snakes, and fire. Again and again, storm-spread fires have all but wiped out the wooden shanties of Nase, the island's largest town (pop. 43,000). This month such a fire razed one of Nase's poorest sections--and blazed up into an ideological battle between a Communist and a Christian.

The well-matched antagonists are an agile-minded Red politico and a Franciscan priest from New Haven, Conn. Father Jerome Lukaszweski rushed food, milk and clothes to the disaster area: Communist Yasutaro Nakamura dispatched a task force of soapbox orators to stage a "Red Flag Unfurling" rally and launch a political campaign for the Red-backed candidate for mayor in this week's elections.

Father Lukaszweski, 35, shimpu-san (priest) of a flock of 3,000, went to Nase in 1952 straight from four years of working among the poor in Bridgeport. When he arrived, he spoke no Japanese; today he sometimes has to search for the right word in English. He and two other Franciscan priests (both American) and two lay brothers tour the island by jeep--and when the jeeps break down, on foot. "We count distances not in miles but in mountains climbed," says Father Jerome.

Most of the islanders are animists who people every rock and tree with good and evil spirits. The Franciscans' real enemy is harder to cope with than any swarm of spirits. It is called MamorKai ("Remember to Take Care of"), a front organization that provides the poor of Amami Oshima with cash handouts, food, free medical care and large doses of Communist indoctrination. Its boss: Comrade Nakamura, 48, who so far has run in six elections, lost four, is currently a member of the regional assembly. Communist Nakamura is careful not to attack the friars directly. "I respect Father Jerome," he says. "He helps the poor." Father Jerome's opposition, explains Comrade Nakamura, can be so effective that in one previous election "my own cousin voted against me."

Last week Nakamura and his mayoralty candidate, Socialist Tetsuji Otsu, wheedled enough votes from the fire-ravaged Naseians to win the election. Their most telling campaign promise: money to rebuild the burned-out homes. But Father Jerome, struggling to help the survivors of a new storm, knew that the battle had barely begun. Said he: "It's too early to tell yet whether the Reds are going to try to hamper our work, now that they've won. But they know we are not exactly well disposed toward them."

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