Our Lady of Akita, Japan, and Today’s Crisis

“Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary.”

Our Lady of Akita
Our Lady of Akita (photo: Register Files)

On Oct. 13, 1973, the anniversary of Our Lady’s last apparition at Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun, she reportedly appeared to Sister Agnes Sasagawa in a convent in Akita, Japan. Who in 1973 would see part of it unfolding today, 45 years later? Her warning was most dire.

As Sr. Agnes knelt in the chapel to pray the Rosary, Our Lady said:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres... churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sorrow. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them. (Explanation on this last sentence coming later)

During the apparition preceding this one, Our Lady told Sr. Agnes, in part:

Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates.

There was more to her Oct. 13 apparition at Akita. Our Lady actually began what she told Sr. Agnes with these words:

As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.

A terrible, dreadful warning it is. At Fatima Our Lady also warned of the possibility various nations will be annihilated. Our Mother told us her children the equivalent of “not to play with fire.” But did we listen. She reminded us with strong words at Akita. Have we listened?

Look once more at those last two sentences in her words so far and see what she again tells us to do each day. At Fatima, Our Lady already spelled out in simple detail what we need to do to avert these kinds of conflicts too. She repeated the same ideas during this visit to Akita on Oct. 13, 1973. The Rosary is the way. It works. So does reparation.

To show the importance, Our Lady repeated the solution during that Oct. 13 Akita apparition. She concluded with these three sentences that gave the remedy plus offered hope and a promise too:

Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.

 

Connecting the Warnings and Solution

At Fatima on July 13 Our Lady prophesied that if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI.  Because many people did not listen to her solution or put it into practice, her prophetic warning came true with World War II.

Our Lady began that July apparition by saying,

Continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.

Remember how she said it at Akita? I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach.

Today’s wars from religious to cultural to political to societal on every front show we still are not listening in sufficient numbers to our Mother.

In her three apparitions at Akita, Our Lady warned more than once. On Aug. 3 she said, in part,

Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates.

At Fatima, remember that Our Lady called for reparation too. Continuing the Akita message, she said,

In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger.

Then during the Oct. 13 apparition at Akita, in answer to all these problems, Our Lady gave the reminder and the solution — two times. They’re listed above.

She also said, Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests. Since your Baptism you have always prayed faithfully for them. Continue to pray very much...very much.

The Akita-Fatima connections are unmistakable. John Haffert, co-founder of the Blue Army, wrote in his study of Akita that Bishop John Shojiro Ito who had formally declared approval for the Akita apparitions called Akita “an update of Fatima and its promise.”

 

Surrounding Events

To make this clear, look at events associated with the apparition.

On that June 12, while in the chapel Sr. Agnes saw brilliant light coming from the tabernacle. The same happened on the following two days. Look at the name of her congregation — the Handmaids of the Eucharist.

Then on July 6, while praying in the chapel, Sr. Agnes heard a voice coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The three-foot tall statue is carved of a single piece from a tree. That same July 6 some sisters saw drops of blood coming from the statue's right hand. This blood coming from the statue’s right hand happened four times. The wound in the statue’s hand remained visible until it disappeared on Sept. 29.

At the same time the statue started to “sweat.” Then 16 months and a few days after Our Lady’s Oct. 13 warning-and-solution message, on Jan. 4, 1975, the statue of the Blessed Mother started weeping and did so a total of 101 times until the tears stopped on Sept. 15, 1981.

Now for that promised look considering the ‘no longer pardon” part of the Akita message. Haffert explained it in relation to the sin against the Holy Spirit. He said, quoting St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit, “it is because this non-forgiveness is linked, as to its cause, to non-repentance, in other words to the radical refusal to be converted.” John Paul II explains that specific sins against the Holy Spirit are those “committed by the person who claims to have a right to persist in evil, in any sin at all, and who thus rejects Redemption."

Haffert reminded that today people are “Claiming the Right to Sin.” He lists areas including abortion, artificial contraception, “denying God’s teachings to children.” This was in the early 1990s. The world has added tremendously to the list since then. As Marley told Scrooge, his “is a ponderous chain.”

 

Hope Remains Full Flower

Yet hope abounds because Haffert details how God sent his Mother again, as Mother of Mercy, a sign of hope that all is not lost. What ultimately happens now depends on how we respond. She can intercede to avoid or soften such a dire chastisement as she described at Akita. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.

She told us at Fatima she does win in the end. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph. She came to Fatima and later to Akita because she wants us to join her in victory.

Considering what Our Lady asks us to do for our part, Haffert rightly says her messages “were addressed especially to Catholics. From them, above all, there must be a response. If they refuse, do they not deserve the chastisement along with the ‘bad?’”

But if we listen and follow her instructions, that still does not have to happen. Or at least it can be lessened.

Writing about the latter times, St. Louis de Montfort explained, “Mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy, power and grace; in mercy, to bring back and welcome lovingly the poor sinners and wanderers who are to be converted and return to the Catholic Church; in power, to combat the enemies of God who will rise up menacingly to seduce and crush by promises and threats all those who oppose them; finally, she must shine forth in grace to inspire and support the valiant soldiers and loyal servants of Jesus Christ who are fighting for his cause.”

What Our Lady said at Fatima goes for Akita too: If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.

 

Simple Solution, Simple Request

Remember, Akita is an update of Fatima. It happened in a slightly different way, but Akita’s solution is Fatima’s solution. Fatima’s instructions are Akita’s instructions. They are really very simple.

“It is specific simplicity which makes the Fatima message so different, so practical, so hopeful,” Haffert wrote. He reminded that Bishop John Venancio, a former bishop of Fatima, compared the simple remedy given by Our Blessed Mother to Naaman the Syrian seeking a cure from the prophet Elisha in the Old Testament. At first Naaman didn’t want to follow instructions because he thought they were much too simple to result in a cure. (2Kings: 6-16). But finally his servants convinced him to listen to Elisha.

The simple instructions we need to follow as Akita and Fatima tell us:

Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary, Our Lady instructed at Akita. And again, Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.

At Fatima, we know she requested the Rosary at each of her apparitions. For one, Continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.

Also, be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart and enrolled in and wear the brown Scapular as a continuous sign.

Too, make sacrifices in reparation for sin. The sacrifices Our Lady requires are those required for fulfilling our daily duties. Start the day with the Morning Offering (watch for an article on the Morning Offering soon in the Register).

As at Fatima, have a devotion to St. Joseph.

Then, make the First Saturday devotions, fulfilling its simple conditions.

If enough people respond the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will be hastened and a chastisement might be averted or lessened by the Blessed Mother’s intercession.

Remember her final hope-filled words at Akita:

Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.