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The movie shows the missionaries being cruelly Japanese tortured by the Japanesemissionaries. There were many cases where European missionaries, mainly Spanish and Portuguese , were tortured and martyred in the first half of the 17th century. In general, at least in the early years of the persecution, the Japanese were willing to expel the Catholic priests. It appears that the Tokugawa shogunate killed missionaries in order to frighten their colleagues to leaveinto leaving. This effort was largely successful , and the number of missionaries and clerics in the country was halved from 1590 to 1620.  In the movie , we see the Japanese being very eager to ensure that the Christian missionaries renounced their faith. This was the case as the The Shogunate wanted the discredit the priests in the eyes of the local population. The treatment of the priests in the movie and the cruel tactics used to make them renounce their faith are all based on historical precedents. Indeed, as in the movie film, the Japanese were able to make a small number of European priests to renounce their faith, ; they became known as the ‘Fallen Priests.’’ <ref> Breen, John, and Mark Williams, eds. Japan and Christianity: Impacts and Responses (NJ, Springer, 2016), p 112</ref>