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Passion Play

The Passion Play or Easter pageant is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. The viewing of and participation in Passion Plays is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in the Catholic and Evangelical traditions; as such Passion Plays are often ecumenical Christian productions.

Passion Plays have had a long and complex history involving faith and devotion, civic pageantry, religious and political censorship, large-scale revival and historical re-enactments.

Origin and history in the United Kingdom

The origin and development of Passion Plays in the UK can be traced back to one of the earliest pieces of theatre in Britain, which was the Quem Quaeritis: four lines spoken by two choirs addressing each other in a dramatic form. It can also be traced back to the liturgical drama used within the church and the Corpus Christi festivals which took place outside the church.

Passion Plays were the focal point of the Mystery Plays that were performed by city guilds in many medieval cities, the most prominent being York, Chester and Coventry. Public performances of Passion Plays lasted from the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth century, with a few examples into the seventeenth century.

During the Reformation, the Passion Plays and Mystery Cycles were suppressed due to their perceived Catholic influences. Eventually, in 1642 all theatre was banned with the suppression of the playhouses by a Puritan Parliament. With the Restoration, theatres opened again in 1660, this time with women permitted to perform on the stage. However, religion and politics were heavily censored for the next few hundred years in England and no Passion Play was performed publicly during this time.

The modern revival of Passion Plays began with the revival of the York Mystery Plays in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain, the Chester Mystery Plays in the 1970s and the York and Towneley Plays as part of the Edinburgh Festival in 1977.

The Easter play precedent
The development of the Passion Play was about the same as that of the Easter Drama. It originated in the ritual of the Church, which prescribes, among other things, that the Gospel on Good Friday should be sung in parts divided among various persons. Later, the Passion Play made its appearance, first in Latin, then in vernacular languages; contents and forms were adapted more and more to audience expectations, until, in the fifteenth century, the popular religious plays had developed. The Benedictbeurn Passion Play (thirteenth century) is still largely composed of Latin ritual sentences in prose and of church hymns, and, being designed to be sung, resembles an oratorio.

Addition of music and characters
Yet even this oldest of the Passion Plays already shows a tendency to break away from the ritual and to adopt a more dramatic form. This evolution is shown by the interpolation of free translations of church hymns and of German verses not pertaining to such hymns, as well as by the appearance of Mary (the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus) and Mary Magdalene in the action. From these humble beginnings, the Passion Play developed very rapidly, since in the fourteenth century it was at a stage of development that could not have been reached except by repeated practice. From this second period, we have the Vienna Passion, the St. Gall Passion, the oldest Frankfort Passion, and the Maestricht Passion. All four Plays, as they are commonly called, are written in rhyme, principally in German.

Expansion
The Vienna Passion embraces the entire history of the Redemption, and begins with the revolt and fall of Lucifer; the play, as transmitted to us, ends with Jesus and his Twelve Apostles sitting at the Last Supper.

The oldest Frankfort Passion play, that of Canon Baldemar von Peterwell (1350–1381), the production of which required two days, was more profusely elaborated than the other Passion Plays of this period. Of this play only the Ordo sive Registrum has come down to us, a long roll of parchment for the use of the director, containing stage directions and the first words of the dialogues. The plays based on this list of directions lead us to the period in which the Passion Play reached its highest development (1400–1515). During this period the later Frankfort Passion Play (1467), the Alsfelder, and the Friedberger (1514) originated. Connected with this group are the Eger, the Donaueschingen, Augsburg, Freising and Lucerne Passion Plays, in which the whole world drama, beginning with the creation of man and brought down to the coming of the Holy Ghost, is exhibited, and which was produced with great splendour as late as 1583.

Expansion and consolidation of previous plays
Nearly all these Passion Plays have some relation to those coming from the Tyrol, some contributing to, others taking from, that source. These, again, are founded upon the Tyrolese Passion play which originated during the transition period of the fourteenth to the fifteenth century. Historian J. E. Wackernell, with the aid of the plays that have reached us, has reconstructed this period. In Tyrol the Passion Plays received elaborate cultivation; at Bolzan o they were presented with great splendour and, in 1514, lasted no less than seven days. Here, too, the innovation of placing the female roles in the hands of women was introduced, which innovation did not become general until during the seventeenth century.

Elaborate, public productions
The magnificent productions of the Passion Plays during the fifteenth century are closely connected with the growth and increasing self-confidence of the cities, which found its expression in noble buildings, ecclesiastical and municipal, and in gorgeous public festivals. The artistic sense and the love of art of the citizens had, in co-operation with the clergy, called these plays into being, and the wealth of the citizens provided for magnificent productions of them on the public squares, whither they migrated after expulsion from the churches. The citizens and civil authorities considered it a point of honour to render the production as rich and diversified as possible. Ordinarily, the preparations for the play were in the hands of a spiritual brotherhood, the play itself being considered a form of divine mystical worship. People of the most varied classes took part in the production, and frequently the number of actors was as high as two hundred and even greater. It was undoubtedly no small task to drill the performers, particularly since the stage arrangements were still very primitive.

Staging and set design
The stage was a wooden structure, almost as broad as it was long, elevated but slightly above the ground and open on all sides. A house formed the background; a balcony attached to the house represented Heaven. Under the balcony three crosses were erected. Sometimes the stage was divided into three sections by doors. Along the sides of the stage, taken lengthwise, stood the houses required for the production; they were indicated by fenced-in spaces, or by four posts upon which a roof rested. The entrance into Hell was pictured by the mouth of a monster, through which the Devil and the souls captured or released during the plays passed back and forth. The actors entered in solemn procession, led by musicians or by a præcursor (herald), and took their stand at the places appointed them. They remained on the stage all through the performance; they sat on the barriers of their respective divisions, and were permitted to leave their places only to recite their lines. As each actor finished speaking, he returned to his place. The audience stood around the stage or looked on from the windows of neighbouring houses. Occasionally platforms, called "bridges", were erected around the stage in the form of an amphitheatre.

Simplicity of scenery, dialogue, action, and costumes
The scenery was the background of old-time middle east. There were no side scenes, and consequently no stage perspective. Since an illusion of reality could not be had, indications were made to suffice. Thus a cask standing on end represents the mountain on which Christ is tempted by the Devil; thunder is imitated by the report of a gun; in order to signify that the Devil had entered into him, Judas holds a bird of black plumage before his mouth and makes it flutter. The suicide of Judas is an execution, in which Beelzebub performs the hangman's duty. He precedes the culprit up the ladder and draws Judas after him by a rope. Judas has a black bird and the intestines of an animal concealed in the front of his clothing, and when Satan tears open the garment the bird flies away, and the intestines fall out, whereupon Judas and his executioner slide down into Hell on a rope. A painted picture representing the soul, is hung from the mouth of each of the two thieves on the cross; an angel takes the soul of the penitent, the devil that of the impenitent thief. Everything is presented in the concrete, just as the imagination of the audience pictures it, and the scenic conditions, resembling those of the antique theatre demand. All costume, however, is contemporary, historical accuracy being ignored.

Decline
School dramas now came into vogue in Catholic and Protestant schools, and frequently enough became the battle-ground of religious controversies. When, in the 17th century the Jesuit drama arose, the Passion Plays (still largely secularized) were relegated to out-of-the-way villages and to the monasteries, particularly in Bavaria and Austria. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, during the Age of Enlightenment, efforts were made in Catholic Germany, particularly in Bavaria and the Tyrol, to destroy even the remnants of the tradition of medieval plays.

Revival
Public interest in the Passion Play developed in the last decades of the 19th century, and the statistician Karl Pearson wrote a book about them.

Since then, Brixlegg and Vorderthiersee in Tyrol and Horice na Sumave, near Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, and above all, the Oberammergau in Upper Bavaria attract thousands to their plays.

The text of the play of Vorderthiersee (Gespiel in der Vorderen Thiersee) dates from the second half of the seventeenth century, is entirely in verse, and comprises in five acts the events recorded in the Gospel, from the Last Supper to the Entombment. A prelude (Vorgespiel), on the Good Shepherd, precedes the play. After being repeatedly remodelled, the text received its present classical form from the Austrian Benedictine, P. Weissenhofer. Productions of the play, which came from Bavaria to the Tyrol in the second half of the eighteenth century, were arranged at irregular intervals during the first half of the nineteenth century; since 1855 they have taken place at regular intervals, at Brixlegg every ten years. The Höritz Passion Play, the present text of which is from the pen of Provost Landsteiner, has been produced every five years, since 1893.

Australia
In Australia, several major productions of The Passion are staged annually during the lead up to Easter.
 * The Iona Passion Play was founded in 1958 in Queensland, and tours cities and towns around Australia. In each location the touring cast invites community members to join the production.
 * The Moogerah Passion Play, established in 1993, is produced annually, at Easter time, in Queensland. It is staged "realistically" at The Lake Theatre, a large, purpose built, lakeside theatre designed specifically for the Moogerah Passion Play. Contemporary versions of the play endeavour to use different Bibles to convey messages to the audience every year. Thelaketheatre.jpg
 * In New South Wales, at Turramurra, The Turramurra Passion is a contemporary, character-driven interpretation, using multimedia elements and an original score that was established 1999.
 * Other dramas with redemptionist themes, such as Dorothy L. Sayers' The Just Vengeance, as produced at the Melbourne Town Hall in 1947, have been described as "passion plays".

Bavaria
The chief survivor of former times is the Oberammergau Passion Play, first performed in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau in 1634 and now performed every 10 years. The next Oberammergau Passion Play was to take place in 2020 but was delayed to 2022 amid COVID-19 concerns.

In 2010, about half the inhabitants of Oberammergau took part in the once-a-decade Passion Play; over 2,000 villagers brought the story of Jesus of Nazareth to life for audiences that flocked in from around the world. In accordance with tradition, the play started with Jesus entering Jerusalem, continued with his death on the cross, and finished with the Resurrection.

2010 saw a new production directed by Christian Stückl, director at Munich's noted Volkstheater. He was supported by the artistic team that, along with him, staged the 2000 Passion Play: deputy director and dramatic adviser Otto Huber, set and costume designer Stefan Hageneier, music director Marxus Zwink, and conductor Michael Bocklet. All four of these collaborators are from Oberammergau. The play started at 14.30 and included a three-hour interval, ending at 22.30. Performances took place between mid-May and early October 2010.

Italy
The Passion of Christ is performed in Sordevolo (Piedmont) every five years since 1816, from June to September, by all the inhabitants of the village in an open-air amphitheatre 4,000 square meters wide, of 2,400 seats under cover. In front of the audience is rebuilt a corner of Jerusalem. Each actor involved (about 500 people) is a volunteer, as well as who works "behind the scenes"(about 300 people) for scenography, costumes, script, horses. It is one of the greatest shows about the Passion of Christ in Italy, sacred in the topic, popular in its realization. About 40 shows are performed for each season. The next edition was planned for 2020, but has been postponed to summer 2022 due to the Coronavirus pandemic (June–September).

Brazil
The Passion of the Christ is performed every year during Easter, in a purpose-built 100000 m2 theatre-city in the arid backlands of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. It is considered to be the largest open-air theatre in the world. Thousands of visitors arrive every year to watch the performance; over 500 actors appear on the nine separate stages within the stone walls of the New Jerusalem city-theatre, founded in 1968. 2.2 miles of walls and 70 towers flank the outer perimeter of the New Jerusalem Theater. The first passion play in the town took place in 1951, and consisted only of a few family and friends playing all of the roles. In 1963, the townspeople began constructing a replica Jerusalem in Brejo da Madre de Deus. The nine separate stages include The Upper Room, the Roman Forum, Herod's palace, Bethesda Lake and the Sepulcher. During 8 performances during the Holy Week, an average of 8,000 people per show from around the globe follow the actors as they move through "ancient Jerusalem", portraying every step of the Passion of Christ. In the 2010 season, when the 43rd anniversary of the Passion of Christ in Nova Jerusalem was celebrated, the public reached a record 80,000 people, coming from 22 Brazilian states and 12 countries.

Canada

 * The Canadian Badlands Passion Play is performed annually in Drumheller, Alberta. It is staged outdoors in a naturally occurring amphitheatre in the hills of the Drumheller valley. Performers are a mix of professionals and volunteers from across Alberta and Canada, with nearly 300 actors and musicians annually.
 * In Hamilton, Ontario, Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School puts on a Passion Play annually for all the students who attend it.
 * In Kingston, Ontario, a full-scale Passion Play production has been traditionally performed for decades at the Kingston Gospel Temple, a Pentecostal worship center. The production features local amateur and professional talent.
 * In Manitoba, located in the La Riviere Valley at Oak Valley's Outdoor theatre, located on the edge of the Pembina Valley. The cast and crew are volunteers from all over southern Manitoba. Rehearsals usually start in April or early May and are ready for mid-July performances.
 * In Thornhill, Ontario, in what has become an annual tradition at St. Joseph the Worker Parish, over 200 parish youth and young adults annually come together to present the Life and Passion of Christ.
 * In Queensway Cathedral (Toronto, Ontario) a Passion Play takes place during the Easter Season. For more than 20 years, the Church on the Queensway (formally Queensway Cathedral) has presented different versions of the Passion Play in their 3200-seat venue, using hundreds of volunteers, live animals, singers and dancers. The play has become a favorite, and most shows experience capacity crowds. This presentation is known for its powerful portrayal of the life of Christ, dramatic resurrection, and ascension scenes.
 * There is also a well-known Passion Play in Vaughan, Ontario, organized by St. Peters Parish and performed at Holy Cross Catholic Academy.
 * Church of the Rock, an interdenominational church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, performs annual passion plays themed around movies such as Back to the Future and Pirates of the Caribbean. Their Avengers-themed play went viral in 2022.

Hungary
Kőhegy (Stone Mountain) Chapel at Budaörs was built by Franz Wendler to whom Virgin Mary had appeared in a dream. He supposedly dreamt of a dog rose on Stone Mountain, every flower of which bore the face of Mary. On the petals he read: "I am the Immaculate Conception". In spring 1855, Wendler started construction. On 15 October 1855, the chapel was consecrated to Mary's Immaculate Conception. Franz Wendler lived in a cave next to the chapel from 1878 until his death. The chapel is one of the most important pilgrimage places for Germans of Hungary in the area of Buda. Every three years, Budaörs' inhabitants stage a passion play with Hungarian and German text.

Malta
The island nation of Malta features many Passion Plays, put on by provincial club, societies, and theatres in various localities. Each village and town often hosts several plays, and there is some competition among the troupes to put on the most moving or beautiful display. These are often combined with processions and wirjiet ("exhibitions") that feature models and renditions of the Passion.

Since 2007, a Passion Play entitled Il-Mixja, with Jesus being played by popular Maltese actor Alan Fenech and featuring some of the most highly acclaimed actors in Malta, has become one of the highlights of the genre on the island with the audience experiencing the passion of Jesus Christ as if they were present on the streets of Jerusalem during those historical two days. The play is held outdoors and has so far been held four times in the streets of Rabat, once at Ħaġar Qim temples and four times (2013–2016) for charity on the grounds surrounding Mount Carmel Hospital. In 2017 the event was held at the presidential Verdala palace in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund. In 2018 it was held both at Verdala Palace and on the grounds surrounding Mount Carmel Hospital whereas in 2019 the production once again changed location to the Romeo Romano Gardens in Santa Venera with once again the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation and the service users of Mount Carmel Hospital being the beneficiaries of this charity event. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19, however 2021 will see the production being transformed into a virtual experience screened in cinemas and online. It also marked Alan Fenech's last time in the role of Jesus, the role being taken up as from 2022 by John Vassallo. Since the 2022 edition, it has always been held in the gardens of the Verdala Palace and under the distinct patronage of the President of the Republic of Malta. All proceeds go towards the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation.

The Netherlands

 * De Passiespelen is a re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ taking place every year that is divisible by 5, e.g., in 2005 and 2010. It is performed in the open air in Openluchttheater De Doolhof, in Tegelen. It originated in 1931 and has become an internationally acclaimed event drawing visitors from all over the world.
 * Since 2011, Nederland 3 has broadcast The Passion, a live television musical that features a rendition of the story set in the present day, accompanied by popular music. Serving as a Dutch adaptation of BBC Three's special, Manchester Passion (2006), it has since been held annually in different cities, with the 2015 edition seen by approximately 3.57 million viewers. The concept has also been sold as a television format to other countries, such as Belgium and the United States.

The Philippines
The predominantly Catholic Philippines has Passion Plays called Senákulo, named after the Upper room, every Semana Santa (Holy Week). Theatre companies and community groups perform different versions of the Senákulo, using their own scripts that present the dialogue in either poetic or prosaic form. These scripts are decades or even centuries-old, and draw from both the Bible and folk tradition.

Costumes and scenery in traditional Senákulo conform to Hispanic iconography instead of actual historical realism, which is more common with recent productions (particularly by professional companies). Some productions use ropes to hold actors on crosses while others use actual nails.

One of the more popular Senákulo is Ang Pagtaltal in Jordan, Guimaras, which began in 1975 and draws some 150,000 visitors annually. Some people perform crucifixions outside of Passion Plays to fulfill a panatà (vow for a request or prayer granted), such as the famous penitents in Barangay San Pedro Cutud, San Fernando, Pampanga.

Poland
Tradition of Passion Plays in Poland has become popular again in the early 20th century. Today the best known plays take place in Kałków, Kalwaria Pacławska, the Pallotines' Seminary in Ołtarzew, and the most prominent in Sanctuary of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. This Passion Play is one of the oldest.
 * Since 1998, there has been a yearly Passion Play in Poznan, performed on Palm Sunday in open air of Cytadela City Park. Now it is the biggest performance of this kind in Europe. In 2009, 100,000 pilgrims were expected to attend.

Slovenia
In the 17th and 18th century, Passion Plays were organised in the towns of the Slovene Lands, like Kranj, Ljubljana, and Novo Mesto. Their language was German, Slovene, or both. They were all based on the tradition of the Ljubljana Passion Play, which was organised by Capuchins and first performed from ca. 1608 until ca. 1613. The most distinguished of them has been the Škofja Loka Passion Play. It was written by Father Romuald in 1715, with modifications until 1727, on the basis of an older tradition. It is the oldest preserved play in Slovene as well as the oldest preserved director's book in Europe and the only one extant from the Baroque period. The Škofja Loka Passion Play was performed each year until 1767. The procession was revived in 1999, and reprised in 2000 and 2009, with further reprisals planned for 2015 and 2021. The play's reprisals are the largest open-air theatre production in Slovenia.

Spain
In Catalonia, it is common for villages to present different Passion Plays every Easter, like the ones in Esparreguera, Olesa de Montserrat, Ulldecona or Cervera, first documented in 1538. Olesa's 1996 production surpassed the world record for the most people acting on stage at the same time, with 726 persons. Balmaseda, in the Spanish Basque Country, holds the leading Passion Play in the region.

Sri Lanka
The earliest Passion Plays in Sri Lanka, at Vanny in Mannar, Pesalai, Pamanugama, Mutuwal, Pallansena, Kalamulla, Duwa and Pitipana in Negombo, used life-size statues instead of living actors. Influenced by the Oberammergau Passion Play, K. Lawrence Perera, began the practice of using living actors in the Borelassa Passion Play. Women later began to take part in the play. However, for a period of time after 1939, the Archbishop of Colombo banned performances because of his disapproval of the women's participation. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, there are many Passion Play enactments in Sri Lanka:
 * Duwa Passion Play, near Negombo (1988)
 * The Yagaya Passion Play at Kandawala, Katana (1990/92)
 * Aho mage Senageni and Aho mage senageni at Halpe, Katana (1990s)
 * Kurusiya Matha Miyadunemi, a modern Passion Play enacted in the villages of Katuwapitiya and Bolawalana in Negombo (1999, 2000, 2001)
 * Thambakande Paskuwa at St. Bruno's Church in Negombo with a large number of celebrities as actors (2012)
 * Tharakayano, the first ballet style Passion Play, enacted in Negombo (2012).
 * Maha Premaya, the Easter passion play, was enacted on 24 March 2018 at Dungalpitiya, Don Bosco auditorium in Negombo. Over 80 actors participated. Produced by Rev. Fr. Manjula Priyantha (SDB), directed by George Dinesh Manthrige.

Thailand
The Church of Immaculate Conception and Samta Cruz Church in Bangkok and Chanthaburi holds an annual Passion Play on Good Friday.

United Kingdom
Passion Plays have taken place all over the UK and between 20 and 30 plays are performed each year in locations such as Aberdeen, Abingdon, Alresford, Ballylinan, Bangor, Bath, Bedford, Belper, Beverley, Bewdley, Birmingham, Bishop Auckland, Bolton, Brentor, Brighton, Carlisle, Chester, Chinnor, Cowbridge, Crewe, Devizes, Duddingston Kirk, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Great Waltham, Guildford, Hamilton, Heworth, Hornchurch, Horsham, Hucknall, Kendal, Leominster, Lewes, Lincoln, Liverpool, Lytham, Norwich, Maidstone, Manchester, New Malden, Nuneaton, Oxford, Poole, Port Talbort, Preston, Redditch, Richmond, Settle, Shrewsbury, Southampton, South Woodham Ferrers, Spelthorne, St Neots, Tonbridge, Trafalgar Square, West Bridgford, Winterbourne, Wirral, Withensea, Wokingham, Woodstock, Worcester, Yeovil, York.

See Passion Plays in the United Kingdom for a full list and description of UK Passion Plays.

United States

 * Arkansas
 * In Eureka Springs, Arkansas, The Great Passion Play is regularly performed from May through October, by a cast of 170 actors and dozens of live animals. Since its first performance in 1968, The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs has been seen by over 7.7 million people, which makes it the largest-attended outdoor drama in America, according to the Institute of Outdoor Theatre of the University of East Carolina at Greenville, North Carolina. Also on the grounds of The Great Passion Play was the Christ of the Ozarks statue (the largest Christ statue in North America), the New Holy Land Tour, a full-scale re-creation of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, a section of the Berlin Wall, and a Bible Museum with over 6,000 Bibles (including an original 1611 King James Bible, a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, and the only Bible signed by all of the original founders of the Gideons). From time to time popular artists visit The Great Passion Play to perform in the 4,000-seat amphitheater where the play is performed.

 * Arizona
 * The Mesa Arizona Easter Pageant Jesus the Christ began in 1928 as a small sunrise Easter presentation. The pageant is now the "largest annual outdoor Easter pageant in the world." With a 450-member cast, the 65-minute pageant depicts the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ using song and dance.

 * California
 * The Glory of Easter at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California is an extremely popular Passion Play and family tradition to Southern Californians. It has a cast of hundreds, live animals, and flying angels, among other unique aspects.
 * Since 1993, Church of Good Shepard in Pittsburg, California has been doing their adaptation of the Passion Play. Tryouts are usually held in December and rehearsals are held in January through March, with 5 performances until Good Friday. This event has been held annually since its 1993 incarnation. The theme changes every year. Teens who try out are given scripts, props, costumes, and near the end of rehearsal timing, they do pictures and music. All that had to be done before their first performance, then they have 4 more performances after the first one, with the last one being on Good Friday.

 * Colorado
 * Since 1998, The Thorn has been performing during the Easter season in Colorado Springs. Often described as The Passion of the Christ meets Cirque du Soleil, this epic portrayal of Jesus' life and death features indoor pyrotechnics, acrobats, aerialists, and a cast and crew of nearly 1000. Beginning in 2011, The Thorn started holding an annual national tour and has performed for tens of thousands people in cities that include Charleston, Austin, Denver, Nashville and Seattle.

 * Connecticut
 * For 38 years and counting, the St. Thomas Church of Southington, Connecticut has performed a Passion Play. Made up entirely of volunteers, rehearsals begin in January and conclude with a week's worth of shows prior to Easter, the last show being on Good Friday. Every year it is general admission, and there is no cost to view the play (however, donations are appreciated.)

 * Florida
 * Florida's Passion Play is held in Wauchula, at the Cattleman's Arena, beginning Good Friday and continuing for the next several following weekends. It has a cast of over 200 people and 150 animals.

 * Georgia
 * Atlanta's Passion Play was produced by the First Baptist Church of Atlanta. It ran annually from 1977 to 2011.

 * Illinois
 * In Bloomington, Illinois, The American Passion Play has been portrayed annually since 1924 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts and is one of the oldest continuously running passion Plays in North America. This play is unique in that it dramatizes Jesus' entire ministry, rather than only the events from Passion Week onward.
 * In Zion, Illinois, the Zion Passion Play has been performed at Christ Community Church since 1935.
 * Central Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Illinois portrayed "The Gospel of Christ" in an Easter Drama, using members of the church and church staff, choir, and children's groups. It was directed by drummer and church member Jimmy Bass. Although the play was a huge success, it has not been restaged, and is instead copied onto DVDs available at the church.
 * Inverness, Illinois – Holy Family Parish teens put on a performance on Good Friday every year.

 * Michigan
 * Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan has been performing an annual indoor and outdoor walk-through Passion Play since 2003. The play's outdoor scenes include a marketplace, and a Roman encampment.

 * Minnesota
 * The North Heights Passion Play was a popular indoor musical stage production sponsored by North Heights Lutheran Church of Arden Hills, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says, "With 700 participants, dozens of live animals, flames, rain and 'lightning', North Heights Lutheran Church's annual Passion Play is spectacular." More than 400,000 attended the performances over 19 years before the production was discontinued. Over 20,000 attended the final season, including more than 150 tour buses and groups. Performances began in April 1989 and ended 22 April 2007.

 * Missouri
 * The New Melle Community Passion Play is presented by an all-volunteer ecumenical group in a "theatre in the round" indoor setting. The story of the last days in the life of Christ is told using a script and music, based loosely on the cantata "Then Came Sunday", by Rodger Strader. It has grown in size and popularity over the past 32 years.

 * Mississippi
 * The First United Methodist Church in Kosciusko, Mississippi has been performing their Passion Play for 30 years. It has been a mainstay in the community as well as the state. Members of the Church and community come together to share in fellowship and learn about the last days of Jesus Christ. This is an original script of the Passion, written by a former minister of the church.

 * New Jersey
 * The longest running Passion Play in the United States has been performed in North Hudson, New Jersey since 1915 and at the Park Performing Arts Center since 1931. In 1997, there was a minor controversy when an African-American actor was cast as Jesus.
 * The Jesus Story, presented by Bible Baptist Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, has been running for 20 years. First starting out as a small representation of the passion of Jesus, this production has developed into a full-time musical performance. Over the years, the play's format has changed focusing on the point of view of several different people including Mary the mother of Jesus, the Roman Soldiers, the Thieves on the Cross, and many others. The show is performed at Felician College in Lodi, New Jersey, and runs for approximately seven shows per year. Every year it is general admission, and there is no cost to view the play.
 * He Is Alive! was formerly presented by the Fountain of Life Center, an Assemblies of God church in Burlington, New Jersey. It drew large crowds and attracted visitors to the church in South Jersey and Philadelphia metropolitan area. The play ran from the 1980s until 2016, and included the Easter story from Last Supper, the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the Resurrection of Jesus. The play was performed on 8 nights during the month building up to Easter Sunday, and each show drew an audience of around 1,500-2,000 people. The play was free to attend, but donations were taken and merchandise was sold to fund the production of the play.

 * Ohio
 * The St. John Passion Play, greater Cincinnati Ohio, performed every year without interruption rehearsals beginning in 1917, first performance in Feb. 1918 which seems to make it the oldest annually performed, without interruption in the United States of America. Currently housed in the Lockland Christian Church, Lockland, Ohio (www.locklandchristian.org). A free will offering is suggested for general admission. The beginning of the play traces back to February 1917 when the United States of America was at war.  Like other parishes throughout the United States, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati had readily given its quota of men to the armed forces during World War 1.  Eight of them had already been killed in action. Father Richard Wurth, Franciscan pastor of St. John the Baptist Church, was deeply saddened by the loss of these eight young men and considered how he and his parishioners could merit a special protection of God for the others serving in active duty.  He remembered how the wood-carving peasants of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps had escaped the Black Death in the 17th century by vowing to produce a Passion Play every ten years in thanksgiving. With hope in his heart, Father Wurth decided on a similar strategy. He produced Veronica, or the Holy Face, a play centered on the passion and death of Christ.  After the third and final performance, he called all of the actors together backstage. Realizing there had been no more battle-related casualties, they joined hands in thanksgiving and solemnly pledged to present a passion play annually thereafter for the continued protection of those serving in the war.  The following year 1918, the St. John Passion Play was formally established. The closing of St. John the Baptist Church in 1969 almost meant the demise of the Play. However, several committed cast and crew members were determined to keep it alive and organized the St. John Passion Play as a charitable nonprofit corporation. Since then, the Play has been performed every year in numerous churches and auditoriums throughout the greater Cincinnati area and has in recent years been housed on the grounds of the Lockland Christian Church, Lockland, Ohio.
 * In Cambridge, Ohio, the Living Word Outdoor Drama has been offered every summer since 1975.
 * In Duncan Falls, Ohio, Cornerstone Full Gospel Church has put on the drama Worthy Is The Lamb, for over 30 years. The drama features a cast of over 150+, is free to the public, and is presented on Good Friday and Easter Sunday of each year.

 * Oklahoma
 * One of the U.S.'s longest-running Passion Plays is held at the Holy City of the Wichitas, located within the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. The Holy City started as an Easter Passion Play in the Wichita Mountains in 1926. The impetus behind both the pageant and city was the Reverend Anthony Mark Wallock (b. 1890, in Austria). In 1926, he took his Sunday school class up a mountain, where a tableau of the Resurrection was presented. The popularity of this service led to its becoming an annual event. In 1927, the service became nonsectarian and was referred to by the Lawton Constitution as "Oklahoma's Oberammergau".
 * Since 1990, the Muskogee First Assembly of God has performed a widely popular version of the passion beginning Good Friday and running through Easter under the direction of Debra Rose. The drama utilizes acting, music, dance and live animals by a volunteer cast and crew of 50.

 * Pennsylvania
 * In Downingtown, Pennsylvania, the Hopewell United Methodist Church has performed a version of the play in a 1,000 seat outdoor amphitheater each year since 1963. The original version of The Passion Play, initiated in 1963, is based in the King James Version of the Bible, but a newer version, entitled The Power and The Glory was launched in 2005, based in several modern-language translations of the Bible. The church offers both versions on successive weekends in June each year as a free offering to their audience.
 * In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Harrisburg Christian Performing Arts Center performs annual Passion Plays during the two weekends before Easter. They have been doing this since 1973, with 2013 marking their 40th annual Passion Play. The Passion Plays produced here are written by staff members, and music under public domain is added to give it a musical aspect. A new play is produced every year, apart from the 40th Passion Play The Keys, which was previously produced in the early 90s.

 * South Dakota
 * The Black Hills Passion Play was performed every summer for almost 70 years in Spearfish, South Dakota; this production was an American version of the Lünen Passion Play that was brought over in 1932 by immigrants, who claimed that it had been produced since 1242. The production was Americanized by seventh-generation Passion Player Josef Meier, who toured it around the country before bringing it to Spearfish in the 1930s; until its last performance on 31 August 2008, the show was produced under the auspices of Meier's daughter Johanna, a world-famous opera singer who had her debut in the play at the age of five weeks. During the winter months from 1953 through 1998, the same cast also performed the play in Lake Wales, Florida.

 * Tennessee
 * East Tennessee has hosted many Passion Plays, including The Smoky Mountain Passion Play in Townsend, Tennessee from 1973 to 1992, The Great Passion Play at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 1988, and The Gatlinburg, Tennessee Musical Passion Play, which closed in 1996.

 * Texas
 * The Passion is performed annually in downtown San Antonio, Texas, with a procession leading from Milam Park to San Fernando Cathedral.
 * One of the most widely viewed modified passion plays in the United States is The Promise, performed near Glen Rose, Texas. Between Glen Rose and its sister production in Branson, Missouri, over one million people have seen The Promise.
 * The Play has also been performed in Hughes Springs, Texas as The Passion Play.

 * Utah
 * The Mormon Miracle Pageant is performed every summer in Manti, Utah, by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It includes a visitation by Jesus Christ, shortly after His resurrection, to inhabitants of ancient America, as recorded in The Book of Mormon.

 * Virginia
 * The American version of the Oberammergau Passion Play was performed in Strasburg, Virginia, each summer from 1973 to 1986. This version was originally written by Val Balfour. Locals volunteered as extras, and church groups came from all over Virginia, Maryland, etc. to see the play. The same play toured all over the country in the fall and winter months.
 * The Loudoun Passion Play is an outdoor re-enactment of the Easter story that has the audience walk between scenes to follow the story. It has been performed every year since 1986 on Palm Sunday weekend, in parks and other outdoor locations in and around Purcellville, Virginia.

 * Washington
 * In Seattle, Washington, a large group of 8th graders performs the Passion Play at St. Joseph's School, on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Their piece involves several songs from Jesus Christ Superstar, including "Heaven On Their Minds" and "Trials and Tribulations". This story also involves some minor parts, including the Women with Perfume, Mary Mother of Jesus, Peter denying knowing Jesus, and The Prayer in Gethsemane. This has been tradition at St. Joseph's for over 30 years.

 * Wisconsin
 * From 1990 to 2012, Lighthouse Christian Church's Impact Productions in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin performed The Promise during Holy Week, with breaks in 1995, 2006, and 2009. Beginning in 2000, the show was merged with another production by David T. Clydesdale, The Power of His Love, and the production was entitled The Promise: The Power of His Love.

Mexico
Passion plays are common in almost all catholic churches across Mexico during Holy Week, especially on Good Friday. They commonly follow the Stations of the Cross. The most famous passion play in the country is the Passion Play of Iztapalapa.

The Passion Play in motion pictures

 * 2004's The Passion of the Christ (produced and directed by Mel Gibson) had a plot similar to that of Passion Plays.
 * 1989's Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal) (directed by Denys Arcand) presented the staging of a very unorthodox Passion Play while the players' own lives mirrored the Passion.

Antisemitism in Passion plays
Many Passion Plays historically blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus in a polemical fashion, depicting a crowd of Jewish people condemning Jesus to crucifixion and a Jewish leader assuming eternal collective guilt for the crowd for the murder of Jesus, which, The Boston Globe explains, "for centuries prompted vicious attacks – or pogroms – on Europe's Jewish communities". Time magazine in its article, The Problem With Passion, explains that "such passages (are) highly subject to interpretation".

Although modern scholars interpret the "blood on our children" as "a specific group's oath of responsibility" some audiences have historically interpreted it as "an assumption of eternal, racial guilt". This last interpretation has often incited violence against Jews; according to the Anti-Defamation League, "Passion plays historically unleashed the torrents of hatred aimed at the Jews, who always were depicted as being in partnership with the devil and the reason for Jesus' death". The Christian Science Monitor, in its article, Capturing the Passion, explains that "historically, productions have reflected negative images of Jews and the long-time church teaching that the Jewish people were collectively responsible for Jesus' death. Violence against Jews as 'Christ-killers' often flared in their wake." Christianity Today in Why some Jews fear The Passion (of the Christ) observed that "Outbreaks of Christian antisemitism related to the Passion narrative have been...numerous and destructive."

Some of the oldest currently-running passion plays have had to reckon with past polemic portrayals of Jews in the work. The Oberammergau Passion Play is an especially notable example. First performed in 1634, the play continues to run today. In its original incarnation, the play relied upon the Antisemitic canard that Jews bore greater responsibility than any other group in the killing of Christ. It utilizes juxtaposition between pure Christians and wicked Jews in order to portray a greater battle between fundamental good versus evil.

Hitler attended the Passion Play in Oberammergau twice and praised it for its convincing portrayal of "the menace of Jewry".[1] Although he praised the Passion Play, he also derided Christianity. According to Alan Bullock, writing in Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, Hitler saw Christianity as a religion fit only for slaves, and its teaching as a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle of the fittest. Following the events of World War II and the explicit support of Adolf Hitler for the play, several reforms and modifications were made. In the last few decades, it has revised its script and performance with the help of representatives from Jewish organizations.

While Oberammergau is perhaps the most famous example, this was not the only instance of Anti-Semitism or Anti-Semitic rhetoric in a Passion Play. The Towneley Mystery Plays, also known as the Wakefield Mystery Plays, also featured Anti-Semitic imagery, and ran from the late Middle Ages until 1578. It is believed to be one of the earliest and most explicit portrayals of Pontius Pilate as a king or a Jew (and sometimes as king of the Jews) in theatre (although this tradition had already become well-established in paintings and other visual media by this point). Through these stylings, the Jews are further implicated in the killing of Christ as being both the judge and the jury. This consistent rendering was emulated throughout Christendom in the Middle Ages, and is perpetuated in subtler forms even today.

In 1965, a Vatican declaration titled Nostra Aetate held that the crucifixion could not be blamed on the Jewish people, whether they were living in the first century or born after the death of Christ.

The Religion Newswriters Association observed that "in Easter 2001, three incidents made national headlines and renewed [Jewish and Christian leaders'] fears. One was a column by Paul Weyrich, a conservative Christian leader and head of the Free Congress Foundation, who argued that "Christ was crucified by the Jews." Another was sparked by comments from the NBA point guard and born-again Christian Charlie Ward, who said in an interview that Jews were persecuting Christians and that Jews "had his [Jesus'] blood on their hands." Finally, the evangelical Christian comic strip artist Johnny Hart published a B.C. strip that showed a menorah disintegrating until it became a cross, with each panel featuring the last words of Jesus, including "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

On 16 November 1998, Church Council of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America similarly adopted a resolution prepared by its Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations urging any Lutheran church presenting a Passion Play to adhere to their Guidelines for Lutheran-Jewish Relations, stating that "the New Testament . . . must not be used as justification for hostility towards present-day Jews," and that "blame for the death of Jesus should not be attributed to Judaism or the Jewish people."

In 2003 and 2004 some people compared Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ to these kinds of Passion Plays, but this characterization is hotly disputed; an analysis of that topic is in the article on The Passion of the Christ.

Modern Passion Plays and contemporary re-tellings of the Passion story place greater emphasis on the Biblical account which tells a more complex story. Rather than isolating Jewish people as responsible for the death of Christ, the Bible reminds readers that Jesus was Jewish and his many supporters, friends and family were Jewish. Furthermore, the Bible alludes to the complex political, social and religious reasons that led both Roman and Jewish people to demand that Jesus be crucified.

Modern Passion Plays are supported in their endeavour to address historical prejudices and crimes against Jewish people by the work of many organisations that seek (Christian-Jewish Reconciliation). For example, in 1947, the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) explored the relationship basis of Christianity and antisemitism and in 2002, the Christian Scholars group issued "A Sacred Obligation: Rethinking Christian Faith in Relation to Judaism and the Jewish People"

The work of the American Jewish Committee, a leading global Jewish advocacy organization, and the Anti-Defamation League in changing the historical abuses of the Oberammergau play has provided greater awareness and understanding for future Passion Plays to learn from.

A recent statement on the website of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding & Cooperation (CJCUC) in Israel is described by Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz as 'the most profoundly Jewish-centered interfaith documents ever to be released'. Writing in the Huff Post, he quotes its opening lines "We seek to do the will of our Father in Heaven by accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters. Jews and Christians must work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era".

Passion Trust

The Passion Trust supports the resurgence of Passion Plays in the United Kingdom through resourcing, networking, advocating and financing new and existing plays. Established in 2011, its vision is to energise the growing number of Passion Plays taking place in the UK.

The Passion Trust hosts an annual conference in various locations around the UK, drawing together actors, arts practitioners, producers, directors, fundraisers and journalists to explore new and time-tested approaches to Passion Plays.

Europassion
Europassion is a large European organisation which supports Passion Plays in Europe. Established in 1982, this umbrella organisation draws together Passion Play communities from countries all over Europe, some of which have been performing their plays for hundreds of years. According to Mons. Fausto Panfili, the Chaplain of the Europassion:

"The experience of the Europassion constantly lets us experience a so far unexplored pathway, so that we can continue to grow. Surmounting a self-referred vision of our own experience obligates us to confront a regional, national, European and universal horizon. That is why a new vision, not fragmentary, is necessary. Unity doesn't mean uniformity. A spiritual energy, stronger and more attentive to cultural elaboration, a more evident solidarity in order to be recognised as bearers of hope, to help the people and communities grow."

title: Passion Play


text:
Talk:Passion Play

Untitled
Maybe we should change it to a redirect - I am surprised to see nothing in German about this topic.

--- No, it's a legitimate topic and quite separate from passion which should be a disambiguator page. The history of the passion play as it developed as a cultural phenomonen is interesting in itself, how it helped wean villagers off pagan habits, etc.. It surely deserves its own article of full length here.

I don't think that Roman Catholics are the only tradition to use passion plays, so I amended the sentence. Any objections? Quill 08:50, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Created a disambiguation page and took out the references to the Jethro Tull album and the Peter Nichols play, and put them there. --cpritchett42 15:15, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi all, I would like to issue a split request for a new page 'UK Passion Plays'/'Passion Plays UK'. There is such a lot of material - history, development, contemporary performances - for Passion Plays in the UK which is getting lost in this page. Furthermore, UK Passion Plays have a different history/development to Passion Plays in Europe/US and to try to cover all of that in the 'history' section of the existing page makes for very confused reading. Clear links between both pages would be included. Comments/ideas?? LBLB2021 (talk) 10:44, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

OK, I have done some work; remove the Tag?
OK, I have done some work to Wikify this article. Can we remove the Tag? Or does it still need more substantial work? Just asking. :) User:ProfessorPaul 20:56, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

 * It looks great to me Paul, I will remove the tag :) -Ladybirdintheuk 08:05, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Tag
The article reads as if medieval vernacular plays were an entirely German phenomenon, which is certainly not the case. It really exists in a not-so-splendid isolation; it was not even in Category:Medieval drama, and I think contains not a single link to mystery play, or any other related articles. Johnbod (talk) 01:26, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Christian-Jewish relations
The article should maybe add a note on Christian-Jewish relations, since Jews have sometimes complained about some Passion plays being anti-semitic. ADM (talk) 13:37, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

properly so called
the line "Later on, Passion Plays, properly so called, made their appearance" is an unsubstantiated opinion and shouldnt be in this article —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.235.8.44 (talk) 06:29, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Capitalization
It seems to me that the word 'Passion' should be capitalized in all instances, but I can't think of why 'play' would be also. Does anyone know if there is an accepted convention for this? JamesLucas (" " / +) 16:56, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The accepted convention is to capitalize both; "Passion Play" is a proper noun. Neelix (talk) 14:12, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Still tagged?
This article looks to me like it represents a pretty good worldview on the subject. Are there any specific issues hat still need to be addressed, and if not can we remove the tag? PaintedCarpet (talk) 09:05, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Re UK  The Poole Passion  (TPP) "Through the Eyes of a Child" written and directed by Sharon Muiruri — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.120.42.194 (talk) 21:19, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * We'd need a bit more information before putting it into the mainspace. Do you have a link or a newspaper writeup you could direct us to? PaintedCarpet (talk) 11:30, 18 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I saw that this was added after I commented here, but I'd still like to see citations. PaintedCarpet (talk) 12:47, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Removed Tag
I went ahead and removed the tag, as I feel the article does a good job at representing a worldwide view of the subject and no one has objected since I asked the question. PaintedCarpet (talk) 12:48, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Sri Lanka section
I have greatly shortened and re-written the Sri Lanka section. Large parts of it were blatant copyvio from http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/04/26/fea05.asp and other sources. The parts that weren't copypasted had such poor English grammar, punctuation, and spelling and incoherent writing as to be almost incomprehensible. There was also a great deal of hype added to publicise a particular composer who has written some of the music for modern passion plays in Sri Lanka. That has also been removed, as have various unreferenced personal opinions and rather extravagant claims. Voceditenore (talk) 17:14, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Passion Trust
There is information in the history of this redirect HERE which may be used to expand the section about passion plays in the United Kingdom, provided that an edit summary indicates that the information came from that article.—Anne Delong (talk) 13:29, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

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Split request for UK material on this page
Hi all, I would like to issue a split request for a new page 'UK Passion Plays'/'Passion Plays UK'. There is such a lot of material - history, development, contemporary performances - for Passion Plays in the UK which is getting lost in this page. Furthermore, UK Passion Plays have a different history/development to Passion Plays in Europe/US and to try to cover all of that in the 'history' section of the existing page makes for very confused reading. Clear links between both pages would be included. Comments/ideas?? LBLB2021 (talk) 10:44, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

 * The page almost at 100 Kb, so this would be a helpful thing to do! I see that the section for Sri Lanka has already been split off. Cheers, GentlemanGhost   (séance)  23:10, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Thank you. I have submitted a draft for a new UK Passion Play page. I have summarised UK information and moved information from this page to the new UK Passion Page.LBLB2021 (talk) 10:01, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Passion Play


text:
Talk:SATA

Year created in infobox
If you search on the internet, "when was SATA introduced," you will get conflicting answers. After digging a little bit deeper into this article and its sources, I gather that the correct story is that SATA was announced at the Intel Developer Conference in 2000, but at the time the specification wasn't finished and so the technology wasn't actually out yet. Then, version 1.0 of the spec was released in 2003, and that's when it was in a ready state and people could actually start making SATA drives. Is my understanding of the story correct?

If it is, I think it would make sense to put 2003 as the year created in the infobox (currently it says 2000). It sounds to me like in 2000, SATA was in a state equivalent to when someone has conceptualized, designed, a new invention, but hasn't made anything yet. I would argue that SATA in this state hadn't been invented yet, especially since it is not a physical thing but rather a specification for people to implement.

If there were working prototypes of a drive and motherboard conforming to SATA in 2000 or before 2003, I might say that it had been invented then. But if that's the case, I think the article should also mention those prototypes.

Thoughts? I think this is a gray area (at least with my current knowledge).

Mariachiband49 (talk) 02:58, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

 * AFAIR, Seagate shipped the first SATA drive in 2002, pre-standard. We'd need a source for that though. --Zac67 (talk)

06:23, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

 * There are multiple sources that Seagate shipped in 2002 devices that were compliant with the then current in process version of SATA. It was common for HDDs to ship before any formal spec was published; in fact early on most specifications got published long after the first drive shipped, think IDE, or if at all, think ST-506.  the date is almost a WP:SKYISBLUE issue.  Tom94022 (talk) 21:58, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

"AT"
It is interesting and somewhat frustrating to find that readers of this page are presumably assumed to already know what "AT" stands for. Why not just come right out and say what it means? BrianAlex (talk) 17:30, 30 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Hmm, maybe because this comment is embedded in the source wikitext for the page? wbm1058 (talk) 13:44, 23 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The source, citation 7 "https://ecse.rpi.edu/courses/S15/ECSE-4780/Labs/IDE/IDE_SPEC.PDF" is no longer hosted, and doesn't exist on the internet archive. Meanwhile, IEEE and Intel, along with the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology and 3M all state that it is Serial Advanced Technology Attachment.
 * My sources are:
 * https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9295094
 * https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/io/serial-ata/serial-ata-developer.html
 * https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/serial_advanced_technology_attachment
 * https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00036228/ SRSchiavone (talk) 05:26, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

 * You just need to read below the fold: :

 * Somehow this should be summarized in the lead to lessen confusion. – wbm1058 (talk) 14:32, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 10 November 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: page moved per quick and clear consensus. PhotographyEdits (talk) 09:15, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Serial ATA → SATA – SATA is the WP:COMMONNAME of this subject. It already redirects here. PhotographyEdits (talk) 13:03, 10 November 2022 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Support per nom.--Ortizesp (talk) 18:45, 10 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Support. Everyone calls it SATA. J I P  | Talk 00:17, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
 * support per nom—blindlynx 02:53, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:SATA


text:
Galway International Arts Festival

The Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF), founded in 1978, is a cultural organisation that produces an annual arts festival in Galway, Ireland. It also produces new work that tours nationally and internationally, in addition to presenting the discussion forum, "First Thought Talks". The festival maintains a non-profit status.

History
The Galway Arts Festival organisation was founded in 1978 by University College Galway's Arts Society in collaboration with community activists from the Galway Arts Group. The first festival was described in local papers as "Galway Arts Society's Week of Craic". Their original budget was €1000 of Arts Council Funding and most of the artistic events were staged in an arts centre that now houses Sheridan's Cheesemongers.

The name was changed in 2014 to the Galway International Arts Festival to emphasize the diversity of contributors to the festival. "The festival presents and produces work in Galway which sits side by side with the work of artists and companies from around the world," Artistic Director Paul Fahy stated. The name change also facilitated the vision of the festival as a producing body, creating works that tour internationally.

Festival
The festival takes place in Galway for two weeks in late July. It presents and produces programmes across theatre, music, visual arts, opera, street spectacle, dance, discussion, and comedy. The 2018 festival set records for attendance, breaking a quarter million for the first time, representing a 20% increase over the participants in the 2017 festival. Over 600 artists created and took part in over 200 events across the festival. This 41st festival also featured a new Festival Garden in Eyre Square, offering pop-up performances and local food stands. The Festival Garden attracted more than 145,000 people. Visitors to the 2017 festival were estimated to be 45% from Galway, 18% around the rest of Ireland, and 37% outside of Ireland.

Touring
The organisation has produced or co-produced more than 20 productions which have toured to London, New York, Edinburgh, Chicago, Adelaide, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Washington. These include four exhibition commissions. GIAF has also fostered a relationship with Landmark Productions, a Dublin-based production company. Together, they have produced multiple works written by or directed by Irish playwright Enda Walsh that have toured internationally.

Music
GIAF has hosted musical guests in their Big Top tent, erected yearly in the Fisheries Field on the campus of NUI Galway. GIAF has also partnered with local music and comedy venue Róisín Dubh for some of their programmed events. Performances in the music programme have included: Elvis Costello, Suede, The National, St. Vincent, Philip Glass, David Byrne, Blondie, Kronos Quartet, Brodsky Quartet and Bon Iver.

Visual arts
Visual artists who have exhibited have included David Hockney, Bill Viola, Henri Matisse, Patricia Piccinini, Hughie O'Donoghue, David Mach and John Gerrard.

In 2018, GIAF announced a new Internship programme in the visual arts to train 25 participants to be able to engage with patrons in the galleries.

Theatre and dance
Irish playwright Enda Walsh has featured in past GIAF line-ups. His first play, "Disco Pigs", which was also Cillian Murphy's first stage role, debuted at the festival in 1997. Walsh has since gone on to work with the festival to produce works ranging from operas to experimental staged 'rooms.' His 2014 play Ballyturk won Best Production at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and his 2011 play Misterman toured to New York City and was the New York Times Critics' Choice for eighteen days in a row.

American actor John Mahoney was a frequent performer in the festival starting in 2000. Visiting international theatre and dance companies have included the National Theatre, Propeller, the Royal Court Theatre, Steppenwolf, Fabulous Beast Dance Company, Hofesh Shechter Dance Company, Michael Clark Company, Druid Theatre Company and the Bristol Old Vic.

First Thought Talks
Starting in 2012, GIAF hosted a series of talks at each festival revolving around the festival's theme. The 2018 festival's First Thought Talks about 'Home' was opened by President Michael D. Higgins and was followed up by 43 other scholars, artists, scientists, and athletes, both Irish and international. The majority of these talks are recorded and can be accessed online. They are also live-streamed on Facebook.

title: Galway International Arts Festival


text:
Honour

Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valour, chivalry, honesty, and compassion. It is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or of institutions such as a family, school, regiment, or nation. Accordingly, individuals (or institutions) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific code of honour, and with the moral code of the society at large.

Samuel Johnson, in his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), defined honour as having several senses, the first of which was "nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness". This sort of honour derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity of the person endowed with it. Johnson also defined honour in relationship to "reputation" and "fame"; to "privileges of rank or birth", and as "respect" of the kind which "places an individual socially and determines his right to precedence". This sort of honour is often not so much a function of moral or ethical excellence, as it is a consequence of power. Finally, with respect to sexuality, honour has traditionally been associated with (or identical to) "chastity" or "virginity", or in case of married men and women, "fidelity". Some have argued that honour should be seen more as a rhetoric, or set of possible actions, than as a code.

Social context

Honour as a code of behaviour defines the duties of an individual within a social group. Margaret Visser observes that in an honour-based society "a person is what he or she is in the eyes of other people". A code of honour differs from a legal code, also socially defined and concerned with justice, in that honour remains implicit rather than explicit and objectified.

One can distinguish honour from dignity, which Wordsworth assessed as measured against an individual's conscience rather than against the judgement of a community. Compare also the sociological concept of "face".

In the early medieval period, a lord's or lady's honour was the group of manors or lands he or she held. "The word was first used indicating an estate which gave its holder dignity and status." For a person to say "on my honour" was not just an affirmation of his or her integrity and rank, but the veracity behind that phrase meant he or she was willing to offer up estates as pledge and guarantee.

The concept of honour appears to have declined in importance in the modern West; conscience has replaced it in the individual context, and the rule of law (with the rights and duties defined therein) has taken over in a social context. Popular stereotypes would have it surviving more definitively in more tradition-bound cultures (e.g. Pashtun, Southern Italian, Polish, Persian, Turkish, Arab, Iberian, "Old South" or Dixie) in a perception akin to Orientalism. Pre-modern societies may tend to "honour" more than do contemporary industrial societies. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109) in Cur Deus Homo extended the concept of honour from his own feudal society to postulate God's honour.

An emphasis on the importance of honour exists in such traditional institutions as the military (serving officers may conduct a court of honour) and in organisations with a military ethos, such as Scouting organisations (which also feature "Courts of Honour" ).

Honour in the case of sexuality frequently relates, historically, to fidelity: preservation of "honour" equates primarily to maintenance of the virginity of singles and to the exclusive monogamy of the remainder of the population. Further conceptions of this type of honour vary widely between cultures; some cultures regard honour killings of (mostly female) members of one's own family as justified if the individuals have "defiled the family's honour" by marrying against the family's wishes, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, having sex outside marriage, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, or engaging in homosexual relations or even by becoming the victims of rape. Western observers generally see these honour killings as a way of men using the culture of honour to control female sexuality.

Skinners, executioners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber-surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners, bailiffs and their families were among the "dishonourable people" (unehrliche Leute) in early modern German society.

Cultural difference from law
Various sociologists and anthropologists have contrasted cultures of honour with cultures of law. A culture of law has a body of laws which all members of society must obey, with punishments for transgressors. This requires a society with the structures required to enact and enforce laws. A culture of law incorporates a social contract: members of society give up some aspects of their freedom to defend themselves and to retaliate for injuries, on the understanding that society will apprehend and punish transgressors.

An alternative to government enforcement of laws is community or individual enforcement of social norms.

One way that honour functions is through reputation. In a system where there is no court that will authorise the use of force to guarantee the execution of contracts, an honourable reputation is very valuable to promote trust among transaction partners. To dishonour an agreement could be economically ruinous, because future potential transaction partners might stop trusting the party not to lie, steal their money or goods, not repay debts, mistreat the children they marry off, have children with other people, abandon their children, or fail to provide aid when needed. A dishonourable person might be shunned by the community as a way to punish bad behaviour and create an incentive for others to maintain their honour.

If one's honour is questioned, it can thus be important to disprove any false accusations or slander. In some cultures, the practice of dueling arose as a means to settle such disputes firmly, though by physical dominance in force or skill rather than by objective consideration of evidence and facts.

Honour can also imply duty to perform certain actions, such as providing for and disciplining one's children, serving in the military during war, contributing to local collective projects like building infrastructure, or exacting revenge in retaliation for acts one is directly harmed by.

Family honour
The concept of personal honour can be extended to family honour, which strengthens the incentives to follow social norms in two ways. First, the consequences of dishonourable actions (such as suicide or attempted robbery that results in death) outlive the perpetrator, and negatively affect family members they presumably care about. Second, when one member of the family misbehaves, other members of the family are in the position to and are incentivised to strongly enforce the community norms.

In strong honour cultures, those who do not conform may be forced or pressured into conformance and transgressors punished physically or psychologically. The use of violence may be collective in its character, where many relatives act together. An extreme form of punishment is honour killing. Dueling and vengeance at a family level can result in a sustained feud.

Honour-based cultures are also known as honour-shame cultures and are contrasted with guilt cultures on the guilt-shame-fear spectrum of cultures.

Cultures of honour are often conservative, encoding pre-modern traditional family values and duties. In some cases these values clash with those of post-sexual revolution and egalitarian societies. Cultures of law sometimes consider practices in honour cultures to be unethical or a violation of the legal concept of human rights; for example, they may outlaw vigilante or individual justice-taking.

Examples
Thinkers ranging from Plato to Montesquieu have remarked upon the mindset needed for a culture of honour.

Historians have examined the culture of honour in the American South. Social scientists have looked at specialised subcultures such as South Asian Muslims in Britain. Others have compared multiple modern nations.

From the viewpoint of anthropologists, cultures of honour typically appear among nomadic peoples and among herdsmen who carry their most valuable property with them and risk having it stolen, without having recourse to law enforcement or to government. Due to the lack of strong institutions, cultivating a reputation for swift and disproportionate revenge increases the safety of one's person and property against aggressive actors.

According to Richard Nisbett, cultures of honour will often arise when three conditions exist:

 * 1) a scarcity of resources
 * 2) situations in which the benefit of theft and crime outweighs the risks
 * 3) a lack of sufficient law-enforcement (such as in geographically remote regions)

Historically, cultures of honour exist where the herding of animals dominates an economy. In this situation, the geography is usually extensive, since the soil cannot support intensive sustained farming and thus large populations; the benefit of stealing animals from other herds is high, since animals are the main form of wealth; and there is no central law-enforcement or rule of law. However, cultures of honour can also appear in places like modern inner-city slums. The three conditions exist here as well: lack of resources (poverty); crime and theft have high rewards, compared to the very limited alternatives; and law enforcement is generally lax or corrupt.

Once a culture of honour exists in a society, its members find it difficult to make the transition to a culture of law, which requires that people become willing to back down and refuse to immediately retaliate. From the viewpoint of the culture of honour, the perceived humiliation of such an action makes personal restraint extremely difficult, as it reflects weakness and appeasement.

One paper finds that present-day Canadians born in communities that historically lay outside the reach of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) seem to inherit a violent code of honour that drives their behaviour.

War of 1812
Historian Norman Risjord emphasised the importance of honour as a cause of the War of 1812, which the United States launched against Britain despite Britain's much more powerful naval and military strength. Americans of every political stripe saw the need to uphold national honour, and to reject the treatment of the United States by Britain as a third class nonentity. Americans talked incessantly about the need for force in response. This quest for honour was a major cause of the war in the sense that most Americans who were not involved in mercantile interests or threatened by Indian attack strongly endorsed the preservation of national honour. The humiliating attack by HMS Leopard against USS Chesapeake in June 1807 was a decisive event. Historians documented the importance of honour in shaping public opinion in a number of states, including Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, as well as the territory of Michigan. Americans widely celebrated the conclusion of the war as successful, especially after the spectacular defeat of the main British invasion army at New Orleans restored the American sense of honour.
 * National honor, the reputation of republican government, and the continuing supremacy of the Republican party had seemed to be at stake... National honor had [now] been satisfied, says historian Lance Banning, "Americans celebrated the end of the struggle with a brilliant burst of national pride."

The British showed respect for American honour. "Some of the strongest praise for America and swiftest recognition of what the young republic had achieved for American honor, prestige, and power came from within British naval circles." Britain refrained from interfering with American maritime interests and ceased with the impressment of American citizens following the war.

Predisposition in the United States of America
A 2016 study suggests that honour culture increases the risk of war. The study found that international conflicts under U.S. presidents who were raised in the South of the country "are shown to be twice as likely to involve uses of force, last on average twice as long, and are three times more likely to end in victory for the United States than disputes under non-Southern presidents. Other characteristics of Southern presidencies do not seem able to account for this pattern of results."

title: Honour


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Hiranuma Kiichirō

Kiichirō Hiranuma (平沼 騏一郎) was a Japanese lawyer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan in 1939.

Hiranuma rose to prominence as a prosecutor and official in the Ministry of Justice. He served as minister of Justice under Prime Minister Gonnohyoe Yamamoto and later became a privy counsellor. After serving as president of the privy council, he became prime minister in 1939, but resigned later the same year. He later returned to cabinet under Fumimaro Konoe. After the Japanese surrender, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for his role in World War II.

Early life
Hiranuma was born on 28 September 1867, in what is now Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture, as the son of a low-ranking samurai from the Tsuyama Domain of Mimasaka Province. His upbringing and early education was steeped in bushido and the study of Chinese classics. Hiranuma graduated with a degree in English law from Tokyo Imperial University in 1888.

Hiranuma reacted against the rapid westernisation and disregard for Japanese culture common at that time. Throughout his life, his political principles would be substantially based on Confucianism as taught by the Mito School. Like the Mito scholars, Hiranuma believed that Japan possessed a particular essence, the kokutai, characterised by the moral bond between the nation and the Emperor as a sacred ruler. Foreign influences, unless properly adapted, he viewed as threats to the kokutai.

Ministry of Justice
After graduation, Hiranuma obtained a post in the Ministry of Justice. Hiranuma established a reputation during his time at the Ministry of Justice as a strong opponent of government corruption, and successfully handled a number of high-profile cases. He served as director of the Tokyo High Court, public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Japan, and Director of the Civil and Criminal Affairs Bureau. In 1909, he secured the conviction of 25 former and serving members of the Diet of Japan for accepting bribes from the Japan Sugar Company.

Hiranuma was highly outspoken against corruption and immorality in Japan's political parties, and that attitude soon expanded to include what he saw to be foreign threats, such as socialism and liberal democracy. As Hiranuma rose within the ministry he attracted a considerable following among his juniors, notably including Kisaburo Suzuki and Suehiko Shiono.

In 1911, he was chief prosecutor for the High Treason Incident, the 1910 socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate the Meiji Emperor. The closed-court trial of 25 men and 1 woman, including 4 Buddhist monks, resulted in the execution of 12, including the prominent anarchist Shūsui Kōtoku and the feminist Kanno Suga.

He rose to become Vice Minister of Justice in 1911 and Prosecutor General in 1912. In 1915, he forced Home Minister Ōura Kanetake in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to resign for suspected bribery in what is known as the Ōura scandal. In 1921, Hiranuma became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Hiranuma was appointed Minister of Justice in the second cabinet of Gonnohyōe Yamamoto, formed in the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake in September 1923. Hiranuma resigned along with rest of the cabinet in January 1924 to take responsibility for the lapse in security represented by the Toranomon incident, in which a communist attempted to assassinate Crown Prince Hirohito. The incident gave Hiranuma a renewed vigilance towards what he considered subversive ideology and for this reason he formed the Kokuhonsha, a political organisation with the intention of defending the kokutai. This organisation gathered a broad range of influential figures, including General Sadao Araki, Admiral Kanji Katō, Kisaburo Suzuki, Yoshimichi Hara and Harumichi Tanabe.

At the nomination of the new Prime Minister Keigo Kiyoura, Hiranuma was appointed to the Privy Council in February 1924.

Privy Counsellor

While serving on the Privy Council, Hiranuma continued to exercise a strong influence on the Ministry of Justice. Hiranuma and his clique were the driving force behind the adoption of the Peace Preservation Law, intended to combat communism and other threats to the kokutai.

In April 1926 Yūzaburō Kuratomi, one of Hiranuma's old superiors in the Ministry of Justice, was appointed president of the Privy Council. Upon Kuratomi's request, Hiranuma was appointed vice president. Hiranuma would serve in that role for ten years and exerted considerable influence. Hiranuma, together with the senior privy counsellors Miyoji Ito and Kentaro Kaneko, would lead the conservatives who dominated the council. In October of the same year, Hiranuma was elevated to the rank of baron (男爵, danshaku) in the Kazoku peerage system abolished by the 1947 Constitution.

Hiranuma was strongly opposed to Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō's efforts at economic reform. He was also strongly opposed to the ratification of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. In 1931, he rallied support within the government for the Imperial Japanese Army after it had seized control of Manchuria without prior authorization, and he later helped in the creation of Manchukuo. He also pushed for Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations. According to one theory, he in 1934 he directed the prosecution during the Teijin Incident.

During the 1930s, Hiranuma was often considered as a candidate for prime minister, but he had incurred the enmity of the last genrō Prince Saionji, who had the right to nominate the prime minister. As a supporter of parliamentary government, Saionji disliked Hiranuma for undermining party cabinets. Furthermore, Saionji was wary of the influence of the Kokuhonsha, which he considered to be close to fascism. Hiranuma himself denied any association with fascism, which he considered a foreign ideology unsuitable for Japan.

When Kuratomi retired in May 1934 he recommended Hiranuma as his successor, but due to Saionji's opposition the Imperial Household Minister Kitokurō Ichiki was appointed instead. Hiranuma was appointed President of the Privy Council after Ichiki's retirement in February 1936.

Prime Minister

Hiranuma was Prime Minister of Japan from 5 January 1939 to 30 August 1939. His administration was dominated by the debate on whether Japan should ally itself with Germany against the Soviet Union. Hiranuma wanted an anticommunist pact, but feared a military alliance would commit Japan to war against the United States and the United Kingdom when most of its armed forces were already committed to the Second Sino-Japanese War.

With the signing of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact in August 1939, Hiranuma's cabinet resigned over that foreign policy issue and over the massive defeat of the Japanese Army in Mongolia during the Nomonhan Incident against the Soviet Union.

Return to cabinet
Hiranuma became a central figure in a conservative reaction against the New Order Movement promoted by Fumimaro Konoe since his reappointment as prime minister in July 1940. Hiranuma criticised the Imperial Rule Assistance Association as a potential "new shogunate" prejudicial to the prerogatives of the Emperor. Hiranuma was furthermore concerned that the new organisation was being dominated by radicals with socialist tendencies, such as Yoriyasu Arima, Kingoro Hashimoto and Seigo Nakano.

Eventually Konoe himself began to feel that the New Order Movement had become too radical. As a solution for this Hiranuma entered the cabinet as Home Minister in December 1940. Hiranuma's associate, Lieutenant General Heisuke Yanagawa became minister of justice at the same time. Hiranuma moved to neutralise the IRAA, stating in the Diet in January 1941 that the IRAA would not conduct politics, but merely serve as a public association supporting the state. In March the leadership of the IRAA was replaced, with Yanagawa being appointed to the hitherto vacant post of vice president and the moderate former Finance Minister Sōtarō Ishiwata replacing Yoriyasu Arima as secretary general. Hiranuma declared in April that IRAA would be under the supervision and control of the Home Ministry.

As Home Minister, he was a staunch defender of State Shinto. Hiranuma declared: "We should research the ancient rites in detail and consider their application in administrative affairs in general and the common life of the nation.”

Hiranuma was strongly opposed to the political and diplomatic actions of Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka and to the Tripartite Pact concluded between Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy in September 1940. The cabinet was reshuffled in July 1941 in order to remove Matsuoka, partially due to Hiranuma's maneuvering.

In the new cabinet Matsuoka was replaced by Admiral Teijiro Toyoda. Hiranuma and Yanagawa became ministers without portfolio, with Hiranuma's protégé Harumichi Tanabe as his successor in the Home Ministry. During this period Hiranuma frequently met with the American Ambassador Joseph Grew in order to de-escalate the conflict between Japan and America. In August 1941 was Hiranuma attacked in his home by a member of a small ultranationalist group. Despite being shot six times Hiranuma survived and fully recovered.

Hiranuma withdrew from government upon the resignation of Konoe in October 1941.

Jushin
Hiranuma served as one of the jushin (重臣), or unofficial senior advisors, to Emperor Hirohito during World War II. Hiranuma saw the jushin as the core of a new group of genrō advisors, as the last surviving Meiji period genrō, Prince Saionji Kinmochi, had died in November 1940. The new group included former Prime Ministers Mitsumasa Yonai, Nobuyuki Abe and Fumimaro Konoe. In April 1945, Hiranuma was again appointed President of the Privy Council.

Prosecution and conviction
After the War, he was arrested by the American Occupation Authorities and was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as a Class A War Criminal.

He was given a life sentence, but paroled in early 1952, and died shortly afterwards. His grave is in Tama Cemetery, outside Tokyo.

title: Hiranuma Kiichirō


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Nobuyuki Abe

General Nobuyuki Abe (阿部 信行) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Prime Minister of Japan, and the last Governor-General of Korea.

Early life and military career
Abe was born on November 24, 1875, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the son of the former samurai Abe Nobumitsu, who had served the Kaga Domain. His brother-in-law was Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue.

Abe attended Tokyo No.1 Middle School (Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya High School) followed by No.4 High School. While he was still a student, he volunteered for military service during the First Sino-Japanese War.

After the war, Abe graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in November 1897. Commissioned a second lieutenant the following 27 June, he was promoted to lieutenant in November 1900 and attended the Army Artillery School, graduating in December 1901. Promoted to captain in November 1903, he enrolled in the 19th class of the Army War College, graduating in November 1907. The ultranationalist General Araki Sadao was one of his classmates.

Abe was promoted to major in December 1908, becoming an instructor at the Army War College in September 1909. In November 1910, he was posted to the German Empire as a military attaché at the Japanese embassy and became a supplementary attaché at the embassy in Vienna in February 1913.

Abe was promoted to lieutenant colonel in February 1915 and to colonel on 24 July 1918. He served as the commander of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment from 1918 to 1921. In August 1918, his regiment was sent to Siberia during Japan's Siberian Intervention but never saw combat. He became secretary of the Army War College on 3 June 1921, and was promoted to major general on 15 August 1922. Appointed Director of the General Affairs Division of the Imperial General Staff on 6 August 1923, following the devastating earthquake of 1 September, he was placed in charge of overseeing martial law for the Kanto region on 3 September.

He was appointed director of military service affairs in the Army Ministry on 28 July 1926 and was promoted to lieutenant general on 5 March 1927. He later served as chief of the Military Affairs Bureau and as Vice Minister of the Army, which he had been appointed as on 10 August 1928. He commanded the 4th Infantry Division from 22 December 1930.

In January 1932, Abe was appointed to command the Japanese Taiwan Army and was promoted to full general on 19 June 1933. After serving on the Supreme War Council, he was placed on the reserve list on 10 March 1936.

Prime Minister
Abe was not the obvious first choice as Prime Minister after the collapse of the Hiranuma Kiichirō cabinet. From the civilian side, Konoe Fumimaro or Hirota Kōki were regarded as front-runners, but the Army and the ultranationalists strongly supported General Ugaki Kazushige. After genrō Saionji Kinmochi declared his lack of enthusiasm for any of those candidates, the Army was poised to have its way. However, Ugaki fell ill and was hospitalized. The interim War Minister General Abe was a compromise choice. He had the advantage of belonging to neither the Tōseiha nor the  Kodoha political factions within the Army and was also supported as a relative political moderate by the Imperial Japanese Navy. On the other hand, he was despised by many senior Army officers for his total lack of any combat experience.

Abe became Prime Minister on 30 August 1939. He concurrently held the portfolio of Foreign Minister. During a reign which lasted only four months, Abe sought to end as quickly as possible the Second Sino-Japanese War, and to maintain Japan's neutrality in the growing European conflict. He also opposed to efforts by elements within the Army to form a political-military alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Increasingly lacking in support from either the military or the political parties, Abe was replaced by Mitsumasa Yonai in January 1940.

Later career
Three months later after his replacement as Prime Minister, Abe was sent by the army as a special envoy to China to advise the Japanese-supported regime of Wang Jingwei in Nanjing and to negotiate a treaty ensuring Japanese economic and military rights in northern China. However, he had some sympathy for Wang's Reorganized National Government. Abe remained as the Japanese ambassador to China in Nanjing until December 1940. After his return to Japan, Abe joined the House of Peers in 1942, and accepted the largely-ceremonial position as president of the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association. He was appointed the 10th (and last) Governor-General of Korea in 1944 and 1945.

After World War II, Abe was purged from public office and arrested by the American occupation government. However, he was not charged with any war crimes and was soon released.

Honours

 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure (November 1930)
 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (April 1934)

title: Nobuyuki Abe