Hermann Heuvers

Hermann Heuvers (31 August 1890 – 9 June 1977) was a German Jesuit missionary, philosopher, educator, author, playwright, and screenwriter. He came to Japan in 1923 and served as the second president of Sophia University from 1937 to 1941.

Biography Hermann Heuvers was born in 1890. The Jesuit missionaries reported that many of the Japanese students at Sophia University expressed interest in the Catholic faith and the missionaries would slowly broach the topic with them by indirectly referencing religion through descriptions of past trips or by showing pictures of Rome. It was common for students to request private catechetical instruction, and in early 1931 Heuvers reported "many" such students were under his instruction. Heuvers was elected Sophia University president and chancellor in 1937 and served as president until 1941.

Shirō Ishii (center) pictured at a post-World War II reunion of Unit 731 members. Ishii was baptized by Heuvers. Heuvers was a friend of surgeon general and Unit 731 war criminal Shirō Ishii, whom Heuvers would baptize on his deathbed in 1959. They became close before the war, as Ishii respected the German people and culture. Ishii had confirmed his suspicions of throat cancer by asking a former subordinate in Tokyo to examine a tissue sample without saying who the tissue had come from. After losing his voice following surgical treatment, Ishii communicated through written messages including one to a former professor that read "it's all over now". Ishii took the name Joseph upon baptism and felt relief through the rite.

Heuvers later served as the pastor of St. Ignatius Church from 1949 to 1966 and died as its honorary pastor. Heuver's depiction of Garcia represented her "as a person with a sense of self" and Christian, but also "as an obedient wife".