On 19 January 1870, at the request of the ministers of a few Western powers, a conference on religious
matters was convened in Tokyo. Prime Minister Sanjō, the former Prime Minister Iwakura and the Minister
of Foreign Affairs Terashima represented the Japanese government. The Western ministers were Harry
Parkes of Great Britain, Ange-Maxime Outrey of France, De Long of the United States and Max von
Brandt of Prussia. While the foreign diplomats appealed to the Japanese to halt the persecution in the name
of humanity and freedom of worship, the Japanese kept hammering away at the principle of the unity of
religion and polity, invoking the right of the state to impose the native religion on all citizens. As a result
further deportations were halted but the Catholic exiles, far from being immediately released, were kept for
three more years in confinement.36 To cap it all, four days before the Iwakura mission sailed for the UnitedStates, yet another group of over sixty exiles was sent into exile. After vehement protests from the foreign
press in Japan and the West, they were released at the end of January 1872.