Members Without a Church:
Japanese Mormons in Japan from 1924 to 1948
Part 1 of 2
by J. Christopher
Conkling*
(Provided
by D. Staples, Kansai Branch, Japan)
*numbers
in (Parenthesis) indicate source in original document. Unfortunately, unavailable
in the web version.
BYU Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, p.191-213
What happens to two dozen faithful church members who are almost totally isolated from their church for over twenty years? One of the best case studies of this phenomenon in recent years is the withdrawal of the missionaries, and essentially the Church, from Japan in 1924. From 1901 to 1924 the early missionaries experienced struggles, challenges, and some tremendous accomplishments. However, the decision to withdraw all missionaries from Japan left the members in Japan almost entirely on their own from 1924 until 1945.(1) Although the "early" and "modern" missions have been subjects of numerous articles, the more than twenty-year interim has never been treated more than in a footnote. It deserves more attention.
When the missionaries left Japan in August 1924, one hundred seventy-four Japanese people had been baptized, though only a few were still active. The last mission president, Hilton A. Robertson, reported, "we have at least a dozen Saints who could be called such,"(2) but at least twice that number called themselves Saints. They were located in four cities throughout Japan--Kofu (where the missionaries had been withdrawn in 1922), Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo.
Both despair and hope were caused by the manner in which the missionaries left. President Robertson tried to visit many of the active members and assure them that the closing would be only temporary. Sister Kumagai of Sapporo said she felt that the order to close was revelation from God as a test of faith to the Japanese Saints, and, after the test, the work would be restored by another revelation from God.(3)
The missionaries did little to prepare the members, other than to give them general encouragement. In fact, the native priesthood holders were explicitly prohibited from functioning in that priesthood. They were specifically not allowed to hold meetings of any type except MIA.(4) After the closing of the mission, Brother Katsura of Osaka felt, "said and lonely, as though he had lost a brother or a sister."(5) Sister Kumagai said she felt, "zen to kuraku natta yona kimochi" ("I felt like all had become darkness").(6) Thus, with the hope of a not too distant restoration, and yet, with the frustration of not being allowed to function in the church they loved, the members were left to themselves.
The Nara Era: 1924 to 1933
Into this vacuum came Brother Fujiya Nara(7) of Tokyo to give some organization to the Saints. He had become friends with the "foreigners" as a young teenager in Sapporo, had ben baptized when he was seventeen, and had been ordained an elder by President Ivie at age twenty-four, in January of 1923. He had been mission secretary under presidents Stimpson and Ivie.(8)
A month after the closing, Elder Nara and a couple of other Saints gathered in Tokyo and officially established the Japan Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They also discussed starting some sort of publication to help hold the Saints together. In November 1924, the small Tokyo group published and circulated the names and addresses of all members of the Japan MIA.(9)
As a result of these early meetings in late 1924 Brother Nara and others began to publish a magazine to keep in contact with and encourage the Saints. It was called Shuro (The Palm) after the palm leaves strewn on the way as Christ entered Jerusalem. Their plan was to publish sixty-five copies of each issue, ten issues per year. Each issue would have about twenty pages and a contribution of ten sen (about three cents) per issue would be asked. Copies would be sent to all known Japanese Saints and friends in Hawaii and America. It was a good plan, but it didn't quite work. The number of issues gradually decreased and Brother Nara ended up paying most of the cost himself. Through several of the extant issues, we can get an insight into what the members thought and did during those early struggling years.(10)
The first issue appeared on 1 January 1925. It listed Fujiya Nara as editor and Brothers Yamaide and Kitagawa and Sister Reiko Mochizuki as his assistants. In the first article, "About the Beginning," Nara says that his heart hurts so much since the missionaries left that he doesn't have words to express it. However, the MIA is the path to light in the present darkness. He hopes both Shuro and the MIA will be of concrete spiritual benefit to the members. He hopes that the Saints can be unified, love each other, and live righteously. In a similar vein, Sister Mochizuki says, in "Impressions," that at Christmas time when she saw the Salvation Army she was reminded of the Church and was saddened. She has been further saddened by seeing many fall away, and thinks that even though the active Saints may not be perfect themselves, they must still warn the others when they are doing wrong before it is too late. Shuro has reenthused her faith.
Further issues included editorials, correspondence, scripture study, news of members (about travel, marriage, new jobs, armed forces, college entrance), expressions of feelings, short stories, poems, and serialized articles (as Brother Kentaro Mochizuki's about Tolstoy's short stories and Brother Nara's about tomatoes).
Members expressed their feelings quite frankly in the subsequent issues. In one article entitled "Deep Feelings," Brother Takeo Fujiwara of Sopporo mentions that he looked for almost any way to strengthen his faith. He found the way in Shuro, and has been moved to tears, at times, reading it.11 On the other hand, in a later issue another member writes a note of thanks to Shuro and mentions how happy his family has been in another Christian church since the Mormon Church left Japan.(12)
Sister Mochizuki and Brother Yamaide were the poets among the Saints. A rough translation of one poem of Brother Yamaide's, "If One's Alone," is included below because it gives insights to the longings of some Saints. It appeared in the November 1925 issue, more than a year after the closing.
"If One's Alone"
If one's sad and lonely
And looks at the sunset,
He hears the nearby temple bells ringing.
If one hears the distant temple bells
And it touches his heart,
He will pray with a sad heart.
His card is a hateful spade,
But, sorrowfully,
It's just a game he is playing with his
fortune telling cards.
When I see the hearts of all the noisy people
I see sadness.
I'm opposed to flowers, and yet . . .
spring will come anyway.
If one's alone,
His heart is sad.
In spite of all the foginess
I can still see you,
Disappearing.
If one's alone,
The night is sad.
Oh miserable heart!
What a pity,
The light is disappearing.
If one's alone,
I'll try to pray, but . . .
My heart is hollow.
I can still see your
Dear fleeting form.(13)
This poem is certainly open to individual interpretation and is not distinguishable from other sentimental Japanese poetry. Nevertheless, the word translated "you" is
kimi, and not only suggests an intimate form of "you" but is also the word translated as "prince" in both the national anthem and Isaiah 9:6 ("The Prince of Peace"). Whatever the interpretation, it was not too long before Brother Yamaide ended his association with the Church, and this poem could represent some real yearnings on his part.
The plight of Shuro might be representative of Church activity as a whole during these years. Nara and others published it ten times in 1925, but only four times in 1926, and that December they decided that it should only be a seasonal publication. After 1926 only the Winter 1928 issue is available, but there is mention of Shuro's being published through the Fall issue of 1929.14 Presumably, about that time publishing ceased altogether.(15) Shuro did, however, begin a tradition, and whenever the Church has been active in Japan since then, similar publications--whether originating in Salt Lake City or not--have flourished.(16)
In 1925, in addition to the publishing activities, periodic meetings of Church members were taking place. In Sapporo, for instance, Sister Kumagai held weekly meetings, but attendace became so sporadic that she gave them up. Members would move, die, or just stop coming. Then Sister Kumagai would invite her friends (all the members among them) at Christmas time and other special occasions. These gatherings would start with song and prayer, and would somewhat resemble Church meetings. ~
Through Shuro and personal letters during this time, the Japanese Saints kept in contact with friends back in Utah. As a result of this correspondence, the First Presidency asked Alma O. Taylor (one of the original missiionaries to Japan) to write and find out what had been happening, who was still faithful, and what concrete things the Church could do to help the Japanese Saints.(17) Taylor sent letters to Brother Nara of Tokyo, Brother Katsura of Osaka, and Sister Kumagai of Sapporo in February 1926.(18) Brother Nara got a consensus from these and other Saints and answered Taylor on 1 July 1926. Beginning with this correspondence the Saints, through Nara, made the same two basic requests they would repeat to the brethren throughout the closed period--reopen the mission and help supply a suitable permanent meeting place (other than just someone's tiny house).(19)
The next fall, President Franklin S. Harrins of Brigham Young University, on an excursion aroung the world, visited Japan as a representative to the Pan Pacific Congress of Arts and Sciences. As a result of Nara's letter to Taylor, President Heber J. Grant gave Harris a commission to meet with the Japanese Saints and more officially organize the MIA. When Harris left Japan in November 1926, he had visited and organized the Saints in Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo. In each city he had appointed an MIA president with two counselors and a secretary--with the Tokyo MIA president (Brother Nara) to preside over the others.(20) Brother Harris described a meeting with the Sapporo Saints:
I was busy with official things till 9 p.m. so my meetings with them began at that hour and continued till 12:00. They clung onto me as if I were the only old friend they had.(21)
And a few days later he wrote:
As we passed through Sapporo last night at nine there were four members of the church there to meet me. One of them had come 200 miles to see me. . . . As we only remained at the station a few minutes the saints asked to ride a few stations with me, so we went into the dining car and they stayed with me till one a.m. when they got off. They were so tremendously hungry for someone from Utah and there were so many things they wanted to ask about--a fine lot they are.(22)
While in Sapporo Harris invited two young men to come to America to attend BYU and offered to personally help them. Although Saburo Sada never made it, Takeo Fujiwara, a court reporter, did, and arrived in Utah late in 1927. In all, Harris' visit certainly rejuvenated the members and made them realize they had not been totally forgotten.(23)
Throughout 1927 monthly meetings were held in Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo. Meetings varied in contents, ranging from Book of Mormon study, to singing and talking, to mountain climbing. Average attendance at the Tokyo meetings that year was between six and nine Saints per meeting, which is interesting because only two to four attended regularly in the last weeks before the mission was closed.(24)
In July 1927 a Sister Tsune Nachine arrived in Tokyo for a brief visit with her old friends. She was then over seventy and had moved to Hawaii five years earlier to do missionary and temple work. Nine people attended both her welcome home party and her farewell party four months later. At both these meetings she inspired the members by giving detailed teachings about baptismal work for the dead, the resurrection, and enduring in the faith.(25)
Meanwhile, Takeo Fujiwara, in the States, had been trying to help the Japanese Saints. As he later explained:
". . . I expressed and described in details through the interpretation of Dr. Elbert D. Thomas (now a senator of the U.S. from Utah) who was once president of the Japan Mission, our desire for the Church in Japan . . . to the First Presidency. With the result of the best effort and kindest assistance of Mr. Alma O. Taylor . . . in December 1927, the First Presidency appointed Elder Nara as Presiding Elder in Japan and restored all activities of Priesthood. . . . Therefore, Elder Nara felt great responsibility.(26)"
With Nara's appointment as Presiding Elder in 1927, the First Presidency removed all restrictions that had been put upon priesthood activities at the time of closing in 1924 (except that Nara was not authorized to do active missionary work or to ordain people to offices in the priesthood without approval from Salt Lake).(27) Taylor sent him a good deal of instruction in the following weeks both in Japanese and English.(28) After some correspondence between the two, Taylor reported to President Grant that Nara had accepted his call with a humble spirit, but, because he had a family to support, it would take him some time to fully translate and understand all the instructions.29 However, Elder Nara was apparently overwhelmed by the new, somewhat "foreign" instructions from Salt Lake, for the Church never did return to the full prieshood programs under Nara as it should have by virtue of his new calling.
Nevertheless, MIA meetings seemed surprisingly healthy by the end of 1927. Tokyo and Sapporo Christmas parties were each attended by twenty people or more, and Osaka wrote to say that they had officially sustained Nara and had even sent some donations to Salt Lake.(30)
The Winter 1928 Shuro came out with some exciting news. Not only did it contain the recently acquired letters from Heber J. Grant, Franklin S. Harris, and Takeo Fujiwara, but it also contained--for the first time since the closing--news from Kofu. In response to a request from Kofu, Nara had sent a nonmember friend, Mr. Kubota, to organize an MIA. They held their first meetings in several years on 19 October 1927, at which officers were appointed. They met again shortly afterward for a farewell party for one brother going into the army and had a Christmas party at Brother Renji Yoneyama's house. A "fresh and pure" spirit was felt there.(31)
In spite of this period of rejuvenation, the support of all but the most faithful gradually declined. In 1928 all we know is that a few members met briefly with some visiting students from Utah; in November Brother Nara visited Brothers Katsura and Watanabe in Osaka and discussed the Church organization; and in December a small Christmas party was held in Tokyo.(32)
After this there is no clear record of what happened. We know that two issues of Shuro came out, but do not know their contents. Near the end of 1933 Elder Nara was transferred to Manchuria with his railroad job. Later records tell us that little if anything was going on in the Church by 1933. What happened to the Church and Elder Nara from 1929 to 1933 is one of the mysteries of the history of the Church in Japan. The presumption is that as Nara received gradually less and less support and enthuasiasm he may have just let things go. Alma O. Taylor later wrote to the First Presidency about Nara and his new calling, "Nothing came of this assignment. Elder Nara dried up and blew away to Manchuria before any preaching activities got going."(33) This may have been a little harsh. Nara, before his official appointment, had been responsible for the publication of
Shuro, and had been the motivator behind most MIA activities. Nevertheless, it is true that within twenty months of Nara's call to be Presiding Elder, knowledge of all activities in Japan, and most of the activities themselves completely ceased. The records are blank until the end of 1933, and after that time Nara was in Manchuria and out of the picture until the end of the war.
Continue to Part 2
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