メリディアン
日本語
帰還宣教師から
From Returned Missionaries
Dwayne N. Andersen-Excerpts from Autobiography
Mission President
CHURCH INVOLVEMENT IN JAPAN
The Japanese Mission was opened by an apostle, Elder Heber J. Grant, who was accompanied by Horace Ensign, Louis Kelch, and Alma O. Taylor, who was about 19 years of age. They had many challenges, mainly centered around the language and culture. From 1921 to 1924 they had baptized 166 members. Alma O. Taylor had translated the Book of Mormon into the Japanese Language; but due to problems of missionaries being able to convert the Japanese and other difficulties facing the Japanese Mission, it was closed in 1924. There were also political problems between Japan and the United States.
In 1937 the Japanese Mission was reopened with headquarters in Honolulu Hawaii; and Hilton Robertson was named the president. When the war started, the name of the mission was changed to Central Pacific Mission, the name lasting until the war was over. In 1948 President Edward L. Clissold was called to open again the Japanese Mission in Tokyo. This included from Japan to India. I arrived in the Japanese Mission in 1951 and left in 1953. During that time I had doubts about the church being fully organized in Japan because of the many cultural and social conflicts. When I left the mission in 1953 there were about four hundred members in Japan. When I arrived as mission president in 1962, many changes had occurred. The Southern Far East Mission and the Korean Mission were organized; and Japan’s name was changed to the Northern Far East Mission. This mission’s boundaries included all the islands of Japan and extended down to include the islands of Okinawa.
These seven districts, with forty-three branches between the Japanese and military, had to be staffed and supervised by the mission presidency. This amounts to about three stakes in today’s standard. In addition there was an average of 180 missionaries. My intention upon arrival in Japan was to spend about four hours a day on the Japanese language. I talked with Kan Watanabe who was a good friend from my 1951 days and also excellent in English. He was one of the Japanese members whom I had helped get on a mission during my earlier mission in 1952.
He said: “No foreigner can learn enough Japanese to really communicate deeply with the people. The language is not just words, but it is steeped in culture and tradition which foreigners do not understand.” Then he counseled me to use a good interpreter, so I trusted his judgment. My other concern was to know in what way I could contribute to the kingdom of God in Japan. I felt similar to Nephi when he said: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing he commandeth them.” (l Nephi 3:7)
My first step was to tour the mission and try to become acquainted with the missionaries, the Japanese members, and the servicemen. The mantle of my calling began to distill upon me and my eyes were opened, and inspiration flooded my mind. I could see many serious problems among the missionaries and the status of the Japanese members. There were just a few problems developing among the servicemen. With each problem, I received the inspiration as to how to handle it. No matter how serious or difficult a problem, the Lord always gave me help to resolve it with positive results. With the Lord’s help, no problem seemed to be too difficult. There were many spiritual and sacred things that happened during my three years in Japan. I feel like Moroni-- that I cannot write even one-hundreth part of these wonderful experiences that occurred during the most wonderful and glorious years of my life.
From my visits and observations, five objectives eventually evolved. Rather than make a chronological history, I will write on each objective, how it evolved and progressed, along with its conclusion. Before starting on these, I would like to write a section on the mission presidency, my family, and the servicemen.
THE MISSION PRESIDENCY
President Andrus had called two missionaries to be counselors to him. I felt a little reluctant to do that, so I released them as counselors and called them to be assistants to the president. They became my interpreters as I talked with the members. After several months Yootaru Yoshino came to Japan. He had gone to America for his education and had received a Ph.D at Stanford University. He had been one of the first missionaries whom I helped call in 1952. He had now come to Japan to do some scholarly research for Stanford. We were very close friends in 1952, so I called him to be my 1st counselor and he accepted. Then I called Elder Tom Shimizu, an older missionary and one of my assistants, to be the 2nd counselor. He accepted also. The duties of the presidency covered a wide spectrum of activities, both among the Japanese and the American servicemen. The most important duties were to interview, call, sustain, and set apart all of the district and branch leaders among the four districts and 29 branches of the Japanese –and the three districts and 14 branches of the servicemen. The mission presidency had the responsibility of interviewing and sustaining, as well as ordaining those who had been recommended to become Elders among both the Japanese and military. The mission presidency later organized four Elders quorums that had to be supervised...two quorumsamong the Japanese and two quorums among the servicemen. As the mission presidency carried out these assignments there were many special spiritual and faith-promoting experiences. It is impossible to record all of them, so I will just mention the fact that they were WONDERFUL!
After a few months of serving in the mission presidency, Yootaru Yoshino unexpectedly returned to America without saying goodbye. At about that same time, Tom Shimizu’s mission was ended and he returned home. By this time I had become acquainted with a wonderful young Japanese man, named Goro Yamada, who was married and had a small family. He had a very good command of English because he worked with the U.S. Military every day and spoke English regularly. He lived in Tokyo and was a former missionary. I called him to be the first counselor in the mission presidency. At this time Kan Watanabe was living in the Osaka area.
He worked for the Shell Pharmaceutical Co. in Osaka. In his work, he used English and was an interpreter for the Dutch with the Japanese workers. I called him to be the 2nd counselor. These two men were perfect interpreters for me and remained as my counselors until I was released in August 1965.