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From Returned Missionaries

George McCune's Tribute to Tatsui Sato

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A Tribute To

BROTHER TATSUI SATO

 Part III

Fellowship with the Saints 

Gradually, other servicemen got involved in the teaching including an LDS chaplain by the name of Richard Nelson, a first sergeant named Norton Nixon, also Bruce Gailey, George E. Swett, and two young lieutenants by the names of C. Elliott Richards and Boyd K. Packer. Chaplain Nelson suffered tremendously trudging through the snow to reach the Sato home in the winter. Brother Nixon obtained as many vitamins as he could for the Satos. Others got them fresh bread as they were literally starving. Brother Richards and Brother Packer took over primary meeting sessions when Ray Hanks and Reed Davis were transferred to Osaka but Reed and Ray kept in communication with Brother Richards and Brother Packer. Brother George Swett taught about the temple. Brother Sato and family read over and studied the Book of Mormon twice and prayed regarding its truthfulness. Brother Hanks., according to Reed Davis, was the moving force in this effort. "I have never met a man more like Christ than Ray Hanks,” Brother Davis says. 

Brother Sato's English abilities prompted the soldiers to encourage him to become a translator for the Censorship Detachment of the US GHQ in Nagoya. The American Forces used his English ability beginning January 1946 to read Japanese language correspondence and communicate with local Japanese. Tatsui supervised 15 translators under him. 

The Sato’s Home Sunday School 

While investigating the tenets of the Latter-day Saint faith, Brother and Sister Sato commenced a Sunday School at their home every Sunday. Local children from all around attended, Rolls were kept and a minute book created from which some of the precious facts concerning Brother Sato's own account of his important first contacts with Brothers Hanks, Arnold and Davis are recorded. 

Brother Sato learned so rapidly. Then one night at a meeting, Brother Sato, after he had read about life before and after mortality, broke down and cried and told the soldiers, "Now we know that we will have our little girl again." 

Ray Hanks and Reed Davis then received a. letter from Brother Sato while Reed was running the enlisted men's transfer center in Osaka. Brother Sato asked them whether they thought he, his wife and son would he worthy to be baptized. The next day the soldiers received transfer orders. But they arranged the baptism through Brothers Richards and Packer. 

First Baptism in Japan after World War II 

On July 7, 1946 a great event took place in Japan. for the first time since the 1925 closing of the Japan. Mission on the islands of Japan, two Japanese citizens "dressed in flowing white kimonos made especially from silk which used to belong to their [deceased] daughter," were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

The happy occasion occurred at the bombed out ruins of the Kansai University campus in Sannomiya, Kobe, Japan. A swimming pool not damaged by the war was refilled by the US Servicemen and as a large group of LDS military watched on, Brother Tatsui Sato, 46 years old, was baptized first by C. Elliottt Richards, and his wife Chiyo Sato, 43, was baptized by 20 year old Boyd K. Packer. 

Brother Sato's seven year old son, Yasuo, remarked concerning Lt. Packer, "I think this man is going to be great." LDS Chaplain Richard Nelson confirmed both husband and wife. 

A young US Army doctor Thomas Bauman also got involved in helping the Satos. He used to take Brother Sato in his jeep to church meetings. One humorous event occurred. Brother Sato acquired a bad cold and cough so Dr. Bauman obtained, some GI medicine for him. Mistakenly, Brother Sato put the cough syrup in his nose and took a teaspoon of the nose drops for his cough. The nose drops caused his heart to race for a while but he returned to normal about the time Dr. Bauman had time to get to his home. 

Not only were Brother Sato and his family's lives blessed through this missionary effort. The servicemen's lives were blessed. Brother Davis said, "Without my contact with Brother Sato and his wife and Yasuo, my life would have been different, it was a saving thing for me, It straightened my life out. In about every meeting with the Satos we would sing. Sister Sato would always choose the song 'God be with you 'til we meet again.' 

"She was a good little singer. She was alto, I tenor, and the rest followed along. I had been a member of the Tabernacle Choir since 1936 before coming in the service. I wonder what the local residents thought at 2 A.M. in the night when they heard us singing hymns on our way home to Okazaki on occasion when there was no train ride." 

Official Japan Mission Translator 

The Satos were official members of the Tokyo Branch 217 miles away. So due to distance, they continued their Sunday School at their home and influenced many of its students to join the LDS faith. Then the LDS soldiers brought an English pamphlet to Tatsui and asked him to translate it. It was a tract about the LDS Church This commenced Brother Sato's long tenure as a translator for the Latter-day Saint religion.

He obtained a typewriter from Kurosawa Kyokai in Narumi. 

One year and a day after his baptism, Tatsui was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood of his faith and on Christmas day that year, 150 Sunday School children attended Sunday School at his home. 

Progress was being made to officially reopen the Japan Mission for mission work and Tatsui was asked to assist. He met and worked with Shuten Onishi of the Union of New Religious Organizations in Japan to obtain permission for LDS missionaries to return to Japan. Former US Navyman, Edward L. Clissold, was then called to preside over the newly reopening LDS Japan Mission and set foot on Japan soil on March 6, 1948.