International Ministries

Dear Journal friends,

There are several days in each year that are difficult for me to live in Japan. One is March 10th. This year it was most difficult because I live in Tokyo. On March 10th, 63 years ago, the United States fire-bombed Tokyo. In a period of three hours 100,000 people were burned to death. Although there are many places that experienced atrocities by the Japanese military as well, it is no consolation or justification to me. I watched a TV special about that day to make sure my sensitivities remain acute. I know many people who lived through it, and I would meet them soon. In the documentary an American pilot broke into tears when he looked at some rare pictures of the aftermath and said, “But it was my job! I couldn’t help it.” This is the awful reality of war.

It reminds me of the paradox in the lives of American Baptist missionaries James and Charma Covell. As early as 1930, Japan began moving in the direction of totalitarianism. Jimmy Covell was moved to protest this attitude in any way he could. He was loved as a missionary-teacher at Kanto Gakuin Middle school, but began to be an irritant to the school officials. His constant protests and complaints against the school’s lack of showing any backbone in resisting the government’s gradual movement toward war and restrictions of freedoms in school drew unwanted attention. As it was, Christian schools were discriminated against, but to have a “problem missionary” on their hands brought on additional scorn from the government. Covell had numerous conversations with the principal, Dr. Sakata about his growing concerns. Although he was an embarrassment to the school, they decided to not interrupt his public protests. Perhaps it was because they sensed that he was right. I Peter 3: 10-11 says “Whoever would love life and see good days…must seek peace and pursue it.” That is just what Covell was doing. His English class students now 63 years later remember the words written on the blackboard, “…Friendship, not Battleship.”

The Covells eventually moved to the Philippines where they met their untimely death at the hands of the very people they loved. Kanto Gakuin dearly paid as well during the same string of fire bombings that began in March in Tokyo. Three quarters of the school was destroyed by Covell’s fellow Americans. And after the war, the school was rebuilt by funds from American Baptists, some of whom had participated in the bombings.

I visited the school recently and spoke to the student body in the Covell Auditorium. Later that day, looking back more than 70 years, the school principal shook his head and said to me, “Covell was right in his solo mission of peace, but we had to do what was required of us.” Could it have been any different? A prophet may never be received in his “home-town” but in Jimmy Covell’s case, his “home-town” now looks on him as a prophet-crusader, and hero of sorts.

War, no matter what part of the world it is being fought, and no matter for what reasons, always hinders the spread of the gospel. Please pray for your missionaries in Japan. For they have been judged harshly because of their country’s “gospel,” especially when it is not perceived as a gospel of peace. “Let us, therefore, make every effort to do what leads to peace.” (Romans 14:19)