MISSION POLICY AND NATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE: JAPAN, 1905-1965

by

Floyd T. Cunningham

The Church of the Nazarene in Japan was firmly grounded on partner­ship between American, or "foreign" missionaries and Japanese, or "home" missionaries. The American missionaries who dominated the scene for the first decades, Minnie Staples and William Eckel. were partners with Japanese leaders Hiroshi Kitagawa and Nobumi Isayama. Both of these men lived and studied in the United States before returning to Japan. as had J. I. Nagamatsu, who became the first Japanese District Superintendent. Both Kitagawa and Nagamatsu graduated from Pasadena College, and the denomination commissioned and paid both as missionaries.

From the 1910s through the 1930s, a volatile and hurtful struggle between Eckel and Staples fueled sentiments within the Japanese church that its own leaders were as capable as-indeed were more capable than-the missionaries in intellect, diligence, and spirit. By the 1930s Eckel himself and many of the Japanese leaders believed that he would be the last missionary which the denomination would send to Japan. The Japanese church was in nearly every way self-sufficient, and it was begin­ning to share responsibility for the Nazarene work in both China and Korea.

World War II, however, entirely changed the scenario. At its close, the church in Japan seemed as debilitated as the country as a whole, and Kitigawa and Isayama seemed to be drawn and weary men rather than vigorous leaders. So the denomination renewed its missionary impetus in Japan and concentrated especially on the education of both pastors and laypersons and on the building and rebuilding of churches. A new genera­tion of Japanese leaders emerged, some of whom also studied at Pasadena and other colleges in the United States. But the pioneering spirit and "partnership" of earlier years could not be regained.

A. Setting the Foundations

The Holiness Church of Christ had missionaries in Japan when it united with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene in 1908. Lulu Williams and Lillian Poole had ventured there on faith and worked under the Oriental Missionary Society (O.M.S.). They arrived in Tokyo in 1905 and transferred to Kyoto in late 1907. In Kyoto, they established a Sunday School which, with them, presumably became part of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene when their respective home churches became part of the denomination.¹

Other Nazarene missionaries arrived in 1910 and soon Williams and Poole went on furlough. One of the new group, Minnie Upperman, had served earlier with Williams and Poole in Tokyo under another mission board, and knew some Japanese. She soon married another of the party, J. A. Chenault. A Mr. Taniguchi assisted the work for a time. When Mr. Taniguchi left the mission, the missionaries tried to carry on with an English Bible class, but this was ineffectual. By 1912, when the Chenaults returned to the United States, the Nazarenes had established little.²

Shortly before the Chenaults' return, Cora Snider and Minnie Sta­ples, Nazarenes from California, arrived in Japan as emissaries of Phineas Bresee, a founder of the Church of the Nazarene. Staples had worked with Japanese migrants in Upland and Los Angeles and could preach some in the Japanese language. She visited Kumamoto, the hometown of her Japanese protégé, Hiroshi Kitagawa, who was still studying at Pasadena College, and made some converts among members of his family and oth­ers who belonged to the Russian Orthodox faith. Bresee requested that Snider, who had been principal of the academy at the Nazarene Univer­sity in Pasadena, provide a report on the promise of the work in Japan (and, if possible, on the prospects for Korea). When all the other mission­aries departed, Snider agreed to remain alone to carry on the mission of the church. Staples vowed to return. Snider stayed in Kyoto, and Bresee appointed her Superintendent of the Japan work. He told her to organize a church whenever possible, but advised her wisely: "Now do not take upon you the burden of the Japanese Empire, nor of all the heathen you ever can see or hear of, but simply try to do the little that one little mortal can do, and rest at that."³ Out of necessity as well as philosophy, Snider con­sidered close contacts with the Japanese most advantageous to accom­plishing the task given her. "To secure and retain the best workers," she wrote, "there must be such constant companionship as will enable the young workers and prospective helpers to take on the burdens, hopes and ideals of the missionaries."⁴

Bresee also commissioned a co-laborer, Rev. J. I. Nagamatsu, whom he ordained shortly before his departure for Japan on January 4, 1913. While studying at the Pasadena school in preparation for his ministry, Nagamatsu became well acquainted with both Minnie Staples arid Leslie Gay. Gay was chiefly responsible for boosting foreign missions work in the California wing of the church. The Japanese man's salary was at first paid by Gay. Both Gay and Bresee recognized that Nagamatsu would need about as much salary as any missionary, and that is what they con­sidered Nagamatsu, a missionary to his own people. Gay believed that Nagamatsu rather than Snider would be the true leader of the work. Soon, following Gay's arrival in Japan, Nagamatsu and Snider transferred the mission station to Fukuchiyama, in the mountains northwest of Kyoto, where Nagamatsu had contacts. Snider took residence there. Nagamatsu's ministry centered on children.⁵

Snider worried that Staples had established such ties with Naga­matsu in the United States that it would be she who most strongly influ­enced the work. Apparently Staples gave Nagamatsu money so as to enable him to marry after his return to Japan. She also advised him in let­ters. Snider felt that Staples was undercutting her authority from afar and she tried to secure a promise from Bresee that Staples would not return as a missionary. Though Bresee told Snider that it was not his intention to appoint Staples to the field, he offered Snider a position at the Pasadena college.⁶

Such was the situation when Hiram F. Reynolds arrived in Japan in January, 1914, for a three-week visit. Accompanying him were Rev, and Mrs. L. H. Humphrey, Lillian Poole, and Lulu Williams, both of whom were returning for second terms. L. H. Humphrey came ready to take over from Snider as Superintendent. Reynolds found Snider and Nagamatsu conducting a lively Sunday school program and a Bible train­ing school in which two were enrolled-Misters Namba and Tanada. Reynolds preached with Nagamatsu translating, and claimed that twenty-five became Christian, and that twenty-five additional ones, already Christian, were sanctified wholly. The church's site, the caliber of the congregation (which included teachers, merchants and other prominent citizens), and Nagamatsu himself all impressed Reynolds. He toured sev­eral other Japanese cities in the company of Nagamatsu and came to esteem him as a "Christian gentleman, a man of vision, culture and power for good."⁷ Reynolds' only reservations about Nagamatsu were that he did not press people hard enough toward conversion or sanctification, and that he was too cautious in what Reynolds considered to be normative dis­plays of "freedom and liberty and unction of the spirit."⁸ The personal relation established between the two men proved important to future events. Reynolds instructed Cora Snider to furlough immediately and assigned the Humphreys along with Poole and Williams to Kyoto. He wanted Kyoto to be the headquarters for the mission, and Nagamatsu could carry on in Fukuchiyama quite well by himself.⁹

Before departing, Reynolds drafted with the workers, including Nagamatsu, a policy to govern the work of the Church of the Nazarene in Japan. Preceding by a few months the policy set for India, and dated Jan­uary 17, 1914, it began by placing the work under the Manual. Reynolds conceived of this as the international constitution for the church because, as the policy went on to assert, the "manifestations of the Holy Spirit are practically the same in all countries." The primary role of the missionaries was to "get souls saved and sanctified, and trained for the work of the Kingdom of God on earth." Entire sanctification was to be "kept to the front." Methods of evangelism were to be virtually the same as in Amer­ica: visiting house-to-house, organizing Bible classes, establishing Sun­day schools, opening preaching stations, and distributing literature.

Upon these presuppositions of similarity between the situations in Japan and America, local churches, whenever Nazarenes established them, should assume as much of the support of the work as possible. A local church reaching self-support could call for and retain a pastor as provided in the Manual. When the district as a whole achieved self-sup­port and (indefinitely-defined) measures of self-government, "all mission­ary control [would] be relinquished except such superintendency as is provided in the Manual." That is, the work would always remain under the General Assembly and the General Superintendency.

Though the church gave missionaries front-line roles in the begin­ning, general leaders never questioned that their stay was temporary, not permanent. Until the district achieved self-support the church gave the appointed Missionary District Superintendent a firm position of authority over the national church, but instructed him or her to place important decisions before the General Board.¹⁰

Reynolds preached in Japan with the same sort of messages, meth­ods and successes as he had in America. And given his limited awareness of cultural differences in creating missions strategies (he seemed not widely read in mission theory), Reynolds assumed that the same sort of church could be established, using the same sort of means in Japan as in America. As a matter of policy, thus, the mission work began with confi­dence in both national leadership and the universal applicability of Nazarene doctrines, methods and administration.

The policy mentioned no important institutional aspects of the work. At the time, evangelical Christians were at work in Japan's slums and were active in combating prostitution and other social evils. However, Reynolds' only desire was to raise up sanctified, "thoroughly equipped" Japanese pastors. In a report to the General Board he argued for educa­tional work. He wanted a Bible training school, and, later, other schools to be "hot spiritual centers" from which strong Japanese leaders would emerge. From the beginning Reynolds saw that maintaining a large force of missionaries was neither necessary nor expedient in Japan.¹¹

B. Leadership Crises

Isaac and Rev. Minnie Staples, along with Hiroshi Kitagawa, arrived in Japan in January, 1915; Nobumi Isayama came later the same year, and young Rev. William and Florence Eckel early the next year. This set the stage for the next developments in the Japanese church, which involved a struggle over leadership.

Minnie Staples' attitude of spiritual maternity toward Hiroshi Kita­gawa lasted decades. Staples, born in Tyler, Texas, in 1880, never finished grammar school. She was active as an evangelist for five years in the Friends Church before joining the Church of the Nazarene at Upland, Cal­ifornia, in 1906. By that time she had married a widower, Isaac B. Sta­ples, seventeen years her senior, a birthright Quaker, and former railroad worker. During their years in Upland, Minnie Staples became burdened for the Japanese migrant workers on the surrounding farms. Wanting to preach to them, she secured Hiroshi Kitagawa as her translator. Later he became her tutor in Japanese. She won the Japanese workers, including Kitagawa, by her kindness as well as by her sermons. In January, 1910, Kitagawa was converted. Staples and Kitagawa began a Japanese church in Upland, but soon both moved to the Los Angeles area-he to study at the Nazarene college and she to take charge of the Nazarene mission for Japanese in the city. With the support of her friends in California, who included Leslie Gay, Seth Rees and W. C. Wilson, the foreign missions board could scarcely refuse her application for missionary service in Japan. Upon his wife's calling to Japan, Isaac Staples felt it his duty to follow her.¹²

Kitagawa also returned as a missionary to his own people. Born in Kumamoto, on Kyushu island, in southern Japan, in 1888, he was the son of Russian Orthodox parents. He went to America at age nineteen to seek his fortune. After his conversion he entered the Nazarene college, where he finished both his high school and theological programs while minister­ing in the Japanese mission in Los Angeles. He became friends with both J. I. Nagamatsu, a fellow student, and Nobumi Isayama, who was con­verted at the mission. Before leaving with the Stapleses for Japan he toured churches in America and H. F. Reynolds ordained him at the Chicago District Assembly in 1914. The church at Kumamoto, which he and Staples organized within a few months after his return to Japan (and which was the first organized Nazarene Church in the country), included his brother Shiro Kitagawa and, apparently, others with whom Staples had established contact on her earlier visit. Members of the church in Kumamoto included school teachers, a post office worker, a banker, and college students. Soon Kitagawa began a Bible school there. This began his decades of work in ministerial educational.¹³

Meanwhile, Staples devoted her energies to revivalism. She was not eager to establish schools in Japan which would turn out "high collared folks," and "cold, proud preachers."¹⁴ She held many tent meetings over the next years. This stout woman evangelist, who could preach in Japanese fairly well, was a curiosity and crowd-drawer. Within two years she baptized 130 persons, all converted through her ministry. Her husband drove the car and helped to pitch the tent under which she preached. As well, he tended to the financial records of the mission.¹⁵

Almost immediately after Eckel's arrival, early in 1916, he and Min­nie Staples became embroiled in personal quarrels which affected the direction of the mission in Japan. Eckel, born in 1892, attended both Olivet College in Illinois, and the Pasadena school. Phineas Bresee ordained him in 1912. He was the son of the Rev. Howard Eckel, for­merly a Methodist circuit rider in Pennsylvania, who had joined the Asso­ciation of Pentecostal Churches of America and afterward pastored in Havervill, Massachusetts. A closeness with H. F. Reynolds developed during these days before the merger of the APCA with Bresee 's Church of the Nazarene in 1907. In 1915, Howard Eckel accepted the superinten­dency of the Southern California district. He brought his son William, who felt a calling to the mission field, to lead the Japanese work when the Stapleses went to Japan.¹⁶

Howard Eckel played a prominent and controversial role in Febru­ary, 1917, in officially disorganizing the University Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, then pastored by Seth Rees. The ensuing struggle nearly tore the entire denomination apart. Eckel and other leaders were afraid of the excessive "freedom of the Spirit" in the Pasadena church. In their minds, Pentecostalism loomed as a danger. But the real matter of contention became the authority and powers of the superintendency to so control local congregations that they could arbitrarily close them-as Eckel, with the approval of General Superintendent E. F. Walker, had done. Rees left the denomination.¹⁷

Minnie Staples was a friend of Rees, who was, like her, a former Quaker. Both enjoyed freedom of expression in worship and neither liked episcopal control. Staples was a member of the University Church and the events in Pasadena disturbed her. Upon a return trip to California for an operation in 1917, Staples spoke at the "Pentecost-Pilgrim" church which Rees organized in Pasadena after he was ousted from his pastorate by Eckel. She also joined him in criticizing the actions of both Eckel and E. F. Walker, the latter since 1911, a General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene and formerly pastor at both Los Angeles First and Pasadena First. She moved her local church membership to Kansas City First Church, where a friend of Rees pastored. But her base of support remained in Southern California.¹⁸

Throughout her ministry in Japan these experiences and others led Staples to circumvent general church leadership as she felt led by the Spirit. She could not help but instill the same feelings in Kitagawa. Eckel, on the other hand, naturally carried his father's Methodist heritage of respect toward superintendency. Both Staples and Eckel carried across the ocean their attitudes about the issues of authority over which the Nazarenes fought in these early years.

For the nearly forty years of his ministry in Japan, Eckel worked side-by-side with Nobumi Isayama, ten years his senior. Isayama had come to the United States in 1898 to seek his fortune, and stayed for sev­enteen years. He became a Christian in 1913 after attending some English classes at the Japanese Nazarene mission in Los Angeles. Staples, at that time head of the mission, was instrumental in his conversion. When she left for Japan in 1914, Isayama welcomed Eckel and served as his Japanese language teacher. Indeed for a time he lived in the mission with the Eckel family. Isayama returned to Japan in 1915 only with the inten­tion of marrying and then going back to America. But L. H. Humphrey tapped him to be the key national worker for the Kyoto area, and he agreed to remain in Japan. Isayama thus was there to greet the Eckel fam­ily when they arrived in February, 1916.¹⁹

Eckel and Isayama at first concentrated upon work at Kure. Eckel was determined from the beginning not only to learn Japanese but to think and act Japanese. He also was tenacious. Though other missionaries left Japan for various reasons after short periods during the early years of the Nazarene work, Eckel remained. He was also determined that Staples not hold sway over the affairs of the church.²⁰

At this stage, Nazarene work in Japan, as in other areas around the world, was organized under a district assembly rather than under a mis­sionary council. In fields such as India this made little difference, since no Indian workers were yet ordained and thus eligible for participation in such an assembly. But in Japan two nationals already were ordained and were thereby entitled to full participation in the administration of the mis­sionary district. Furthermore, the General Missionary Board and individ­ual donors paid Nagamatsu, Kitagawa and Isayama at a scale about equal to that of the American missionaries-considerably higher than other Japanese workers.²¹ Dissension brewed on the status of Japanese workers, and other animosities among the missionaries caused further polarization. Moreover, each of the stations, Fukuchiyama, Kumamoto, Kyoto and Kure, operated virtually autonomously, allowing for, if not encouraging, factional development.

In March, 1917, Reynolds appointed Eckel to preside over a District Assembly planned for later that year. In Eckel, then only twenty-five and with only one year on the field, Reynolds had a man (like Leighton Tracy in India) in whom to trust. But Staples refused to cooperate with Eckel's leadership even after Reynolds clarified that he had indeed appointed Eckel as "Acting" District Superintendent for the entire empire of Japan. Reynolds planned to be present at the Assembly to solve disputes which also had arisen between Staples and Lulu Williams, who was involved in an urban mission work in Kyoto, and between Staples and the Paul Thatchers, who had recently arrived on the field. When the First World War and other pressing matters delayed Reynolds' scheduled trip that year, the situation deteriorated even further. ²²

The Japanese District held an Assembly, finally, in July, 1918, with­out Reynolds, but Staples refused to attend it. Both Nagamatsu and Kita­gawa participated and voiced their opinions on matters along with the others, as equal partners. Discussion at the Assembly centered on whether to consider the Japanese workers as full participants in the decision-mak­ing body of the mission. The official policy at this time was so to recog­nize them, but Lulu Williams and several other missionaries strongly opposed this. Eckel himself recommended that they be called "home mis­sionaries" as distinguished from "foreign missionaries." The participants elected Paul Thatcher, then stationed at Omuta, District Superintendent. However, since the Assembly exacerbated rather than solving the prob­lems plaguing the field, Reynolds placed each station under the direct control of the General Board, and refused to accept the election of Thatcher. Rather, he reappointed Eckel as Missionary District Superinten­dent. He agreed, though, that Eckel would not visit-or interfere with- Staples' work.²³

At long last Reynolds arrived, in May, 1919, and held another Dis­trict Assembly. Already he had asked Nagamatsu to translate the Manual into Japanese, an indication that Reynolds was eager for more national involvement. Lulu Williams, however, was against this. Reynolds heard her complaints and those of four other missionaries, all stationed in Kyoto, who opposed the involvement of the Japanese leaders in the Dis­trict Assembly. They told Reynolds plainly that either the Japanese lead­ers must be treated as subordinates or they themselves would leave. Reynolds forthrightly accepted the resignations of Lulu Williams, and newer missionaries Ethel McPhearson, Helen Santee and Rev, and Mrs. H. H. Wagner. The latter couple in particular also had opposed the work and leadership of Eckel. They had, Reynolds felt, such deep animosity toward the General Board's policy in promoting the nationalization of dis­tricts that he felt that they could no longer work effectively with the Japanese. To Reynolds there were two issues precipitating the resigna­tions: (1) that the missionaries would not accept the Japanese as having equal rights and privileges with themselves; and (2) that they had con­tempt toward the policy of the church. Their resignations took effect May

19, 1919.²⁴

Reynolds moved Eckel from Kure, where he had been stationed, to Kyoto, in order to preserve the work there. And before departing Reynolds ordained Nobumi Isayama. He reappointed Eckel as "Acting" District Superintendent, but freed him from duties as such, ostensibly so that he could pursue language study. Actually he probably saw the neces­sity of keeping Eckel and Staples from infringing upon one another. He made Minnie Staples District Evangelist and Isaac Staples District Trea­surer. Nagamatsu remained in Fukuchiyama. He assigned the Thatchers to Okayama, but they returned to America because of health problems the same year.²⁵

Nagamatsu praised Reynolds for saving the work in Japan as a result of these actions and through letters the Japanese pastor advanced in the esteem of both Reynolds and E. G. Anderson, general treasurer and for­eign missions secretary. Reynolds took a bold and yet strategic move on his next visit to Japan, in the fall of 1922-he appointed Nagamatsu as District Superintendent. (The Stapleses were on furlough at this time, and the Eckels were due theirs shortly). By this action Reynolds reaffirmed his commitment to the advancement as quickly as possible of both national leaders and mission fields as a whole to regular district status. Japan was in some ways an experimental field, since its leadership was ahead of most others in educational attainments. This was also a way of solving the lead­ership jealousies between Eckel and Staples without alienating either one of them or their constituents in America. Nagamatsu was not as closely allied with either one of them as either Kitagawa or Isayama.²⁶

E. G. Anderson proceeded to consult with Nagamatsu on various matters, treating him with the same respect as he would any missionary superintendent. Nagamatsu charted the course for the district. Anderson noted his recommendations regarding the stationing of missionaries. He listed for Anderson the essential characteristics of missionaries for Japan:

(1) good Bible teachers who could preach well in English, for he felt that missionaries lost their "unction" when they tried to preach in Japanese; (2) musicians; (3) "intellectual," rather than "sentimental" persons; and, (4) persons who are able to pray with and encourage the Japanese.²⁷ (The type fitted Eckel better than Staples). Nagamatsu complained, however, that though he was Superintendent, the General Church [the general denominational offices in Kansas Cityj left finances out of his control. This kept him ignorant of how much money was available for Japan and so prevented him from budgeting accordingly. The recording of general finances sent to Japan remained with Isaac Staples. ²⁸

The handling of finances, however, led to Nagamatsu's downfall. He received funds directly from individuals and local churches in America as well as from the mission for the Fukuchiyama station. This went to support children enrolled in the kindergarten and several Sunday schools there, the primary focus of his ministry. The Stapleses accused him of financial mis­management in regard to these funds. Nagamatsu transferred from the Fukuchiyama work to Kyoto.²⁹ Finally, with remorse, Nagamatsu sent to Anderson notice of his resignation from the superintendency:

Alas! I confess you I have betrayed your confidence on me. ... I was entirely fell in the Devil's trap. I am very sorry that I sinned against God, against Christ arid lost your confidence on the money sake. . . . I pray you would not distrust my country­men because of me. My heart is broken because I have con­taminated the Glory of God.

He stated his plans to repay the church and to go to America.³⁰

Reynolds proceeded to appoint Hiroshi Kitagawa as Superintendent in Nagamatsu's stead. His faith in Japanese leadership was not-as Naga­matsu had hoped it would not be-shattered by the failings of one man. Kitagawa moved from Kumamoto to Kyoto in 1922, since Reynolds wanted to keep the headquarters of the work in Kyoto, and Kitagawa relo­cated the Bible School there also.³¹

The missionaries suffered accusations as well. When the Stapleses took another furlough in 1924, charges against Minnie Staples on matters relating to her independency circulated in Southern California. These, cou­pled with financial problems in the General Church in the mid-1920's, pre­vented her return to Japan under regular status. Her supporters nevertheless succeeded both in sending her back and in pressuring the church to remove Eckel from full-time missionary salary. The events were as follows.

The denominational General Assembly of 1923 instituted the office of Regional Superintendent, an intermediary between the General Super­intendency and the District Superintendency of missionary districts. Cho­sen for the Orient was J. E. Bates. Before being appointed to this position Bates had served as District Superintendent in Southern California for four years. Perhaps that experience provided a background for his deal­ings with her. At any rate, he opposed Staples. Bates wrote to the General Superintendents that Asians would not accept a woman, especially one so brazen as Staples. She brought embarrassment, Bates said, to the church.³²

Reynolds also initially opposed her return, believing that there might be some validity not only on this point but in the other charges eventually brought against her. These were that: (1) she had made statements to the effect that the reason that the church could not afford to return her was that it had invested and lost money in real estate schemes with a well-known evangelist; (2) she had without permission from the department raised money both in and out of the denomination in order to return to Japan on an independent basis, if the church would not or could not send her back; and, (3) she had some affiliation with the Pentecostal (tongues) movement.

The church appointed an investigating committee which included Reynolds, Bates, Gay, and two others. Eventually it exonerated her of all charges. Nevertheless, the Department of Foreign Missions still decided that it was in such financial difficulties that it could not return her at this point. The decision must have been made also in the light of both the con­troversies in which she had been entangled with Eckel and the needs of the field in Japan.³³

But Staples had powerful supporters. Leslie Gay believed a scheme had developed between Eckel and Bates to keep her from returning. In fact, he stated to the foreign missions department of the church that she would be returned to Japan whether or not it was under the official aus­pices of the church.³⁴ Gay, eighty years old, was still an influential figure, having served continuously on the genera! foreign missions board from 1907 until 1923. Anderson also supported Staples. He justified her return to Japan on "faith" on grounds that any district in the denomination, including the Japan District, had the right to call for an evangelist. As District Superintendent, Kitagawa had made such a call, so Staples needed no permission from the foreign missions department in order to accept the position of District Evangelist. Leslie Gay secured from his own pocket, from pledges among members of tile Los Angeles First Church, and from other supporters enough money both for her passage to Japan and for her needs on the field for a year. Thus circumventing nor­mal channels, Staples returned to the field in late 1925. She and her hus­band resided in a modest apartment fixed for them adjacent to the Hon­machi Church in Kyoto, pastored by Hiroshi Kitagawa. The Eckels lived in the same city. Staples worked in one part of the city and Eckel worked in another.³⁵

Meanwhile, Anderson, who encouraged the Staples' return, decided that if the Department did not have enough money for them, it did not have enough for the Eckels either. Anderson sent Eckel a letter of recall, and cut off his salary. Even while he knew that Staples was on her way, Anderson stated that it was the plan of the Board to have no missionaries in Japan. This was, he said, not only a policy on which the church had previously decided in regard to Japan; it was general policy due to the necessity of world-wide retrenchment.

Of course, Eckel knew of Anderson's support for Staples, and of her imminent arrival, and would not accept defeat. Eckel rallied his own sup­porters and found a job teaching in a government school in order to remain in Japan with his family. The Miami, Florida, church, where his father now pastored, sent him one thousand dollars. The New York Dis­trict Missionary Society agreed to take up regular support for him. Eckel worked twelve hours a week teaching in a commercial school. His salary for this job alone was greater than what he had been receiving from the Missionary Board. Florence Eckel also worked, teaching music and English. But Eckel consistently expressed to the denominational Foreign Mission Secretary his deep desire to return to the regular employ of the church.³⁶

Reynolds knew and approved of the channels of support being offered Eckel. So Eckel remained the recognized missionary in Japan despite Anderson's desire for him to return home. But from 1925 until 1934, when Eckel was re-employed full-time, the church had no regu­larly-appointed missionaries in Japan.³⁷

In apparent harmony during the year that Staples was away, Kita­gawa toured each of the churches with Eckel. Actually Kitagawa wanted to see Eckel move out of Kyoto to do pioneer work. He believed that as District Superintendent he should decide such matters as the stationing of missionaries as well as other workers. He also told Reynolds of his plan to station the Stapleses in Osaka if they were able to return. Ultimately, however, both missionaries remained in Kyoto.³⁸

When Staples returned she immediately engaged in a whirlwind of revival activity-holding meetings in every local congregation except the one in Kyoto pastored by Isayama. Emotion-filled seekers testified to entire sanctification amid tears. Restitution followed. Some even claimed visions. She held eighty-nine tent revival crusades from 1925 to 1937.³⁹

Church growth continued, and so did aspirations for greater auton­omy from the General Church. Tent evangelism produced local churches. So did contacts made in various localities by laypersons or Bible college students.

From the beginning local churches had aimed toward self-support and so were somewhat prepared when the General Church drastically cut its financial support to Japan late in 1925. The church greatly reduced pastors' and workers' salaries, but growth had continued. The salaries of Kitagawa and Isayama remained significantly higher than those of the other Japanese workers. Money continued to come into the District through Staples' sources, independently of the Foreign Missions Office in Kansas City. Yet Kansas City and Eckel, as missionary superintendent, still tried to maintain control. Knowing this, the Japanese church peti­tioned the 1928 General Assembly to allow it full, regular district status, by which it hoped to gain autonomy. The denomination's Manual, how­ever, gave no guidelines on the granting of such to a missionary-field dis­trict. So the Assembly referred the matter back to J. G. Morrison, by this time Foreign Missions Secretary, and the Department of Foreign Missions of the General Board. The Department proceeded to recommend that Japan be listed along with other fully-organized districts, but at the same time it recognized Japan's need for continued fmancial assistance.⁴⁰

Kitagawa's position as superintendent was strong in the district, though there were occasional difficulties relating to Eckel. There was ambiguity because there were few foreign fields with national district superintendents and the lines of authority between Kitagawa and Eckel were not always clear. For the most part Kitagawa corresponded directly with the successive foreign missions Secretaries-Anderson, Reynolds and then, after 1928, 3. G. Morrison. Along with Staples he represented Japan at the 1928 General Assembly. (Eckel also attended.) Isayama, meanwhile, remained as pastor of his strong church in Kyoto, where the Eckels usually worshiped. Isayama had difficulty submitting even his annual reports to Kitagawa, and refrained from most district activities.⁴¹

The work of Staples contributed greatly to the District, despite her ambiguous connections to the mission. She attempted to transfer her own membership to the Japan Missionary District, but a ruling by the General Superintendents that no missionary was so eligible prevented this. Never­theless, between 1926 and 1934 she personally received and spent over $26,000 for her work in Japan. Some came through contacts she made while speaking at interdenominational holiness camp meetings during her furloughs, but most seems to have come from Nazarene contributors in California. She distributed the money for church buildings and Japanese Nazarene workers' salaries as well as for her own living.⁴² In 1934, against the wishes of the General Church, she brought Pearl Wiley, daugh­ter of theologian H. Orton Wiley, to Japan as her co-worker, on "faith."⁴³

Kitagawa meanwhile attempted to achieve unity among Japanese holi­ness leaders. The Nazarenes helped to sponsor a holiness convention in Kyoto in 1929, with Isayama uniting with Kitagawa for once in an effort to reach the entire city. Another revival in Kyoto took place with General Superintendents Goodwin and Williams in October of the same year and this affected all of the holiness churches.⁴⁴ The visit of the two general leaders, incidentally, did not change the status of either Staples or Eckel, though they met separately with both. Kitagawa was close friends with both Bishop Nakada of the Holiness Church of Japan and Bishop Tsuchiyama of the Free Methodist Church. Nakada had helped arrange Kitagawa's mar­riage soon after his arrival in Japan and the Holiness Church which he headed was among the fastest growing denominations in the country at this time. Tsuchiyama was formerly a Nazarene and had attended the Nazarene school in Pasadena. In late 1930 these men drew up a creed of faith and res­olutions of union that would bring together the Nazarene, Free Methodist, and Holiness groups. Staples favored the plan of union, perhaps because she retained contacts with supporters of the O.M.S. work. But most of the Japanese Nazarene pastors were not in favor of union.⁴⁵

Education remained a primary consideration for the workers in the 1930s. Eckel laid plans for a Japan extension of Pasadena College. He envisioned a four-year liberal arts college, with twelve departments, and corresponded with school administrators at Pasadena College, who decided that finances for the Japanese school should be shouldered by the Japan branch, and that Pasadena would appoint the religion professor. The requirements for other faculty members were that they be evangelical Christians and that they have master's degrees. Morrison favored the project, but it persisted only in planning stages throughout the 1930s.⁴⁶

The General Superintendents and the Department of Foreign Mis­sions remained convinced that Japan needed neither missionaries nor money as much as other fields. In 1935, from afar, J. Glenn Gould saw the indigenous character of the Japanese work:⁴⁷

The future of our Nazarene work in Japan, in common with every other similar undertaking, is in the hands of these Japanese leaders. . . . And the missionary and the native lead­ers must labor on side by side if this vast land is to be evange­lized and won for Christ. But the missionary who succeeds in Japan today must be the self-effacing, John-the-Baptist type, who is willing to decrease that Christ and the Japanese serv­ants of Christ may increase.

The Japanese themselves acknowledged this. Some understood that the Eckels would be the last missionaries sent to them.⁴⁸

Another crisis in leadership developed in relation to Kitagawa in 1934 and 1935. The Bible school had not operated for several years when Rev. Frank B. Smith, formerly a District Superintendent in Northern Cali­fornia, volunteered his services to the mission and arrived in Japan in 1931. He was appalled to discover the divisions in the Nazarene Church between the Eckel and Staples factions. He seemed especially perturbed with Staples' "irregular" means of support. What embroiled Kitagawa with Smith was a twenty-dollar money order, payable to Smith, which Kita­gawa cashed after Smith returned to America in May 1933. Kitagawa used the money for rent for the Southern Mission Hall in Kyoto, where one of the translators whom Smith had used worked for a time, and for his trans­lator's salary. Kitagawa contacted Smith regarding these actions and Smith did not bring up the matter until February, 1934. Smith received a letter of apology from Kitagawa but nevertheless planned to take Kitagawa to court over the issue. He wanted the Japanese superintendent's immediate resig­nation, and brought the matter to the attention of Morrison.⁴⁹

Morrison polled General Board members in early 1935 as to whether Kitagawa should be asked to resign from office. All but two responded that he should. On June 13, 1935, Morrison telegrammed both Kitagawa and Isayama, demanding Kitagawa's resignation and appointing Isayama as District Superintendent. Immediately Japanese pastors on the District Advisory Board wrote to the General Superintendents, expressing both their dismay at the request for resignation and their support of Kitagawa. With such backing, Kitagawa refused to resign. On the basis of letters between Morrison and Isayama, it is clear that Morrison did not consider the charges against Kitagawa serious enough to warrant his removal from office. Rather, Morrison simply saw this as an excuse to change the dis­trict leadership. He believed that Kitagawa had too long been dominated by Staples. He also realized that the General Church's move against Kita­gawa might cause schism.⁵⁰ In fact, he told Isayama, "we will let it split." As far as Morrison was concerned, the Staples faction could form its own organization separate from the Church of the Nazarene. The General Board would continue to support those loyal to it. Morrison wrote: "We want someone who will conduct our work hereafter in full harmony with the church and yet entirely free from any contact with the influence, activity and the personal and financial relations of Sister Staples." Since he could do little, however, until Kitagawa resigned, Morrison laid plans to deal with the matter at the next District Assembly, at which General Superintendent J. B. Chapman would preside. ⁵¹

The situation was tense, then, when Chapman led the Japan District Assembly in October, 1935. The Japanese leaders were already upset that Kansas City was interfering in the business of their district. Chapman told them plainly that until the District was fully self-supporting it should expect to be guided by the General Foreign Missions Secretary. On the matter of the election of a District Superintendent, the Assembly refused to follow the dictates of the general leadership and elected Kitagawa Superintendent. Then Chapman met privately with the pastors to explain that the legal situation regarding the money order of Frank Smith made Kitagawa an unacceptable choice. However, Kitagawa had enough sup­porters to prevent the election of Isayama. After further consultation with Chapman, both Kitagawa and Isayama announced their unwillingness to serve as Superintendent. The delegates then elected the only other ordained minister among them, Shiro Kitagawa. Born in 1896, Shiro Kitagawa had been converted under Staples' ministry. He had pastored at Kure briefly before being transferred to Kumamoto, where he stayed for many years. Goodwin and Williams had ordained him in 1929. He could neither read nor speak English. After Shiro Kitagawa's election as District Superintendent Hiroshi Kitagawa remained head of the Bible school and pastor of the Honmachi church in Kyoto. The Assembly also elected him to represent Japan at the 1936 General Assembly. In effect, if not in name, Hiroshi Kitagawa remained as District Superintendent. Little changed. There were thirty-three organized churches at this time and about 1600 members. Thirteen of the churches were fully self-supporting. But only in four cases did the churches own property, and the deeds of these were in the name of Hiroshi Kitagawa, as per Japanese law, which prevented land being held in the name of the church. Before leaving, Chapman declared the 1935 Assembly as Japan's first as a regular district. Almost immedi­ately after Chapman's departure, with desires to assert nationalist preroga­tives which mirrored the political aspirations of their fellow citizens, the Japanese pastors drew up notification to Kansas City that as of January 1, 1936, the district would be self-supporting.⁵²

In January, 1936, the General Board, which functions as the General Assembly ad interim, officially gave the Japan District regular status while at the same time, and without the prior consent of the Japan Dis­trict, creating a second, "missionary" district to the northeast, to be cen­tered in Tokyo. Morrison, who was disappointed at the way the District Assembly had turned out, appointed Eckel to lead the new work, assisted by Isayama. He expected those pastors discontent with the leadership of Kitagawa and Staples to transfer to the Tokyo area. Isayama moved to Tokyo in August and Eckel joined him there when he returned from fur­lough later that year. There was but one church in Tokyo, having begun in 1933 through contacts made by one of Isayama's former church members.

The Western or Kwansai District would be the regular district, with all the rights and privileges of any of the American districts, subject to the Manual and the General Assembly. The General Church would support the undeveloped local churches on the regular district for five years, with support diminishing proportionately each year, and it would continue to finance the Bible school. Bertie Karns was transferred from China to Japan (where she had worked many years before) in order both to handle the funds sent by the General Church to the Kwansai District and to teach in the Bible school. But it was clear to Morrison that after May 1, 1936, the General Church no longer considered the Kwansai District a "mission field."⁵³

Meanwhile, Minnie Staples' years in Japan came to a close. Frank Smith published a pamphlet severely denouncing her work in Japan. Though he did not specifically mention Staples, the implications were clear. Meanwhile, Isaac Staples, past seventy, was in failing health. In 1937, as part of the Japanese government's increased control over religion and all areas of public and private life, the government placed restrictions on the holding of tent meetings. Revivals could still be held in churches, but the use of tents had been Staples' main means of evangelism. Finally, she resigned her commission as District Evangelist and returned to Cali­fornia late in 1937. She fully expected to return some day. In sending her off, Kitagawa remarked that only God knew what the Stapleses had meant to the work in his country. "Sister Staples is needed in evangelistic work and [as a] mother to our workers."⁵⁴ She continued to correspond with Kitagawa after her return to California and in so doing remained influen­tial. Her husband lingered in ill health until his death in 1940. By that time the political situation prevented her return to Japan.⁵⁵

Under Isayama and Eckel the work in the new district expanded phe­nomenally in Tokyo and reached into Korea. In part this was due to the tensions of the social and political environment. Within one year ten churches were planted and by the end of two there were over five hundred members on the new district. There were problems in sending prospective ministers to Kyoto to attend Bible school (Eckel complained that they tried to keep them there to work on that district), so they began another Bible school in Tokyo. As the result of contacts with Koreans in the city,

Eckel and Isayama strengthened the work in Korea, which had begun in 1932. By 1938 there were two Nazarene churches in Korea under the superintendence of Eckel and Isayama.⁵⁶

C. The Social Crisis and the Church

The expansion of the Japanese Empire into other areas of Asia brought both opportunities and hardships for Nazarenes. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. In July, 1937, war between China and Japan began full-scale in northern China and within a few months the Japanese army took virtual control of the area around Damingfu in Shandong Province, which was the center of Nazarene work in the country. Insofar as the Japanese were concerned, they desired to rid Asia of Western domi­nance-to liberate the Chinese and eventually the Philippines and other countries from foreign control. They believed that they would be bailed as liberators by their fellow Asians. For that reason the Japanese government encouraged Japanese Christians to allay the fears of Christians in China and elsewhere by visiting conquered territories. If it became necessary for Americans and other Western missionaries to leave the sphere, the Japanese church was ready to take their places for the maintenance and furtherance of the Christian work.⁵⁷

During the late 1930's the government drafted several Japanese Nazarene pastors, who were subscripted to serve the war effort either on the front lines or in industries in the homeland. This prevented much work from being carried on in local congregations, of course, but the war itself opened Japanese Nazarene minds to their responsibilities both at home and abroad. Kitagawa became eager to spread the work among Japanese in Formosa, China, Korea and Manchuria. One Nazarene pastor, Mr. Kaku, began holding meetings among the Japanese in Tientsin, China, while stationed in the city with the army. He returned there to pas­tor when the army discharged him. The church in Tientsin was self-sup­porting and began to reach out to Chinese. This encouraged Kitagawa to take an offering for the entire Nazarene church in China. Japanese Sunday school children as well as others contributed sacrificially.

Hiroshi and Shiro Kitagawa traveled to China in 1939 to personally present the money and to meet the Chinese Nazarenes. Though the trip to Damingfu was dangerous-Chinese were fighting Japanese in the area- the brothers arrived with their donation of three hundred yen. Missionary L. C. Osborne translated from Hiroshi Kitagawa's English into Chinese. As instructed, Kitagawa said nothing of a political nature, but simply gave his testimony. The brothers stayed but one day in Damingfu before departing, and visited the Nazarene church in Handan, the site of the near­est railway station, on their way south. They also saw Kaku's work in Tientsin and met Japanese Nazarenes in different stops along their route. They assured both Chinese and Japanese Christians wherever they went that the church in Japan was praying for them. Later, upon learning that Japanese bombs had destroyed the Chao-cheng Nazarene church in China, Japanese Nazarenes took an offering for its rebuilding. Such char­ity evidenced both a sense of Japanese responsibility for the repercussions of the war in China, and a willingness to assume leadership for mission work in Eastern Asia.⁵⁸

Shiro Kitagawa himself became eager to go as a missionary. He applied for such service through the East Asia Christian Mission, a Japanese mission organization, which sent him to Soochow, near Shang­hai, in mid-1939. Hiroshi Kitagawa explained the missionary call of his brother and the Japanese Nazarenes:⁵⁹

We are yet weak but we must have a missionary spirit and we felt that we must begin missionary work while we are yet weak. Japanese preachers can help solving problems between Chinese and Japanese officers, beside preaching them both this wonderful gospel of salvation.⁶⁰

Naturally with Shiro Kitagawa in China it became necessary for the Church to choose another district superintendent. C. W. Jones, now For­eign Missions secretary, asked that Eckel preside over a specially-called District Assembly. But when Eckel notified Kitagawa that he was too ill to come, Kitagawa proceeded in August, 1939, with the assembly any­way-and found himself, unsurprisingly, elected District Superintendent on the first ballot. In a sense Kitagawa became what he had been in fact during his brother's tenure. Upon learning of the assembly and of Kita­gawa's election, Jones was not at all happy; but there was little he could do.⁶¹

The social and political situation heightened the sense of urgency in preaching the gospel. Eckel himself interpreted Japan's rise to world power apocalyptically: "Yes, out of the very armies of the Kings of the east, the Church of the Nazarene of the Orient is to gather that number to hasten the coming of the Lord!"⁶² The Korean work was especially heart­ening. Both Eckel and Isayama spent several weeks there in 1939 and, according to Eckel, "found the door wide open to us."⁶³ "With a little encouragement," Eckel concluded, "that field would outgrow all of Japan."⁶⁴ In fact, he thought that throughout the Orient the times were ripe for the Gospel. He hoped for the early entrance of the Church of the Nazarene into both Hong Kong and the Philippines.⁶⁵

But the "thrill" of watching the supposed last days of the world soon turned to anxiety. Eckel found himself watched at every corner. Mail was read. Basic rights were denied to Japanese citizens. "The strain," confessed Eckel, "has been hard."⁶⁶ Of more pressing concern to the Japanese church was a religious question as to whether a Nazarene might bow before a state shrine. Apparently it was becoming necessary to assure the government that the church would not oppose this practice, a sign of loyalty to the state and in government annals a civil rather than a religious function. The com­mon people, however, associated the shrine with the Shinto religion. In a letter to Jones, Eckel asked, "Could we as Christians go there and take off our hat and bow because we are told to do so, but in our heart we resent it and have no spirit of worship and yet be a Christian?"⁶⁷ By such reasoning Japanese Nazarenes followed societal dictates and were not so ostracized as those on the more radical fringes of Protestantism.⁶⁸

In late 1939 the Japanese government pressed each denomination to have a single representative or leader to represent it in a kind of Christian parliament being set up under civil control. Kitagawa interpreted this as meaning that the government would never recognize two Nazarene dis­tricts or superintendents. He requested that Kansas City move to once more consolidate the work into one district. He believed himself to be the best man for the position of superintendent-especially as the govern­ment would never allow a foreigner to serve as such. The Kyoto district, he also reminded Jones, had several times the membership of the Tokyo district. Nonetheless, Jones clearly preferred Isayama. But he wondered if Kitagawa would cooperate with him should he appoint Isayama to the office. Pearl Wiley, though she originally had gone to Japan to assist Sta­ples, was now disillusioned with Kitagawa's leadership. She urged Jones to appoint Isayama as district superintendent, even if that meant a major schism in the church. In the long run, she thought, the church would be better rid of the "irregular elements" and the "dominance of Mrs. Staples."⁶⁹ Jones appointed Isayama as District Superintendent in March, 1940, and he ordered the districts to be reunited. Likely it was a union only in name. Kitagawa initially accepted the decision but he began to fear that Isayama would rule with an "iron hand." Soon he urged the Gen­eral Church to call for a district assembly so that the Japanese could once more have the privilege of electing their own superintendent. Clearly he thought he would be chosen.⁷⁰

Kitagawa along with Eckel and Isayama attended the 1940 General Assembly. The realization that the political tension might very soon rend the relation between the church in Japan and America led to the church's placing responsibility for whatever accommodations might be necessary in the future upon the shoulders of both Kitagawa and Isayama.⁷¹

Immediately upon returning from America after the General Assem­bly, Isayama and Kitagawa found that the religious situation had indeed changed drastically in Japan. The government now demanded that various denominations combine into several blocks or minor unions within the Christian Church of Japan. Each group was to have at least 5,000 mem­bers and fifty churches. This was more than the Church of the Nazarene had, and the Free Methodists were in the same predicament. Even before the arrival of the two Nazarene leaders, Free Methodist Bishop Tsuchi­yama had consulted with the church's pastors and had made preliminary plans. Certainly the close friendship between the Free Methodist and Nazarene leaders as well as the union talk of previous years helped in this situation.

The Nazarenes held a District Assembly in September, 1940, meet­ing for the first time as a united district since 1935. Isayama presided. A district missionary convention held in conjunction with the assembly evi­denced the burden of the Japanese church for China. Delegates also agreed on the necessity of joining the Free Methodists. A union assembly representing the two sects met in April, 1941. Joining the Free Methodist and the Nazarenes were two other holiness groups, the Scandinavian Mis­sionary Alliance and the World Missionary Society. The assembly chose Tsuchiyama as leader, and he proceeded to ordain thirty ministers, most of whom were Nazarenes. There was certainly pride in this-not having to have an American General Superintendent do the ordaining. The dele­gates also chose Kitagawa to lead a united Bible College at Osaka, where the Free Methodists had their school and compound. The leaders wanted the Nazarenes to finance a building on the Osaka campus and to station a missionary teacher there. Isayama remained in charge of the Nazarene segment and continued to strengthen the churches in Tokyo. He also maintained contact with the Korean and Chinese work. Both Tsuchiyama and Isayama served on the Executive Council of the Christian Church of Japan.⁷²

The General Church kept in contact as long as possible with the Japanese leaders. The Eckels left for their scheduled furlough in 1940 and Pearl Wiley and Bertie Karns in early 1941. Jones was able to send in one lump sum a portion of the money designated from the General Budget for Japan to cover the next two years.⁷³ In one of his last letters before the outbreak of war Isayama wrote: "Whatever may be the developments in the future, [the missionaries] have laid the foundation, and it is my prayer that we may be enabled to build thereon a superstructure that will stand the test of fire."⁷⁴

Though under dire circumstances, the Church of the Nazarene in Japan now was completely in Japanese hands. The leadership crises across the years had brought to the fore strong-willed and forceful lead­ers. With both Staples and Eckel gone, and with the social condition as it was, the leaders evidenced cooperation. To a certain point the social and political situation even furthered the growth of the church by appealing with apocalyptic images to anxiety-ridden minds. In a sense there was no crisis of loyalty among the Japanese leaders between their American sup­porters and the Japanese cause. While ardent defenders of Christ and His church, the leaders at the same time were as always deeply and fervently Japanese.⁷⁵ Certainly there was no trauma among them with the prospect of no missionaries among them. They were ready not only to carry on the work in Japan proper, but to expand the work of the church wherever the Empire might extend.

The Nazarene churches in Korea continued under the care of Japanese pastors. Tei Ki-sho, a Nazarene pastor stationed by the Japanese government in Korea, made contacts with one of the churches in Pyongyang and even opened an outstation at Tonsanri. In 1940 he began yet another work at Shinri. He maintained contact with the Seoul church as well, and expected the Japanese church to help in building construction projects for the congregations in Korea.⁷⁶

D. The War and Post-War Years

During the war the church in Japan faced increasing problems. The government conscripted those under sixty years of age, including pastors, for the war effort. Government informants visited churches in order to make sure that religious leaders did not criticize the war effort. Some in the holiness movement put so much emphasis on the Second Coming of Christ as King that the government mistook this as either some veiled ref­erence to America or as a sign of disloyalty toward the Emperor. In fact officials told Kitagawa that he must not preach about the Second Coming at all. They suspected Isayama of being spy because of his previous American contacts. Nazarenes were willing to bow toward the East, in the direction of the Emperor, but assured themselves that this was only out of respect and not worship.⁷⁷

Increasingly it became impossible to carry on as normal. Members scattered away from the cities to the provinces. The Allied bombing of Japan late in the war destroyed churches as well as factories and homes. Pastors subsisted along with others on sweet potatoes or pumpkins. Even Kitagawa's family bartered clothing for food. They also dug a bomb shel­ter between their home and the church in Kyoto. Isayama's church in Tokyo remarkably escaped harm from a fire which destroyed nearby buildings, but part of it was then taken over by the military for offices. After a bombing raid it was used as a place to treat the wounded. The church floor became stained with blood. The church in Hiroshima was left standing after the nuclear attack there, but the pastor, Rev. Kikuo Nagase, soon succumbed to the bomb's radiation.⁷⁸

Nazarene chaplains with the U. S. Armed Services were the first to make contact with the church in Japan after the war. After a long search through the rubble of Tokyo, Joseph S. Pitts and Orval J. Nease, Jr., finally found Isayama. The pastor's wife had Pitts take off his muddy boots before entering the home. Not only was the action a sign of defer­ence to Japanese custom, but to Japanese dignity. Only with resentment did Pitts comply with this request or to the bowing toward Isayama which accompanied his greetings.

After Pitts and Nease made their report to Kansas City, the General Church undertook financial support for the Japanese leader. In addition, Pitts brought much-needed food and arranged for Isayama's employment as a translator. In Kyoto, after difficulty, Nazarene Clinton Mayhew found Kitagawa's church, which was still open. Soon food, clothing and other supplies came to Kitagawa's family and neighbors through this and subse­quent contacts with Nazarenes serving in the military.⁷⁹

Eckel arrived in January, 1947, and rehabilitation work began. He found only two of the ten Tokyo churches still functioning, and only three others nationwide. In the spring he conducted a preachers' meeting in the Homnachi church in Kyoto, and twenty-six pastors attended. The pastors agreed to withdraw from the Christian Church of Japan. On a return trip to Kansas City to report to the General Board in 1948, Eckel expressed great optimism. Indeed the church began to send missionaries to Japan in greater numbers than ever before.⁸⁰

But it was not until 1949, when General Superintendent Orval 3. Nease was in Japan, that the District was officially reorganized. There was no desire among either the Japanese or the General Church to return to the division of the District. The Japanese elected William A. Eckel as Superintendent. Thus Japan reverted to the status of a "missionary dis­trict," though both Isayama and Kitagawa were on the Advisory Board.

By this time Eckel had secured forty-five sites for churches through the offices of the American OccupatiOn forces. Eventually each became the location of a Nazarene church. For a time it appeared that the unex­pected benevolence of the American forces coupled with the Emperor's denial of his own divinity at the close of the war would induce Japanese to more readily accept Christianity.⁸¹

Regarding the church's leaders, in 1950 Eckel persuaded Kitagawa to move from his Kyoto church, which he had pastored since 1922, to open a work in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Isayama also transferred to a dif­ferent church in the same city, to Oyamadai, where Eckel planned for the denomination to construct its headquarters in Japan. Both Isayama and Kitagawa began kindergartens in their churches. Many Protestant churches in Japan were doing the same.⁸²

Eckel began to set up an educational work which would attempt to reach Japanese effectively in the post-war era. He believed that education was the most important means of evangelism. He passionately desired that the church buy and take over operations of a school run by Rev. Nakada, a friend of the church, in Chiba, near Tokyo. Eight hundred were enrolled in the high school, which rested on two-hundred-fifty acres. Some Nazarene students already attended. Eckel initially received autho­rization from the General Board in 1947 for $10,000 for this. By 1948, however, the General Superintendents had changed their mind. The Gen­eral Church over-extended itself financially in the heady post-war years, and Eckel now estimated that the final cost to the church would be about $25,000. Eckel would not accept the General Superintendents' decision and proceeded to stir up his lay supporters in Southern California-to the ire of general church leadership. Instead of the purchase of the Chiba property, the church approved that of two acres near the Oyamadai church for a Bible College.⁸³

The educational work began in earnest. The Bible College opened in 1951. Eckel served as president, with both Kitagawa and Isayama among the teachers. They devised a four-year curriculum. After a visit of General Superintendent Hugh C. Benner in 1959, the General Church decided after all to take over the Chiba school, which now occupied only seven­teen acres and included both a high school and a junior college. The deci­sion to take over the school was the culmination, at least partly, of the long-held vision of Eckel and others to establish a liberal arts institution, the type which had so effectively served the Church of the Nazarene in the United States, on a mission field. The junior college was made up of English and Religion departments. The government appointed graduates of the English program to teach in public schools at the junior high level. Graduates of the Religion program were able to enter the Theological School. Leaders altered the curriculum of the Theological School, reduc­ing it to three years but making the junior college Religion program pre­requisite for entrance.⁸⁴

Harrison Davis, who taught at the Bible college before taking leader­ship at the junior college, ably articulated the ideals of both schools in 1960: "We feel that the preparation of Christian teachers as well as minis­ters is basic in the evangelization of cultured and education-conscious Japan."⁸⁵ Many who entered the college were not Christian. A Japanese teacher, Terry Yoda, desired to see graduates of the junior college "walk out of their own commencement with a diploma in one hand and a gen­uine Christian experience."⁸⁶

The Japanese church slowly reached toward its pre-war position of self-support and self-governance. Benner ordained twelve in 1959. Lead­ers also set a five-year program of self-support that year. By 1962 there were fifty-two organized churches, thirty-five of which were self-support­ing. There were 3,469 members. However, not until 1964 did a Japanese again, for the first time since 1941, become district superintendent. The Assembly elected Aishin Kida, educated in the United States and a leader in the church since the 1930's, to this position. Perhaps there were a few who could remember the days before the war when the Japanese had established themselves through many years of trial as ingenious leaders and faithful laypersons taking responsibility not only for their own churches in Japan but for other areas of Asia as well.⁸⁷

The Christian churches in Japan recognized and respected the older Nazarene leaders in later years. Isayama continued to serve the Oyamadai church in Tokyo, the site of the denomination's headquarters in Japan, until retiring in 1957. He died in 1969. Kitagawa served as chairman of the Evangelical Fellowship of Japan, an organization of mostly holiness denominations initiated by the Nazarenes in 1951. This served as the focal point of Nazarene ecumenical relations after the denomination broke with the National Christian Council in 1954. Kitagawa's position in this led to his attendance at the World Evangelical Fellowship Conference in Switzerland in 1953. On his return trip to Japan he toured Nazarene churches in the United States. Kitagawa replaced Eckel as chairman of the Board of Regents of the junior college and Theological School when the latter retired. He served as chairman of the New Century Crusade in Japan and also as both the representative from Japan and vice-chairman of the Fellowship of Asian Evangelicals, organized in 1965.⁸⁸

An era ended when Eckel retired in 1964. He had stayed on at the request of the foreign missions department for several years past retire­ment age. He had become what he had aspired to be as a young mission­ary, at one with the Japanese.⁸⁹

From the beginning Japan's leaders were unique in the annals of Nazarene history, and early leaders afforded Japan greater freedom than other fields to develop in its own way. The independency of Minnie Sta­ples as well as the missionary-like standing of both Kitagawa and Isayama at several junctures led the General Church to frustration. Eckel himself was not always in the good graces of General Church leaders, but generally he bonded himself closely to the Japanese while at the same time promoting cooperation with the General Church.

In the case of Japan it is meaningless to talk of the development of national leadership since by design as well as gifts Japanese leaders were from the beginning in the forefront. The policies, and conflicts, as well as the economic situation allowed for Japanese to have great measures of self-government. Though difficult to manage from Kansas City, the early years of close cooperation between national leaders and missionaries was optimal for the establishment of a self-directing church. The foundations were solidly laid by personal relationships. The war, however, destroyed the continuity of progress. Probably the Japanese remembered more than the administrators in Kansas City the progress and promises of the 1930s. Out of necessity as well as planning the Nazarene work in Japan reverted to the status of a mission field in the late 1940's, but the longing for independence remained within the Japanese.

END NOTES

¹Roy Swim, A History of Nazarene Missions (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1936), 113. For other studies to which the present one might be compared see William L. Sachs, "'Self-Support': The Episcopal Mission and Nationalism in Japan," Church History 58 (December 1989): 489-501; Floyd Cunningham, "Mission Policy and National Leadership in the Church of the Nazarene in India, 1898-1960," Indian Church History Review 25 (June 1991), 17-48, and "The Early History of the Church of the Nazarene in the Philippines," Philippine Studies 40 (First Quarter 1993), 5 1-76.

²J. A. Chenault to H. F. Reynolds, August 3, 1911 and September 6, 1911; Chenault, "Annual Report" [1912]; Cora Snider, "Annual Report" [1912], G.B.F.M., Nazarene Archives; W. A. Eckel, When the Pendulum Swings (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1957), 74-75 (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Eckel, Pendulum); J. Fred Parker, Mission to the World: A History of Missions in the Church of the Nazarene through 1985 (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1988), 290. (Hereinafter, G.B.F.M. represents Minutes of the Department of Foreign Missions, General Board, Church of the Nazarene.)

³Bresee to Snider, January 1, 1913, Bresee papers, Nazarene Archives.

⁴Snider, "Annual Report," August 19, 1913, G.B.F.M. See Bresee, letter of commission, March 13, 1912; Bresee to Chenault, March 23, 1912; Bresee to Cora Snider, December 4, 1912; Snider to Bresee, April 20, 1913, Bresee papers; James P. Knott, History of Pasadena College (Pasadena, CA: Pasadena College, 1960), 18, 20.

⁵Bresee to Snider, January 1 and January 21, 1913; Snider to Bresee, August 28, 1913 and September 16, 1913; M[aria] E. Bresee to Snider, December 14, 1913. Previous to going to America, Nagamatsu had gradu­ated from the government university at Kumamento. See Reynolds, World-Wide, 58. On the long-range effects of the children's work, see Eckel, Pendulum, 76; and Ross Kida, The Many Faces of Japan (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1964), 49. (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Kida, Faces.)

⁶Snider to Bresee May 23, 1913, August 13, 1913, February 3, 1914; Bresee to Snider, December 30, 1913, Bresee papers.

⁷Reynolds, World-Wide, 63.

⁸Reynolds, China, to members of the General Missionary Board, February 17, 1914, G.B.F.M.

⁹lbid.; Reynolds, "Supplement," February 25, 1914, G.B.F.M., Reynolds, World-Wide, 20-64.

¹⁰"The Policy of the General Missionary Board of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, to govern the work in Japan," (Fukuchiyama, Japan, January 17, 1914), (Files 305-14 and 241-47), G.B.F.M.

¹¹Reynolds, "The Annual Report of 1914 to the General Missionary Board of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene," G.B.F.M. On the social ministries of Christians see, e.g., Richard H. Drummond, A History of Christianity in Japan (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1971),

220-241.

12W. C. Wilson, President, District Missionary Board, to General Missionary Board, September 8, 1913; "Missionary's Application: Min­nie L. Staples," and "Missionary's Application: Isaac B. Staples," both received November 20, 1914, G.B.F.M. Four daughters from the previous marriage were college-age or beyond, so remained in America. See also Amy N. Hinshaw, Messengers of the Cross in Palestine, Japan and Other Islands (Kansas City: Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, Church of the Nazarene, n.d.), 45-48, 53-58; and Basil W. Miller. Twenty-Two Mis­sionary Stories from Japan (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1949), 99-104, which is a positive reflection on her ministry in Japan. Miller says she never attended school. His account is based on an interview with her second husband, C. P. Frazier. (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Miller, Twenty-Two.)

¹³"Missionary Application: Hiroshi Kitagawa," August 8, 1914; Hiroshi Kitagawa to General Missionary Board, August 30, 1916, G.B.F.M.; Hiroshi Kitagawa, The Guiding Hand, trans. Jun Ooka, paper presented to History of Nazarene Missions class, Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, Manila, Philippines, March 1987, 11-17; Catherine P. Eckel, Kitagawa of Japan (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1966), 11-28 (hereinafter, this work will be cited as Eckel, Kitigawa); Amy N. Hinshaw, Messengers [in].. . Japan, 53-58; Amy N. Hinshaw, Native Torch Bearers, 62-67. (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Hin­shaw, Torch.) The "white-collar" prominency here in the Kumamoto church, as in Fukuchiyama, was characteristic of the Japanese response to Christianity in this era. See Tetsunao Yamamori, Church Growth in Japan: A Study in the Development of Eight Denominations, 1859-1 939 (South Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1974), 101-104. (Here­inafter, this work will be cited as Yamamori, Church Growth.)

¹⁴Staples to Gay, April 25, 1916, G.B.F.M.

¹⁵Kitigawa, "From Southern Japan," Other Sheep 3 (September, 1915), 5; Kitagawa, "Farewell Meeting for Mrs. Staples" [1916] (File 402-3); Reynolds to E. J. Fleming, April 1, 1925, G.B.F.M.

¹⁶Juliatte Tyner and Catherine Eckel, God's Samurai: The Life and Work of Dr. William A. Eckel (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1979), 18-20. (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Tyner and Eckel, Samurai.)

¹⁷Timothy L. Smith. Called Unto Holiness: The Story of the Nazarenes:         The Formative Years (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1962), 275-281. (Hereinafter, this work will will be cited as

Smith, Called.) Later Rees helped to form the Pilgrim Holiness denomi­nation. See also Paul Rees, The Warrior-Saint (Indianapolis: Pilgrim Book Room, 1934), 86-92. (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Rees, Warrior.)

18Staples to Anderson, January 29, 1917; April 2, 1917, April 17, 1917, May 6, 1917; Anderson to Staples, April 23, 1917; Reynolds to Staples, April 16, 1917. Staples asked Gay, rather than Reynolds, for per­mission to return to America for her operation. Staples to Gay, October 16, 1916, Staples papers. Later Staples transferred her membership to the Los Angeles First Church, where the Eckels also were members. See "Annual Field Report: Kumamoto," 1922. For Gay's continuing financial support for Staples, Kitagawa and their work see Kitagawa to "Father and Mother and Sister Clemie Gay," January 9, 1925, G.B.F.M.

¹⁹Eckel, Pendulum, 79-80: Nobumi Isayama, Consider Nippon: Inci­dents From My Life (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1957), 17-23. (Hereinafter, the latter work wiH be cited as Isayama, Consider.)

²⁰Eckel, Pendulum, 82; Tyner and Eckel, Samurai, 33.

²¹Isayama in the early years was paid by the Missionary Board of the Southern California District, and later was paid by the General Missionary Board at a salary about equal to those of Nagamatsu and Kitagawa. He was not included on the district council at this time because he was not yet ordained. Kitagawa received $25 monthly. The Staples, by comparison, each received $35 monthly. But Kitagawa also received a supplement to his salary from Leslie Gay, and the wives of Nagamatsu, Kitagawa, and Isayama were each paid additional amounts through the support of both local Nazarene churches in the United States and the General Missionary Board. In addition, the Japanese workers received compensation from the local churches they pastored. Note that both Nagamatsu and Kitagawa had their memberships in the University Church at Pasadena until it was dis­banded. Like Staples, Kitagawa then transferred to Kansas City First Church. See Eckel to Reynolds, June 13, 1917; Cora Santee (Kyoto) to Reynolds, May 3, 1918, and various station reports, G.B.F.M.

²²Reynolds to Kitagawa, January 17, 1918; Reynolds to Staples, Jan­uary 24, 1918; Anderson to Eckel, May 14, 1918, G.B.F.M.

²³"Proceedings of the Second Annual District Assembly," July, 1918; Nagamatsu to [Anderson], August 28, 1918; Reynolds to Eckel, March 20, 1917; Eckel to Reynolds, August 30, 1918; Reynolds to Sta­ples, October 12, 1918. See Eckel to Anderson, September 28, 1918, G.B.F.M., for long criticisms of both Lulu Williams and Minnie Staples. Yet Eckel gives a positive evaluation of Williams in Pendulum, 80-81.

²⁴Eckel to Anderson, January 31, 1919; Eckel to Wagner, January 31, 1919; General Board, untitled, unsigned typescript [1919] (File 262-47); Herald of Holiness (June 25, 1919); Reynolds, "To whom it may concern," April 7, 1919, concerning Santee, and May 6, 1919, concerning the Wagners.

²⁵Nagamatsu to Anderson, February 3, 1919; "Annual Meetings of the Japan District," (n.d.); "Annual Meeting of the missionaries and invited workers of the Missionary District of Japan," (n.d.), G.B.F.M.

²⁶Nagamatsu to Anderson, July 5, 1919; G.B.F.M.; Tyner and Eckel, Samurai, 42; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 47. Note that V. G. Santin, a Mexican, was named District Superintendent in his country in 1919-the first national so delegated. This was due to the political situation in Mex­ico, which prevented missionaries. See Smith, Called, 344; Parker, Mis­sion, 403.

²⁷Nagamatsu to Anderson, July 17, 1923, G.B.F.M.

²⁸Ibid.; Anderson to Nagamatsu, August 15, 1923, G.B.F.M.

²⁹J. B. Staples to Anderson, February 13, 1923, April 4, 1923, and July, 1923; Minnie Staples to Anderson and Reynolds, August 14, 1923,

G.B.F.M.

³⁰Nagamatsu to Anderson, August 13, 1923, G.B.F.M. The work in Fukuchiyama eventually closed. After the Second World War the people in the city invited Nagamatsu to return there in order to reorganize the church. But it was not to be. See Kida, Faces, 49.

³¹Eckel, Pendulum, 99; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 47.

³²Bates to Board of General Superintendents, July 28, 1925; Bates to Department of Foreign Missions, [1925] (File 45 3-4), G.B.F.M.

³³Reynolds to Fleming, April 1, 1925 (File 453-11): "Report of Sta­ples Committee," Reynolds to Fleming, April 1, 1925; Staples, "Hon­machi Nazarene Church and Bible School, Kyoto, Japan," August 11, 1933, G.B.F.M. The first point had to do with a North Dakota land scheme with which Anderson was involved. Some accused Anderson of not taking careful enough watch over the funds previously sent to Naga­matsu. Anderson resigned as church treasurer in 1925 and as Foreign Missions Secretary in 1926. Reynolds took over again in the latter capac­ity in order to restore confidence to the missions program, serving until 1928. See "Outline of Investigation" (unsigned, n.d.); Anderson to Board of General Superintendents, February 19, 1925, (File 239-21), G.B.F.M.; Herald of Holiness (February 10, 1926); Smith, Called, 339.

³⁴Staples to Anderson, April 2, 1923; Gay to Staples, December 7,

1925.

³⁵Staples to General Board, July 28, 1925; Anderson to Eckel, December 18, 1925; Reynolds to E. J. Fleming, April 1, 1925, which includes a quotation from a letter from Kitagawa to Bates, mention of Anderson's favorable stand toward Staples, and the report that Gay would take care of her fare (File 646-9). See also Kitagawa to Anderson, April 23, 1925; Kitagawa to members of the Mission Board, September 1, 1925; Anderson to Kitagawa, October 6, 1925; Kitagawa to Gay, Novem­ber 16, 1925; and Kitagawa to Staples, November 14, 1925, G.B.F.M., showing his partisanship against Eckel and Bates.

³⁶Eckel to Morrison, December 9, 1930, G.B.F.M.

³⁷Anderson to Eckel, October 7, 1925, November 17, 1925, and December 18, 1925; Eckel to Bates, November 14, 1925; Eckel to Ander­son, December 22, 1925; District Advisory Board of the Japan Church of the Nazarene, "Resolution," January 2, 1926; Eckel to Reynolds, January 27, 1926, March 31, 1926, and November 2, 1926; Reynolds to Howard Eckel, February 27, 1926: Bates to General Superintendents, November 14, 1925; Morrison to Eckel, August 1, 1928; Morrison "Minutes, 1931," Department of Foreign Missions, 14-16, G.B.F.M.: E. J. Fleming and M. A.        Wilson, eds., Journal of the Seventh General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1928), 174; cf. Tyner and Eckel, Samurai, 49-50.

³⁸Kitagawa to Reynolds, May 25, 1925; Kitagawa to Anderson, June 29, 1925, G.B.F.M.

39J. B. and Minnie Staples, "The Japan Letter," March 1926; Kita­gawa to Reynolds, April, 1926, G.B.F.M.; The Other Sheep (May 1926); Minnie Staples, "Brother and Sister Staples Return from Japan." ibid. 25(February 1938), 12.

⁴⁰Kitagawa to Anderson, September 30 and November 17, 1925; Emma Word to Eckel, April 13, 1928; Morrison, "Minutes, 1931, Depart­ment of Foreign Missions," 14 (File 45 1-35), G.B.F.M.; Journal of the Seventh GeneralAssembly, 179-180; Proceedings of the General Board 0f the Church of the Nazarene, Special Sessions (Kansas City: General Board of the Church of the Nazarene, [1929]), 11.

⁴¹Kitagawa to Anderson [received January 5, 1926]; Reynolds to Kitagawa, January 11 and July 27, 1926; Kitagawa to Reynolds, July 6, 1926, G.B.F.M.; Journal of the Seventh General Assembly, 4, 37, 89.

⁴²Basil Miller, Twenty-Two, 102; Frank B. Smith, "The Dual System in Nazarene Missionary Activity on Japan District: Unparalleled, Unbe­lievable, True" (Pamphlet, n.p., n.d.), 8 (File 452-4); Frank B. Smith, notarized statement, November 12, 1934 (File 646-18) G.B.F.M.

⁴³Basil Miller, Twenty-Two, 59-64.

⁴⁴Kitagawa, The Guiding Hand, 35, 37.

⁴⁵Ibid., 28, 37; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 35; Eckel to Morrison, December 9, 1930 and January 31, 1931; Rees, Warrior, 105; on Nakada and the phenomenal growth and then division of the Holiness Church see Yamamori, Church Growth, 116-120, 128-133. Some of the reasons Yamamori lists for the Holiness Church's growth from 1924 to 1932 would also characterize the Church of the Nazarene in Japan, especially the emphasis on both immediate conversion and revivals.

⁴⁶"Preliminary Draft of Policy for Proposed Japan Branch of Pasadena College, Osaka, Japan," October 6, 1930 (File 452-4): Eckel to Morrison, April 10, 1931; Morrison to Eckel, April 22, 1931, G.B.F.M.; "Vita of Takeshi Ban," [1941] (File 282-46). Ban, a Japanese lecturer in religion and oriental history at Pasadena College from 1933 and a mem­ber of the Pasadena Nazarene Church, was the prospective president of the school mentioned in the late 1930's.

⁴⁷Joseph Glenn Gould, Missionary Pioneers and Our Debt to Them (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, [1935]), 71.

⁴⁸Eckel to Morrison, June 22, 1933; "Annual Report of the General Stewardship Committee to the General Board," January 1931, G.B.F.M. The proposed expenditures amounted to $5,512 for Japan as compared to $33,067 for India and $24,236 for China for 193 1-32.

⁴⁹Staples to General Superintendents and General Board of Foreign Missions, July 5, 1934 and July 10, 1934; notarized statement of Frank B. Smith regarding Kitagawa and Mrs. Staples, July 12, 1934 (File 646-18); Kitagawa to General Board of Foreign Missions, December 6, 1934; Mor­rison to Department of Foreign Missions members, April 9, 1935 (and, generally, File 453-54); Frank B. Smith, "The Dual System," passim; Kitagawa, "Explanatory Statement" [1935], G.B.F.M.

⁵⁰Morrison to Isayama, January 15, 1935; Isayama to Morrison, June 27, 1935; Eckel to Morrison, August 2, 1935; Morrison to Eckel, August 28, 1935, G.B.F.M.

⁵¹Morrison to Isayama, August 2, 1935, G.B.F.M.

⁵²Shiro Kitagawa and Takichi Funagoshi, "Notification from Head­quarters," October 15, 1935; Isayama to Morrison, November 12, 1935; Chapman to General Superintendents, the Department of Foreign Mis­sions and the General Board, December 31, 1935 (File 453-6), G.B.F.M.

⁵³Morrison to Isayama, January 17, 1936; Morrison to Shiro Kita­gawa, January 13, 1936; R. V. DeLong and Mendell Taylor, Fifty Years of Nazarene Missions, vol. 2, History of the Fields (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1955), 60: Parker, Mission, 294; Isayama, Consider, 67; Eckel, Pendulum, 90.

⁵⁴Kitagawa to C. Warren Jones, October 15, 1935; "Brother and Sis­ter Staples Return from Japan," The Other Sheep 25 (February 1938), 12.

⁵⁵Eckel to Word, August 6, 1935; Kitagawa to Word, May 3, 1940, G.B.F.M.; Miller, Twenty-Two, 100-101; Susan Fitkin and Emma B. Word, Nazarene Missions in the Orient (Kansas City: Nazarene Publish­ing House, n.d.), 30, 39-40, 46; Swim, History, 117.

⁵⁶Eckel to Jones, August 4, 1937; November 22, 1937; March 22,

1938; and, November 17, 1938, G.B.F.M.; Eckel, "The Other Sheep in

Japan," The Other Sheep 24 (March 1937), 9; Eckel, "One of Our

Nazarene Sunday Schools in Korea," ibid. 27 (September 1939), 15.

⁵⁷John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire (New York: Bantam, 1971), 507-5 19.

58Kitagawa to Jones, December 6, 1938 and June 6, 1939; Kitagawa, Trip to China" (5 pp.), June 9, 1939, G.B.F.M.; Kitagawa, "Japanese Ministers Visit China," The Other Sheep 27 (August 1939), 13, and, con­tinued (September 1939), 12; Geoffrey W. Royall, "Walking in the Shad­ows: Japanese Nazarenes," The Other Sheep 29 (June 1942), 19.

⁵⁹Kitagawa to Jones, October 25, 1939, G.B.F.M.

⁶⁰Ibid.; see Susan Fitkin, Holiness and Missions (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1940), 25-26; Kida, Faces, 72-73.

⁶¹Kitagawa to Jones, December 6, 1938 and August 15, 1939; Kita­gawa to General Board of Foreign Missions, December 6, 1938; Eckel to Jones, September 10, 1939; Jones to Kitagawa, September 27, 1939, G.B.F.M.

⁶²Eckel to Jones, March 22, 1938, G.B.F.M.

⁶³Eckel to Jones, September 10, 1939, G.B.F.M.

⁶⁴Eckel to Jones, November 17, 1938, G.B.F.M.

⁶⁵Ibid.; Eckel to "Our Homeland Friends," April 26, 1939, G.B.F.M.

⁶⁶Eckel to Jones, December 5, 1939; see Eckel to Jones, March 21, 1938; and the long letter of Eckel to Jones, March 11, 1939, G.B.F.M.

⁶⁷Eckel thought that this was a question the church's Department of Foreign Missions should answer. Eckel to Jones, March 11, 1939, G.B.F.M. I have found no reply to Eckel's questions. But note one Nazarene young man's refusal to do so under pressure a few years before: Alice Spangenberg, Oriental Pilgrim: Story of Shiro Kano (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1948), 41-43. (Hereinafter, this work will be cited as Spangenberg, Oriental.)

⁶⁸Persecution came to members of the Holiness church, for instance, over the claims of the state as versus Christ. See Charles W. Iglehart, A Century of Protestant Christianity in Japan (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tut­tle, 1959), 255-256.

⁶⁹Pearl Wiley to Jones, February 10, 1940, G.B.F.M.

⁷⁰Jones to Kitagawa, January 11, and April 8, 1940; Kitagawa to Jones, February 5, February 15, April 2, and June 25, 1940; Jones, tele­gram to Kitagawa [March 1940], G.B.F.M.

⁷¹Jones to Kitagawa, July 3, 1940; Kitagawa to Jones, August 22, 1940; Kitagawa to Nazarene friends, September 5, 1940, G.B.F.M.

⁷²Isayama to Jones, October 10, 1940, December 3, 1940, and July 7. 1941; Kitagawa to Jones, October 21, 1940, and September 17, 1941; Jones to Isayama, October 25, 1940, G.B.F.M.; William D. Eckel, Japan Now (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1949), 94-96; Pearl Wiley, "Two Historic Assemblies," The Other Sheep (December, 1941), 9-10; Tei Ki-Sho, "A Letter from Korea," trans. R. A. Kida, The Other Sheep 29 (January 1942), 13-14. For the broader context of developments

see Drummond, A History of Christianity in Japan, 257-265.

⁷³Jones to Isayama, February 5, 1941 and July 7, 1941, G.B.F.M.

⁷⁴Isayama to Jones, August 24, 1941, G.B.F.M.

⁷⁵The loyalty to Japan among leaders at this time of crisis is seen in Shiro Kano's desire during the war to return from studies in America to Japan in order to effectively minister there. See Spangenburg, Oriental, 169-208.

⁷⁶Tei Ki-sho, "A Letter from Korea," trans. R. A. Kida, The Other Sheep 29 (January 1942), 13-14. See Floyd Cunningham, "Early Japanese Missions in Asia," World Mission 20 (February 1994), 14-16, and (March 1994), 4-5.

⁷⁷Isayama, Consider, 69-7 1; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 60; Kida, Faces, 73.

⁷⁸Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 61, 63; Isayama, Consider, 71-72, 80-81; Joseph S. Pitts, "The Road to Tokyo," in Lauriston J. Du Bois, ed., The Chaplains See World Missions (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1946), 21-25; William D. Eckel, Japan, 128. Mrs. Nagase contin­ued to pastor the church in Hiroshima and was among those whom Ben­ner ordained in 1959. Davis, "Silver Anniversary at Hiroshima," The Other Sheep 47 (February 1960), 4.

⁷⁹Isayama, Consider, 82-84; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 69-71; Pitts, "Road," 19; Pitts to Jones, September 20, 1945; J. B. Chapman to H. V. Miller, October 17, 1945 (File 772-3).

⁸⁰Kida, Faces, 79; W. D. Eckel, Japan, 109-112, 116-117. The Free Methodists stayed within the Christian Church of Japan until 1952. See Japan Christian Yearbook, 1957, ed. Kiyoshi Hirai (Tokyo: Christian Lit­erature Society, [1957]), 177, 181-182; Japan "Council Minutes," March 29, 1954, G.B.F.M.

⁸¹Orval J. Nease, "Foreign Visitation, 1948," n.d.; Nease, "Closing Service in Tokyo," n.d., Board of General Superintendents, Nazarene Archives; Eckel, Pendulum, 121, 124; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 73.

82Isayama, Consider, 89; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 76-79; cf. James M. Phillips, From the Rising of the Sun: Christians and Society in Contemporary Japan (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981), 60.

⁸³Eckel to Jones, March 11, 1947; Eckel to Powers, July 15, 1948; Eckel to Nease, June 2, 1949; Nease, "Foreign Visitation, 1948"; G. B. Williamson to Ruby Apple, July 29, 1949; Nease to Remiss Rehfeldt, October 8, 1949, October 20, 1949, and October 24, 1949, G.B.F.M. The total cost of the property was $80,000, but airplane hangers located on the property could be sold. Nease disapproved of Eckel's attempt to gain sup­port for this venture in Southern California, where Nease resided. He also opposed the return of Pearl Wiley, now Mrs. Hanson, to the field. He feared she would stir up the Eckel-Staples feud and align herself with the Kitagawa faction "just when things were looking up." Hanson returned anyway, without a commission from the church. See Nease to Rehfeldt, February 27, 1950, G.B.F.M.

⁸⁴Harrison Davis, "Educational Policy Recommendations," n.d., and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, "Missionary Report," August 31, 1962 (both in File 4 12-5); Kida, Faces, 95-99; Parker, Mission, 30 1-302.

⁸⁵Harrison Davis and Doris Davis to "Dear Ones at Home," July 20,

1960, Davis papers, Nazarene Archives.

⁸⁶Terry Yoda, Christmas letter, 1961, G.B.F.M.

⁸⁷Eckel, "To the Fall Mission Council 1962 Meeting in Tokyo"; "Report of Local Churches April-December 1962," G.B.F.M.; Parker, Mission, 303; Donald Owens, Sing Ye Islands: Nazarene Missions in the Paczjk Islands (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1979), 27-29., Kida served until 1967. From 1966 to 1976 Kida was president of the the­ological seminary. When the General Church set new standards and pro­cedures for achieving regular district status in the 1970's, Japan was among the first around the world to attain this distinction. Hiroshi Kita­gawa's son Shin Kitagawa was District Superintendent at the time.

⁸⁸Eckel, "To the Fall Mission Council 1962 Meeting in Tokyo,". Eckel, "Notice of Withdrawal," August 30, 1962, G.B.F.M.; Tyner and Eckel, Samurai, 73, 86, 97. There seemed to be some apprehension among the new missionaries that Eckel would even retire in Japan.

⁸⁹The Japan Christian Yearbook, 1957, 177, 18 1-182; Remiss Rehfeldt to Kitagawa, August 27, 1953, World Mission Division, Church of the Nazarene, microfilm number 92; Other Sheep 56 (May 1969), 23; Catherine Eckel, Kitagawa, 82-84. Kitagawa died in 1975 and Eckel in 1976. Nazarene Biography index (Nampa, ID: Northwest Nazarene Col­lege, 1984), 33, 65.

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