--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Taylor, Alma O. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 12 number: 10 published: 1909-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Alma O. Taylor, "A Few Words From Japan," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 10 (August 1909): 782–787.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera12010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera12010unse start_page: 782 end_page: 787 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera12010unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Few Words From Japan A FEW WORDS FROM JAPAN. RY ALMA 0. TAYLOR, PRESIDENT OF THE JAPAN MISSION. On May 1 , the headquarters of the Japan Mission were moved from No. 870 Sendagaya Machi, Tokyo Fu, to No. 81 Yakuojimae Machi, Ushigome Ku, Tokyo. The former place is out of the city limits, the latter place is in the center of one of the finest residence districts in Tokyo City. The Senda- gaya house was Japanese style throughout. The pres- ent house is a foreign style frame building. There are two Japanese rooms attached to the rear in which our na- tive helpers live. As shown in the accompanying picture, the house is two stories, each story being unusually deep making the ceilings high and the rooms airy. The plan of both floors is the same. There are eight rooms, four on each floor, and a large hall both upstairs and down. A large porch enclosed on the outside by glass sliding windows runs FroQt View of the "Mormon" Mission ,, ..,,,-., the entire depth of the house i Headquarters. The building faces nor th Tokyo, Japan. A FEW WORDS FROM JAPAN. 783 on the east. In the rear, besides the two Japanese rooms, there is a kitchen, a bath room and a small room used for benches not in use in th^ meeting rooms during the week. The house is lighted by electricity and heated by stoves. City water is connected, but there is no sewer system available in this ^__^ part. In fact modern sewer systems on a large scale are S not found in Japan at pres- ent. The partition wall be- tween the two largest rooms downstairs has been partly taken out, making a large opening sufficient to throw the two rooms into one for meeting purposes, and this opening is closed by four doors when the rooms are neeued for separate use. The two rooms together make quite a fair sized assembly hall, large enough to contain benches and chairs sufficient to seat comfortably over seventy people. These two rooms are on the east and extend the entire depth of the The west front house. room downstairs is used as The north-west corner of the Mission House the mission office, in which Elder J. C. Jensen, and Elder and Sister not only the mission business Elbert D. Thomas, standing just outside the office windows. Tokyo, Japan. is transacted, but most of the work on the Book of Mor- mon translation and publication is performed. The other room downstairs is the dining-room in which the six missionaries at headquarters have, during the past month, many fine enjoyed meals prepared by Sister Nachie, a faithful native Saint, now 53 years old, and cook at headquarters for the past four years. The bed-rooms and parlor are upstairs. The yard surrounding the house is large enough for all needs, but is not the thing of beauty our garden at Sendagaya was. We hope to improve it by degrees, that it will be a delight to us and need no apology when gazed at by our friends. A clean garden with artistic, well-trimmed shrubbery is a delight to the Japanese eye and a greater joy to them than a good house. The brick wall with iron gates, seen in the picture, is not to keep robbers out nor convicts in. It is a general custom here to make one's premises private by growing high hedges or building high walls around them. After one month's experience in the new quarters, we feel thankful for them. We believe the location gives us a better chance to get at the people with our message than we had in either of the former places. We therefore hope to have better attended meetings, more investigators and friends than ever. And, with the blessings of the Lord attending our efforts, we expect to gather some sheaves in harvest time. At present there are, outside of Tokyo, three preaching sta- tions where elders are located. The nearest one is at Kofu, 80 miles west of Tokyo. One is at Marioka, about 330 miles north of Tokyo, and the third one is in Sapporo, the capital of the north Hokkaido. island, Sapporo is about 700 miles from Tokyo. In Kofu and Sapporo they have reaped their first fruit, but Marioka South-east comer of Mission House as seen from the Garden. A FEW WORDS FROM JAPAN. 7sr is still without a native saint. The strange dialect of the northern part of the main island makes it extra hard for the elders at Mori- oka to do elective work. But that field will soon overcome its barrenness. It takes more time to teach the gospel to the Japanese than it does to Europeans, Americans, the people of Asia Minor, and many of the islands of the sea. They are, on the whole, entirely ignorant of Christ — not naturally Christians, and, from both national and social custom, not religionists at all, but simply patri- ots whose highest ideals are found in the words and deeds of their heroic ancestors, to whom they erect temples and shrines as mem- B HHB§t r . *> m if 8 W 1 . g^ lL. .f=7t' * If H * * ~m ?—* " mm** m ^ l" 8 k. A view of part of the Meeting Rooms, Japan Mission. orial monuments. It only took the children of Jacob a few years to forget the God of their fathers and prostrate themselves before the idol gods of Egypt. Many hundreds of years this people have been separated from the faith of the true and living God, and, during this separation, they, like Israel in Egypt, have given their hearts to idolatry — the worship of idol heroes and idol ancestors. Israel in the Orient has not had Christian influences working upon her for centuries as has Israel in the Occident, hence it is quite natural that we have to work harder, and longer, and make greater sacrifices of time and means before seeing results than the elders in Christian or semi-Christian lands are required to do and make. But if the Saints in 7ion will be loyal to us, and give us their sons for as long as the Lord requires their service, and not measure this mission by the two and a half, three, and four year measuring sticks used in other missions, and will not weary in sacrificing for the salvation of souls nor grow faint-hearted under hardship, the ultimate outcome of missionary work in Japan will be quite equal to their consistent hopes. Another assistance to the work will be young men who not only have parents who are unself- ishly loyal to the cause and willing to say, "God, thy will be done regarding my son. He is given to thee and thy service without condition or limitation of any kind. Use him and guard him till thou seest fit to send him home," but who themselves are so founded in their faith and loyal to the kingdom of God that they will likewise give themselves and their noblest, most honest and earnest efforts to the Lord, without any conditions or limitations' The Japan Mission requires loyalty, strong faith, and a great sacri- fice, both on the part of the missionaries and their relatives and supporters. In the hope that Zion will understand her duty to us, and dis- charge, that duty more faithfully in the future, let me here declare, for her understanding, the stern truth that, so far, the Japan Missiun has been unable to grow out of its swaddling clothes, be- cause, almost without exception, the missionaries have gone home, because of their own weakness or demands made from Zion, before they have been able to do the amount and quality of work required to lift the mission to a stronger, more matured position. We who are here now are only strong enough to rock the cradle. This mission needs the sons of loyal parents, parents who love the Lord so ardently chat a sacrifice for his cause can never be too great for them. It needs earnest, humble, physically sound young men who love the Lord and their fellow-men with all their heart and who will uphold the truth with clean, wise acts and words, and give their time and talents without limiting or conditioning strings at- tached. We want Zion to send forth her sons knowing beforehand that five or six or more years in the vineyard here is nothing more than the conditions require, and a sacrifice no greater than the Lord expects. We would like the youth of Israel to realize this fact and never say "Yes" to a call to the Japan Mission unless A FEW WORDS FROM JAPAN. 787 they mean yes and have a strong resolution, loyalty and faith be- hind it. The gospel and priesthood have been given to us. We are under covenant to declare the word to the world. The past seven and a half years experience in Japan has made clear the necessity for long years' service, hard work and great sacrifice in preaching the gospel to this nation. How shall we meet this necessity? Shall we falter? Shall we even hesitate? Can we neglect our duty to them, and expect to be without chastisement before the bar of God? No; the Latter-day Saints, I believe, are not all made of the stuff that falters and hesitates. They are ready and willing to meet the situation fairly and squarely, realizing that if they do not, the nation of Japan will not be left without excuse against them The Office, Japan Mission Headquarters. at the last day. Therefore, to the old and young in Zion I would say, if you are ever called upon to assist the work of the Lord in Japan, realize exactly what that call means, and respond with all your hearts, determined to serve God faithfully, humbly, uncom- plainingly and ungrudgingly till he sees fit to say, "Enough," both as to time and labor and sacrifice. If you cannot do this, it is better by far that you decline the call, for it plays havoc with us when our plans are frustrated, and our building is not only retarded but injured by premature releases. The Church has never before had a mission like this one. Its