Dennis Miller

8 March 2020

Dear Phyllis,

In his autobiography Douglas MacArthur remarked what a unique time of human history his life spanned. He was born in an army post in Oklahoma when his playmates were Indians riding horses and the weapons of war were still bows and arrows. At the close of his life the weapons of war were international rockets and atomic bombs. As the shadow of my life lengthens I look back with equal wonder. Although I was a participant in the Cold War and flew many air defense missions in the USAF, I never engaged in the carnage on the ground. But I have been there shortly after and have seen the battle fields of three major wars; and my generation that I worked with the closest were the veterans who fought in the 2^nd WW.

When I first landed in Japan it was still recovering from the war. The main means of transportation for middle class Japanese was a bicycle and the rich had motor bikes. I drove on the national highway connecting Tokyo to Mt. Fuji when it was a dirt road with grass in the middle lane. I was in Korea when there were still bullet holes in the terminal at the Kimpo International airport in Seoul. I have been in Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam where Ho Chi Ming's forces defeated the French in 1954 and seen the Tole Slang prison and killing fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I knew Jesse Miller who was a survivor of the famous Batan Death march of 1942. And my closest friend was Dennis Turner who had been with Percival in Singapore just before the surrender to the Japanese in 1942. Dennis missed being captured and working on the Burma railroad, by days when he was assigned to take a secrete box out in the South China sea and dump it. It was secret British radar. He wound up in Java looking for Japanese to surrender to. With a few other British soldiers they finally found some Japanese and walked into camp like men who had just got back from a hike in the mountains. Like all POWs he endured unbelievable suffering.

Before the war he was working in a packing house and saw a scrap of news paper with Japanese writing on it. He was so intrigued that he took studying Japanese as a hobby. That saved his life. After being interned as a POW, because he was the only man who spoke Japanese, he became the camp interpreter, that put him in a special category. One time he was taken with 600 hundred other prisoners, to New Guinea, jammed in the hold of the ship so tight no one could sit down. It was a 70 day voyage where half the men died, but because he was the interpreter he was allowed to sleep on the deck.

If you ever spoke to anyone who had been a POW of the Japanese their stories of atrocities are horrifying. Dennis is the only man I ever met who had a good word to say about Japanese guards. He said most of the men he met were just simple farm men from Nagano-ken (prefecture). In the camp the ranking British officer was appointed top officer among the POWs, and there was another man who was a doctor. One time food was scarce and the prison officials gave an order that no food was to be given to weak sick prisoners. The top British officer, the doctor, and Dennis decided to ignore the order and give food to them anyway. When the prison commandant learned his order was being ignored he ordered three men to be publicly beaten. When the man came to beat them, he first whispered to Dennis “Sumimasen” (I'm sorry), then he beat them unconscious Of course there were bad ones. One guard had been a news paper boy in Kobe before the war, and had been abused by foreigners. He had fiendish delight in torture. The prisoners were trying to make a radio in the camp and needed some one to bring in a part. There was a toilet outside the perimeter that Dennis was allowed to use. The men asked Dennis to smuggle the part in. He had a small wash basin and a small wash clothe. He always passed by the guards uninspected, but the time he was smuggling in the vital radio part, as he was passing the evil man, he broke out with a sinister grin and demanded, “Come here”. Dennis slowly approached the guard knowing this was the end of his life. Just as the guard looked in Dennis' wash basin there was a shout “Haiyaku” (hurry) and the guard ran off, leaving Dennis standing there trembling.

But in the later part of the war many of the guards were Korean soldiers who had been inducted in the Japan army. Of all the guards one was different. He was an outspoken Christian. He tried his best to learn English to witness to the prisoners. He asked Dennis, “Are you a Christian?” Because he was British, he answered, “Of course”. The Korean guard showed him his Bible. Dennis smiled and showed him his Japanese dictionary and said, “This is my Bible”. Because of the mans courageous stand for Christ and his witnessing to prisoners he was repeatedly beaten. This left a profound impression on Dennis.

After the war was over and Dennis was back in England, he came to realize his own unsaved state. In a desperate cry to gain what he saw in that young Korean soldier Dennis called out to Jesus and was born of the Spirit of God. Dennis always attributed his own salvation as the fruit of that brave Christian guard.

It was 20 years later that I met Dennis in Karuizawa. What a man! Dennis was different. Talking to him was like talking to Jesus. He was as filled with the Spirit of Christ as any man I ever met. And yet he suffered more than man I have met. Dennis told me at one time he had more than come to the end of his rope. He was close to a major nervous breakdown and had gone to a doctor for medication. One night he had a horrific panic attack. Every nerve in his body screamed, “Flee!!!” He got up, went out in the kitchen, and faced three options. His first, and strongest compulsion, was to get in his car and drive to the end of Japan. The second option was to take his medication and try to dope himself up. The third was the one he wanted the least. With trembling hands he opened his Bible and at random he read, “Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. Oh the I had the wings of a dove, for then I would fly away, and be at rest. I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.” (Ps. 55:5-7). Dennis said, “Great day! This man is inside me. He is having exactly the same attack I am.” As Dennis slowly read and reread the 55^th Psalm, a quietness came over his soul and he went back to bed.

After the war the Japanese prison guards had an Old Boys club where they would get together once a year for a get-together. Amazingly Dennis had met some of his old guards and was a member of the OB club. You wouldn't believe it. I have seen pictures of 60 Japanese guards gathered for an OB meeting and one gaijin (foreigner) sitting in the middle in the front rank. One day I was with Dennis in the home of one of the guards, who had become a prosperous business man. As we were drinking green tea, Matsuoka san said, “Tana san (Mr. Turner), the camp commander is out of prison”. The camp commander had been tried for war crimes and spent 18 years in prison, Dennis said, “I must see him.” Fifteen minutes later he was talking to him on the telephone. And two weeks after that Dennis and I drove to Waijima on the west coast of Japan. What a day! What a snapshot of history! I could hardly believe it. Here we were sitting in a small Japanese house that looked exactly like it had in 1930 talking to an old man dressed in a Japanese yukata (mens robe) who had been a fierce POW camp commander about Jesus.

Oh my goodness, is there another man on this planet that has seen a wider spectrum of world history; and yet by looking at the scrap book of history. These are the real men who lived those stories, and it is my privilege to work with them and relive their experiences. Oh heaven will be wonderful. It won't be long.. And Jesus will be central Who wrote the Book before He made the world. What a privilege is ours.

Thank You Lord,

bill

PS: On a personal update. Big news! My Thai spouse visa has been approved and is presently being processed. It will still be a few more weeks before it is stamped in my passport. But this is a major step. Forward. As soon as that is stamped in my passport, Lord willing, I will be on a plane headed east.

My eye is fine. It was one year ago that the doctor told me I had an aggressive tumor in my eye that would require immediate major surgery. One year later there has been little change. There is no discomfort, but It looks bad. Pammy tells me that I look like a monster. Singha, at the kindergarten, is reasonably good in drawing. The other day he drew a picture of Frankenstein and all the children called, “Frankenstein”. Then he drew a cowboy hat on it and the children screamed, “Uncle Bill”. But that doesn't keep them from swarming me trying to get a hug from Uncle Bill after every class.

John Lennon

 1 March 2020

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I told you about the history of Karuizawa, this week I want to share with you another interesting story. Karuizawa has got to be one of the finest resort towns on this planet. It is the jewel of the Orient. One time I was standing on the hill behind our house looking at the view. A western man came up to speak with me. He was an European who had lived in China before the war. He told me in 1932 he used to come to Karuizawa for summer vacation. I asked, “Why would you come all the way from China? There are many fine vacation areas in China.” He said, “Yes, but there is nothing on earth like Karuizawa.” The Japan emperor, many of the top business executives, and movie stars have summer homes in Karuizawa. In 1978 we had visitor who was a famous musician from England, John Lennon. In the early 1960s I didn't know the Beatles were a rock band. I thought they were insects. To this day I don't know one Beatles song. When I learned that John Lennon had come to Karuizawa I said, :The sum of the world is here. But I was wrong.

Kjell (pronounced Shell) Harjo was a Norwegian who had immigrated to Seattle and had a US passport. His wife, Rhedun, was Norwegian, and they had come to Japan as missionaries with a Norwegian mission board. Kjell was a very outgoing, congenial, guy who was in the language school at the time. One day when John Lennon was walking past the language school Kjell hollered at him and said, “Hey John, come over here and let me show you this church.” The language school was on the lot of the historic summer Tabernacle. As Kjell was showing John the church, John said, “This is great”. I was the pastor of the Japanese church, but it was summer time and Rosemary and the boys were attending the English services at the Union Church. When I finished my service I went over to the Union Church to pick my family up and was shocked to hear that John and Yoko Lennon had attended the service that morning. The whole missionary community was abuzz.

John Lennon was one of the most famous men in the world but he was a lonely man with very few friends. John and Kjell became very close that summer and Kjell was probably his closest friend. One afternoon the Lennons and Harjos were having a picnic on a hill up behind Team Center. Rhedun had brought along her guitar and after eating, Rhedun handed her guitar to John and asked him to play while they sang some Gospel choruses I didn't know he could play but Rhedun said he was a very good guitarist. After singing a few Christian songs, John put the guitar down and said, “This is what I have been searching for for all my life. My friend George (Harrison) will be surprised when I go back and tell him I am a Christian now.”

Kjell and I were very close and he would frequently come up to my house to give me an update as to what was going on. I had heard a lot of garbage about John Lennon and heard that he had married Yoko Ono in a cemetery on an island in the Mediterranean in a witch craft ceremony. I knew that John Lennon had said he was more famous that Jesus Christ. I asked about these things. He admitted that he had been involved in a lot of junk and had experimented with drugs, but he always had a death fear of black magic and the really bad stuff. It was true that he had said he was more famous that Jesus, but he didn't mean it the way it came out in the media. The real John Lennon and the media image were totally different men. John was a very genuine humble man with a seeking heart. He asked Kjell for a reading list. Kjell and I sat down to compile a list of the best books we could think of for him, We wrote down Chuck Coleson, CS Lewis, Josh McDowell, etc. The Christian book store was in my office in the summer time. The next day John came in with the paper Kjell and I had given him the day before and bought every book listed that was in stock, and a good Bible. John later told Kjell he was doing very little else that summer than reading the Bible and Christian books. Dick Dennis lived next door to the Harjos and always had his house stacked with high school and college kids. One day a little Japanese high school girl saw John Lennon go in the house next door and lost it. She started screaming. The window was open. John walked over to speak to her and said, “You shouldn't do this for any man. Jesus Christ is the only one worth to be worshiped.”

We thought John had a very clear testimony and was going to be a huge international witness for Christ. But Yoko was a problem. Kjell came up to my house one day to ask me what I thought the chances were of casting demons out of Yoko. I told him that him the chance of that was not very good. No one could say definitely that she was demon possessed but she certainly was a bad person. John was really a very fine fellow but a surprisingly weak man who had married a very powerful, domineering, woman who controlled his life The next summer when the Lennons came back to Karuizawa, Kjell went over to their house to speak to his old buddy. Yoko met him at the door and said, “We don't need your help any more. Please don't come back.” That was the end. We never were able to contact John Lennon again.

Several years later I was talking to a missionary who boasted to me he had witnessed to John Lennon. I didn't tell him that I knew all about that incident. What I didn't tell him was how counterproductive that was when he went to their house to speak to John, and the house maid had foolishly told him that they had gone to the Mampei hotel for supper. It didn't help the cause of Christ when he went to the restaurant and intruded into what John had hoped for a quiet evening with his family. John had told Kjell that his two most favorite places on earth were Greenwich Village in NY, and karuizawa where he could live a normal life without being mobbed.

We only had one summer with John and in 1980 he was killed by a crazy man who wanted to make his name famous as the assassin of John Lennon. A couple years ago I saw a You Tube interview with John Lennon's biographer. He knew that the Lennons loved Karuizawa and had spent the last three summers of his life there. And he had heard that John had an interest in Christianity but never knew about the close relationship he had with Kjell Harjo and what appeared to be a clear testimony for Christ. The biographer also knew that, due to his interest in Christianity, John was also in contact with Pat Robinson and had written to him several times.

There is a verse in Isaiah 57:1 that says, “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come” I was disappointed that the last thing John Lennon ever did was to pose nude with Yoko on the cover of an album. That was not the John Lennon I knew. That sounds very much like Yoko Ono. I like to believe that John Lennon was a born-again a man that we will see in heaven, but the Lord knew the influence that his wife had on him and took him out of this world to preserve his saved soul.

John's testimony has never been published and I thought the world should hear it. Several years ago I wrote up a short pamphlet of his testimony as I remembered it. Kjell had retired, and was living in Seattle. I sent my pamphlet to Kjell asking for his correction and input. Surprisingly, I got a very hot reply from Kjell saying He would have nothing to do with that. Kjell said the reason he and John were close was because he knew that Kjell would never share anything personal about him, and Kjell's main concern was for the salvation of his son Cheyne and Yoko. I answered Kjell, “If we could reach John in heaven by email, what do you think his wish would be?” I never got a reply. It's a dead issue now. A year later Kjell Harjo was killed in an auto accident, and apart from Rhedun and a few other close friends the world will never hear about the testimony of John Lennon. That is another one that we will have to wait until Jesus pulls back the curtain in eternity.

                                                  bill