Language School

2 April 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Recently it came to me that I have written very little about the language school. This is odd as the Karuizawa Japanese Language School was central for 20% of my life.

As Karuizawa has always been known as the missionary center of Japan, when the war was over and hundreds of new missionaries came, there was a large community of nearly 100 (mostly TEAM) missionaries who were gathered for language study. In the early days there was no school but the various ladies teaching went from house to house teaching missionaries. In 1961 John Schone thought it would be more efficient to have everyone gather in one place to study there, and that was the birth of the language school in the old TEAM center. In 1961, as I was in the process of leaving the Air Force, I went to Karuizawa to seek the Lord for guidance. While there the Lord confirmed my call to Japan and I asked John if I could study there. He accepted me and I first started studying in February 1962.

Eventually there were more non-TEAMers studying in the school than TEAM missionaries and there was talk about closing the school. But Karuizawa was too strategic a place to close the school so in 1967 three other missions got together with TEAM to sponsor the reorganized Karuizawa language school. I happened to be in Karuizawa as I had just finished my second attempt to get the language, and, in August, I was number five on the list of men who were asked to be the director.

I am no scholar and felt totally unqualified to be the director of a school. Harvey Taylor was studying in Hawaii to get a doctorate in Nihongo (Japanese) and was coming to take the school in December. I promised the language committee that I would keep the door open until Harvey could get there. He never made it and I wound up being the director for the next 13 years.

As I had no qualifications to be the director of a language school I promised the Lord that, at a minimum, I would see that Jesus was in charge. I vowed I would have nothing to do with liberals, anyone who wasn't serious about serving Jesus, or hire a non-Christian teacher. Because of my intense convictions Karuizawa wound up being the only true Christian language school in Japan.

In 1974, when we were in the states for furlough, Dick Dennis was standing in as the temporary director. There was a girl in town that had been born with her hip out of joint. Unfortunately no one put it in place so Takei san wound up with one leg shorter than the other. Like all girls Takei dreamed of being married and having a family but no one in Japan was interested in marrying a crippled girl. Looking for happiness, Takei had gotten, and Dick brought her into the school as a teacher. When we got back to Japan that summer my buddy and assistant, Koji, told me the school was in an uproar over Takei. He said, “We have to fire her”.

I was dragging my heals but in October the time came when I had to give her a pink slip. I asked our head teacher, Sasaki sensei, to do the difficult task of telling her she was finished. Half an hour later Sasaki sensei came out and told me that Takei wanted to speak with me. Man howdy that was tough. Takei was quietly weeping and very apologetic. It was Wednesday and she asked me if I wanted her to quit then. I said, “No, finish the week out and we will terminate things Friday”. Friday came and I couldn't make the schedule without her. I asked her to finish the month and I would get a new teacher then. The end of the month came and I couldn't make the schedule without her and asked her to stay one more month. That went on. By February students were asking me if they could study with Takei sensei. I remarked, “What in the world? Students are threatening to quit school if they got stuck with her and you are asking for her full time?” Ron and Katie Scisco said, “She is she best teacher in the school”. That saved her. By the end of the year Takei sensei wound up being the number two most popular teacher we had, and in a couple of years Takei sensei was probably the finest Japanese instructor in Japan.

I only compromised my convictions about hiring an unsaved teacher one time. Mrs. Hoshino had asked if she could be a teacher. Because she was a Kyodan believer (Kyodan is liberal) I had refused her. But then, one time, I desperately needed a new teacher and the Lord told me to hire her. That was my second greatest surprise.

Shortly after Toshiko came in the school, I tried to start a Bible study in a friends house in Naka Karuizawa. Toshiko Hoshino asked me if she could come. The Bible study lasted one time and the door was closed. Toshiko asked me if I would come to her house for the Bible study. The Hoshinos were one of the wealthiest, most powerful, families in Nagano-ken (prefecture). Her husband wasn't too happy about having a Bible study in his home and was 20 minutes late in showing up. The second night he was 10 minutes late coming in, and the third night Saburo was standing at the door to welcome me. The Bible study was incredible. Man howdy we had a good time. After three months Saburo began to show all the signs of a born-again man. I asked him, “Saburo, are you saved?” He replied, “Praise God, I am!” “Saburo, how did you get saved?”

“When you first came here I wasn't too happy.” I knew that. “But then I began to understand something about sin. Then I realized I was a sinner. You told us Jesus died for sinners. And finally I believed Jesus died for me.” That Bible study in the Hoshinos home was one of the best Bible studies I have ever had. Week after week we would get together around the Word of God and it was like being in heaven. And Toshiko blossomed out to be the finest Christian we had in the language school.

One year we were going to the lepresarium in Kusatsu for dendo. The night before the furnace went out in my house. If I didn't get that fix that day the water pipes in my house would freeze and I had to cancel going with them. That meant there was no interpreter. When the gang from the school got to the lepresarium they were taken to a sound studio. The nurse handed them a mike and told them they could speak to 1,000 patients. No one wanted to talk. When Bob Shade saw everyone was holding back he stepped forward and said, “Give me that mike.” Bob had only been studying four months and his Nihongo level at that time was pitiful. When Toshiko saw Bob stammering with extremely limited speech she was convicted in her heart and said, “If that gaijin (foreigner) is willing to use what little language he has; as a native speaker, what excuse do I have for not speaking up for Jesus?” She vowed in her heart that she would never decline any opportunity to stand up for Jesus and share the Gospel. And she kept that vow.

The language school was a lot of fun. Those were some of the happiest most blessed days of my life. In my wildest imagination I never dreamed of that being in my portfolio, but anything Jesus places in our hand, or job He gives us to do, is a gift from God.

Oh, thank You Lord,

                                    bill