ABOUT THE OBLATES

This past November 23 was a happy day for the Oblates in Japan. That was the day the Japanese province gathered in Kochi, on the island of Shikoku, to give thanks to God for 50 years of missionary activity and ask guidance for the future. The Oblates currently serving in Japan, as well as many former missionaries and representatives from the missioning provinces, gathered in Nakajimacho Church with loyal friends and supporters to celebrate a joyful mass of thanksgiving with Bishop Satoshi Fukahori, the local bishop. Significantly, former Oblate Bill McLaughlin who was one of the first Oblates to arrive in Japan in 1949, was present for the celebration.

Arrival in Japan

The Oblates first came to Japan in 1948 at the repeated request of the Holy See, after complaining that no other missionary institute was willing to enter into this poor area. The Superior General, Father Deschatelets, is reported to have said: "If no one else will go then we must."

On the 4th of June, 1948, this new mission was entrusted to the Eastern Province of the United States. The first missionaries, led by Fr. Robert Gill, arrived in Kobe, Japan, at noon on Novemeber 29, 1948. A few months later, on January 14, 1949, the second group of missionaries arrived. On Sunday, July 31, on the main island of Honshu near Osaka, ground was broken for the parish of Shin Itami, which was entrusted to the Oblates. The mission in Japan was now in full gear.

In November of 1949, after months of arduous language study, the missionaries set out with Bible and dictionary in hand for their new assignments to the islan of Shikoku. The areas accepted by the Oblates there, though basically rural, and extremely mountainous, centered in the prefectural capital cities of Kochi and Tokushima. These cities had been almost completely leveled by Allied bombin in July 1945.

Later, in 1953, a parish was accepted on the island of Kyushu in Fukoka and in 1955 in nearby Koga. Other parishes were eventually accepted in Naurto, Anan, Awaikeda, Aki, and Nakamura. Attached to these parishes there was often a "yochi-en" or kindergarten as a way to provide a needed service and to reach out to the children's parents.

First Native Vocations

Within 3 years of their arrival in Japan the Oblates were blessed with their first native vocations. On December 8, 1953, Joseph Sueho Tsuda became the first Japanese Oblate. He was 54 years of age when he took his first vows. On June 24, 1962 the first Japanese Oblate preist, Fr. Michael Soichiro Yamasaki was ordained at Nakajimacho, Kochi, folloed by Fathers Leonard Inui and John Iwo in June of 1964. In recent years, the province has been blessed again with two more Japanese Oblates - Bro. Nobuhiko Yagi and Fr. Satoshi Kawaguchi.

Ordinarily, missionaries arriving from abroad spent on or two years in language school before taking up their apostolic tasks. The difficulty of the Japanese language, especially its writing in Chinese characters, convinced most that a longer perioos of preparation for the ministry was advisable.

Learning from the Jesuits and the Salesians who were successful in bringing new missionaries to Japan before ordination, the Vicar Provincial in 1954 proposed to the General Administration that Scholastic Brothers be allowed to come to Japan after their perpetual vows. A program of two years of language school and three to four years at the newly opened Pontifical Faculty of Theology at Sophia University would hopefully provide them with the chance to acquire deeper skills in the language and further their knowledge of local customs, history and culture. Fr. General agreed in principle to the proposal and the home province gave preliminary approval to implement the program in 1957.

An impressive, ferro-concrete residence was put up in Sekimachi, Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on a site close to the Theological Faculty of Sophia University. It was dedicated by Very Reverend Father Deschatelets on January 17, 1961. At its zenith, it housed 16 scholastics and young priests in language school. In the face of the changing situation and declining numbers of seminarians, the property was sold in 1972, and the community moved to a smaller residence in adjoining Hoya Ciy and later to Nagoya, in central Japan.

The Work Continues and Moves into Korea

In addition to nurturing parish communities and the reaching out to parents through church kindergartens, other means of evangelization have included contact with youth through teaching, especially English conversation. Over these fifty years, Oblates have distinguished themselves through pioneer work in fields as diverse as ministry with the hearing impaired, troubled youth in reformatories, ministry among immigrant workers, justice and peac issues, alcoholics anonymous, formation of volunteer organizations, and the establishment of one of the first pro-life ministries in the country.

In 1990 the General Administration accepted the invitation of His Excellency Angelo Nam Sou Kim, bishop of Suwon, to send Oblates into South Korea. The mission has been attached to the Japanese province and currently has grown to five priests, four from Italy and one from Sri Lanka (Jaffna Province).

Over these past 50 years, four of the five U.S. Provinces have sent missionaries to Japan, as did Belgium North, and more recently, the provinces of the Phillipines and Sri Lanka. Including the men in the Korean mission, there are 23 Oblates serving in the province along with two Japanese pre-novices and two Filipino scholastics studying the language in Nagoya.