........John W. Krummell

It was a hot muggy day, September 5, 1956, when I first stepped foot on the shores of Japan. To tell the truth, my first impression was disappointing. One word would describe it --drab. I guess I had expected the green of a quiet Oriental temple garden. The country still had not recovered from the ravages of the war. This was evident not only during the trip by car from the port in Yokohama but also on the campus of Aoyama Gakuin in Tokyo where I was to serve as a short-term missionary for the next three years. That afternoon we traveled over what was called "the main highway." It was a cacophonous mass of bicycles, motor scooters, motor cycles, three-wheelers, buses and autos. Down the middle of the narrow thoroughfare ran double streetcar tracks. The rough winding highway was lined with row after row of small shops open to the street, revealing a cluttered confusion of merchandise. From second floor windows above the shops hung the laundry and bedding of the shopkeepers’ families. That, of course, was over forty years ago. Aoyama Gakuin itself was still in the process of rebuilding and there was no central heating that first winter. Sometimes my fingers were so stiff from the cold that I could not write on the blackboard.

I arrived at the beginning of what is in the Japanese school year the second semester, so all my classes were hand-me-downs. From the new school year in April 1957 I had "my own" classes, most of them freshmen oral English in the economics department. I also taught one section of advanced English composition to juniors in the English literature department. It took a lot of time, but I enjoyed it immensely. The English lit majors were more mature and had a better command of English than did the freshmen Econ majors. As a result of my experience those first years in Japan I became convinced of the important role that Christian schools have to play in the evangelization of Japan. That conviction grew stronger through the years as I observed the life pilgrimages of some of my early students.

One good example was Ken Yamada, a student in that first composition class. In one of his compositions he wrote the following:

"Our school, Aoyama Gakuin . . . has been noted for its ‘Christian spirit’ since its beginning. It is quite true that every student who enters this school has doubts about what kind of religion Christianity is. Here every student can find clear and complete answers to these doubts. We study Christianity itself and the Bible. . . . We are aided further to understand by attending the worship service in the chapel every day. . . . I have studied in this university for the past two years. . . . I have not visited the campus of any other university without feeling something completely different. At first I could not understand why I felt this way. I learned the reason as days went by. It is the Christian atmosphere here. This is what made me feel all the more keenly the joy of being a student of Aoyama Gakuin University."

Ken was baptized soon after this, and after a few years came to the States, where he earned a doctor’s degree and eventually came under the employment of our UMC General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. There as Associate General Secretary he has made a unique and significant contribution to strengthening international ties among Methodist colleges and schools around the world and to the founding and development of Africa University. His life pilgrimage has led him to an opportunity for service which neither he nor I could have imagined in those days forty years ago in cold, gray drab postwar Japan.

Back to the "I Remember" Page

Back to the Brooks Howell Home Page