Asia Center Odawara
Postwar Japan and the Work of
Moral Re-Armament
40th Anniversary Publication

Asia Center Odawara
Postwar Japan and the Work of
Moral Re-Armament
40th Anniversary Publication

Originally published in Japanese in 2002 by MRA House under the title Ajia Senta Odawara 40
shunen kinen: Sengo no Nihon to MRA no kiseki.
Text by SHIBUSAWA Masahide
Translated by the Center for Intercultural Communication
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing form
from the publisher
Editorial note: Japanese names in this publication are given in customary order, surname first.

© Copyright in Japan 2008 by MRA House, all rights reserved
Asia Center Odawara: Postwar Japan and the Work of Moral Re-Armament(40th Anniversary Publication)
Edited and published by
MRA House
9-17, 4-chome, Minami Azabu
Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047 Japan
Tel: 81-3-3445-5111
Fax: 81-3-3444-8629

Printed in Japan
Komiyama Printing Co., Tokyo

Contents
MRA Asia Center Opens in Odawara ............................................................................ 5
The Postwar World and MRA .............................................................................................. 9
The 1950 Delegation ............................................................................................................... 13
The Time of the San Francisco Peace Treaty ....................................................................... 17
Establishment of MRA House and the MRA Foundation ................................................ 19
Tour of MRA Musical and Buchman’s Visit to Japan ......................................................... 21
The Vanishing Island Musical ........................................................................................... 22
Visit to Japan by Frank Buchman ................................................................................... 24
Reconciliation with Asia ......................................................................................................... 26
The Cold War and MRA ....................................................................................................... 29
Japan Seinendan Visit to the United States ................................................................... 30
Interaction with Western European Socialist Parties ................................................... 31
The Miike Strike and Japan Tour of Hoffnung .............................................................. 34
Japan-U.S. Security Treaty Protests ............................................................................... 35
Tiger Takes on the World ....................................................................................................... 38
Activities since the Opening of the MRA Asia Center ....................................................... 43
First Odawara World Assembly and Space is So Startling ............................................. 43
Second Odawara World Assembly and Beyond Communism to Revolution .................. 44
Growth of High School Student Activities ................................................................... 45“Sing-Out ’65” Japan Tour ............................................................................................... 47
Third Odawara World Assembly and “Sing-Out ’65” Korean Tour .......................... 49“Let’s Go ’66” and the Budokan Concert ........................................................................ 50

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MRA Travelling School ................................................................................................... 53“Sing-Out Asia” U.S. Tour .............................................................................................. 55
Song “Namida o Koete” and NHK Program Stage 101 ............................................... 56
Language Institute of Japan (LIOJ) ................................................................................ 57
Intellectual Exchange with Southeast Asian Countries ............................................... 58
Sponsored Programs ........................................................................................................ 59
Off Campus Activities (OCA) ........................................................................................ 60
Refurbishment and Reopening of Asia Center Odawara ............................................. 61
Epilogue .................................................................................................................................... 63
Chronology .............................................................................................................................. 64
Appendix 1: The Pre-World War II MRA Movement and Activities in Japan .................. 67
Appendix 2: Dr. Frank Buchman: His Life and Work ....................................................... 69

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MRA Asia Center Opens in Odawara
The MRA Asia Center opened its doors on October 22, 1962, in an impressive ceremony
attended by Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato and numerous dignitaries from Japan andabroad.
Efforts to find a site for the center had been underway since early 1960, when MRA
supporters in Japan first agreed on building a facility that could serve as a headquarters fortheir work in Asia. Several scenic locations were considered, including one on the Asagiri
highlands on the slope of Mt. Fuji, but ultimately decided against because of difficulties ofaccess and affordability. In May, protesters opposing the amendment of the Japan-U.S.
security treaty thronged the Diet building so thickly that not even members of the Diet
could find their way in. This being the case, Chiba Saburo, a Diet member from the
Liberal Democratic Party who was actively involved in plans for the center, suggested thatthe group involved in the search take advantage of his unexpected “holiday” to go to
Odawara to take a look at the villa owned by former imperial prince Kan’in Sumihito that
had been recommended as a possible site by Japan National Railways President Sogo
Shinji. Accordingly, a party took the Shonan Railway—the Shinkansen was not yet inoperation at the time—to Odawara and the villa. Once there, all were enthusiastic about

Guests at the opening ceremony, Odawara Mayor Suzuki Juro standing at center5the marvelous panorama from the garden extending far out over Sagami Bay to the Izu
Islands and the Boso Peninsula. Adding to this the knowledge that in two years a new station on the Shinkansen, Sogo’s brainchild, would open in Odawara, the idea of building
the center on the villa property began to look quite attractive and realistic.
Once the organizers met the owner and confirmed his willingness to sell the villa on
the condition that it would be used for the public good, things moved forward rapidly. In
April 1961, a sponsor group for construction of the MRA Asia Center was
established with Kudo Shoshiro, president of Tokyo Tomin Bank, as its head.
The members of the board included
Sogo, Chiba, Bank of Japan Governor
Yamagiwa Masamichi, former financeminister Shibusawa Keizo, and Railway Welfare Association Chairman
Hayakawa Shin’ichi. The 100 million
yen settled on as the price for the 8,000View from the former Kan’in villa looking out
over Sagami Bay
tsubo (26,400 square meter) property
was financed for the time being by a loan from the Tokyo Tomin Bank, and preparations
for the actual construction began in earnest. The basic design was entrusted to Charles
Rudolf, an architect also involved with the MRA center at Caux in Switzerland; architect
Yoshimura Junzo was taken on as a consultant, while Shimizu Corporation was tentatively set as the builder.
The city of Odawara also gave its full
support to the undertaking. Mayor
Suzuki Juro attended numerous project
events, including the groundbreaking
ceremony performed by Burmese highcleric U Narada, in addition to providing
for property-tax exemptions and otherforms of assistance both large and small.
Construction commenced in January
1962, and roughly ten months later, in
October, the building, composed of fivestories above ground and two below altogether encompassing a floor area of 7,500 Burmese high cleric U Narada presiding over the
groundbreaking ceremony; Mayor Suzuki at far rightsquare meters, was ready.
6

Numerous corporations, organizations, and individuals from around the country generously donated funds
toward the 400 million yen required for construction
and 100 million yen required for facilities and equipment. Donations came in from other countries as well,for example:• Blankets and furniture (from Australia and New
Zealand)• Dishwasher (from Germany)• Kitchen and bath equipment (from Switzerland)• 36-mm projector and related equipment (from theDutch company Philips)
Suzuki (front) and chief architectCharles Rudolf

View from the west side

View from the southeast side7

Among the guests at the October
22 opening ceremony was KoreanCentral Intelligence Agency Director
Kim Jong-pil, who made his way
from South Korea expressly to be on
hand for the event. At the time,
diplomatic relations had not yet been
established between Japan and South
Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato at the opening ceremony
Korea, added to which exchange between the two countries had nearly come to a halt following the recent South Koreancoup d’état led by General Park Chung-hee. Given such a climate, this surprise unofficial
visit by Kim—a former cadet of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and Park’s close
aide—to participate in the MRA movement in which he had long expressed interest
sparked much attention both in Japan and abroad. Kim remained in Tokyo for several
days after the Odawara ceremony, meeting with various persons in what would lay thefoundations for the famed “Kim-Ohira memorandum” and normalization of diplomatic
relations between Japan and his country three years later.
Kim was one of many foreign dignitaries to attend the opening. President Chiang Kaishek of Taiwan made a gift of his own calligraphy, which was brought and presented by hisaide General Ho Ying-chin, while President Ngo Dinh Diem of the Republic of Vietnam
presented the center with an attractive lacquered cabinet.
Taking place a mere 17 years after the conclusion of World War II when Japan’s rapid
economic growth had yet to take off, the successful construction of the MRA Asia Center
was a momentous event. It represented the fruit of both far-reaching material and moral
assistance extended to Japan by the international MRA movement in its initiative to promote postwar reconstruction and cooperation from among those inspired by MRA goodwill.

Former prime minister Yoshida Shigeru (center),flanked by Bank of Japan Governor Yamagiwa
Masamichi (left) and Diet member Kondo Tsuruyo

8Former prime minister Kishi Nobusuke (left)
with Korean Central Intelligence Agency
Director Kim Jong-pil

The Postwar World and MRA
In May 1945 Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, ending six years of war in western
Europe. No sooner had the fighting ceased than MRA, buttressed by the strong dedication and leadership of founder Frank Buchman, embarked on its mission of promoting
postwar reconstruction. In 1946, the Swiss supporters of MRA, inspired by gratitude
and a desire to give back something to the world in exchange for having been able to main-

Caux Mountain House

German chancellor Konrad Adenauer (left)
at Caux

French foreign minister Robert Schuman (left)
at Caux

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tain neutrality and thereby escape the ravages of war, acquired and remodeled the former
Caux Palace Hotel in the village of Caux in the mountains above Montreux in the Swisscanton of Vaud, donating it to Buchman as headquarters for his movement. Here
German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, French foreign minister Robert Schuman, andnumerous others from throughout Europe gathered to take part in MRA meetings, work
toward easing hatred and fear of Germany, and promote reconciliation. These efforts
helped pave the way for unification of Europe starting with the establishment of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community and continuing through the formation of theEuropean Community. (The history of this aspect of the movement is detailed in“Franco-German Reconciliation: The Overlooked Role of the Moral Re-Armament
Movement,” chapter 4 of Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft, Douglas Johnston
and Cynthia Sampson, eds., Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 37–57.)
Following the end of fighting in Europe, Japan also accepted surrender on August 15,
1945. On August 30 General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Atsugi to serve as supremecommander of the Occupation forces.
Unlike with western Europe, MRA had a lesser degree of geographical and cultural
familiarity with Japan, so MRA activities there had to start from the ground up by taking
stock of the overall situation and seeking out personnel fit to lead the task of postwar
reconstruction. Thus began sustained efforts, on one hand, to bring the people of Japan,
long isolated by war, up to date with the realities of the postwar world, and on the otherto promote better awareness and understanding of Japan among other countries. As afirst step, the movement sought to send abroad groups of Japanese with ties to MRA frombefore the war along with others of prominence in their respective fields. Of course, giventhat Japan was under the complete authority of the Occupation forces at the time, andthat foreign travel was still restricted for Japanese citizens, MRA connections with U.S.
senators and others of influence among Occupation officials,
including MacArthur himself, proved instrumental in
obtaining the necessary documents, much in the way thatsuch contacts had served similar efforts involving Germany.

10In 1948, a delegation of some ten Japanese set out for an MRA gathering in Los
Angeles, among them former ambassador to the United States and vice foreign minister
Horinouchi Kensuke as well as Mitsui Takasumi, Sohma Yasutane, and their wives, allaffiliated with MRA since before World War II.
In 1949, former prime minister Katayama Tetsu and his wife attended an MRA meeting in Caux, following up with a tour of the Ruhr area, Paris, London, and other European locales before coming back to Japan via the United States. Katayama’s comment that
he was “going in search of the blue bird,” spoken at a press conference prior to his departure, became the object of much public attention as echoing the hopeful sentiments ofmany Japanese of the time.
Based on the knowledge of Japan gained through these and other preliminary projects,
in 1950 MRA began organizing a large-scale delegation composed of Japanese leaders invarious fields from all around the country. Kenaston Twitchell of the United States andBasil Entwistle of the United Kingdom arrived in Japan on February 3 under instructions
from Frank Buchman to help facilitate matters, and, following talks with Prime Minister
Frank Buchman (right) welcoming former
Japanese ambassador to the United States
Horinouchi Kensuke (left) at Los Angeles
International Airport with George Eastman(standing at center)

Former prime minister Katayama Tetsu (far left) withhis wife at Caux

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Yoshida Shigeru and other leaders arranged by the Occupation authorities as well as visits to such areas as Nagano, the Kansai region, Hiroshima, and Kyushu, the two met with
MacArthur in late April to secure his approval for the undertaking. It was after roughly
two more months of preparations that the delegation set out on June 12 on a flight chartered from Philippine Airlines.
For more on MRA activities in Japan in these and following years, see Basil Entwistle,
Japan’s Decisive Decade: How a Determined Minority Changed the Nation’s Course in the
1950s (London: Grosvenor Books, 1985).

The Katayamas (center) and their entourage during their European tour

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The 1950 Delegation
For the members of the Japanese delegation to the 1950 MRA world assembly in
Switzerland, June 12 began with a bon voyage luncheon hosted by Prime Minister
Yoshida Shigeru. The delegation, the first large-scale group of Japanese to travel abroadprivately after the war, found itself the focus of not only media but widespread publicattention. The group departed Haneda Airport that evening on board a Philippine
Airlines plane, stopping at Manila, Calcutta, Karachi, Tel Aviv, Rome, and other airports
before landing at Geneva. From there the members traveled overland along the northshore of Lake Leman through Lausanne to Montreux, where their vehicle turned left up
the steep road climbing 1,000 meters above sea level to the MRA center, formerly theCaux Palace Hotel but by then already familiar by the name “Mountain House.”
A group of MRA supporters including Frank Buchman was waiting outside the front
entrance of the building, where the visitors were welcomed by an international chorus
singing the Japanese anthem. It is all too easy to imagine how moving this warm reception
by Buchman and his fellows must have been for the delegates, still disheartened by their

The delegation upon arrival in Geneva

13country’s responsibility for World War II as well as by the international outcry overwartime brutalities in the territories it had occupied.
The sessions and mealtime gatherings in the following days gave the delegates stimulating glimpses into a postwar world they had long not even been able to imagine mightcome to pass. The serenely beautiful setting of Caux, with the snowbound peak of Dent
du Midi towering above and Lake Leman spread out below, offered them an unparalleledenvironment in which to reflect on the tumult of their lives in the years surrounding
World War II and to think about the future of their country, now destined to live in harmony with the rest of the world. Such reflections prompted some to remember andhumbly express repentance over the conflicts and rivalries that had absorbed their energies for various reasons not only during the war but even after it, while leading many ayounger participant to speak buoyantly of aspirations for the future, among them Diet
member Nakasone Yasuhiro, who declared his determination to become prime ministerin ten more years (a goal that was realized in 1982).
On June 25, while the delegates were still discussing from their various perspectives
the place of Japan in the world, came the shocking news of the invasion of North Korea
into South Korea, a confrontation that immediately developed into a full-scale war between U.N. forces on one side versus the Soviet Union and China on the other. As a resultof the ensuing conflict Occupation policy toward Japan reversed course, focusing on eco-

From left: Fukuda, Diet member Kuriyama
Chojiro, and John Foster Dulles, consultant
to the U.S. secretary of state

Chancellor Adenauer (seated at right) with (from left)Diet members Kitamura Tokutaro and Fukuda
Tokuyasu (third from left), Mie prefectural governor
Aoki Osamu, Nakajima Katsuji, and Diet member
Nakasone Yasuhiro

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nomic aid and rearmament and utterly transforming the international climate surrounding the country.
Following two weeks in Caux, the delegation met the president of Switzerland in Bernand the president of the International Red Cross in Geneva before moving on to West
Germany to pay a visit arranged through MRA to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in Bonn,also making stops in such cities as Düsseldorf, Bremen, and Hamburg. After these andother rewarding experiences, including being especially invited by French President
Vincent Auriol to view the parades celebrating Bastille Day ( July 14) in Paris and attending a traditional reception hosted by the mayor of London, the group crossed the Atlantic
to the United States.
The delegation visited U.N. secretary general Trygve Lie in New York, and took partin a Senate reception and House luncheon in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, Kuriyama
Chojiro and other Diet members were invited to the Senate floor where they, representing Prime Minister Yoshida and speaking through interpreter Nishiyama Sen, conveyed
feelings of regret and apology for the events of World War II. Diet member Kitamura
Tokutaro delivered a similar message
in the House. Their words, the first to
be given by Japanese in the central hallsof U.S. government since the war’s end,
were widely covered through newspapers and radios.

The delegation in Berlin

The delegation at the U.S. Capitol

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The trip concluded with the group heading back home via San Francisco and Los
Angeles. Upon its return, Kitamura reported on the delegation’s activities in an audience
with the emperor, in addition to which hundreds of presentations and lectures on the tour
were held throughout the country by various of the participants including Nakasone,other Diet members, and labor leaders.
The success of MRA’s postwar activities in Japan in such a short period may be attributed to the following factors:
1. Presence of a moral vacuum. In contrast to the Occupation forces, the MRA and its
future-oriented message of fairness for all humanity were able to arouse strong interest and hope among Japanese in the moral vacuum that had been created when defeat
left the nation bereft of a vision.
2. Message of harmony. MRA emphasis on resuscitating such moral values as harmony,
selflessness, and love throughout the world was magnetic in a society rapidly splintering in reaction to the excessive strictures of the war years, where familiar traditions ofmarriage, the family, and labor-management relationships seemed to be crumbling
everywhere one looked.
3. Japanese contrition over the war; international isolation. MRA calls for victor anddefeated alike to engage in moral self-reflection were comforting to Japanese, thenfaced with a growing storm of international criticism over the atrocities conducted byits military during World War II.
4. New approach to labor-management relations. The dramatic reconciliation effected
between the metropolitan police chief and radical labor leaders in Osaka during the1950 delegation’s Swiss stay helped draw attention to MRA as a possible new
approach to solving the growingly pressing labor issues of the time. Indeed, throughout the 1950s MRA was able to accomplish a great deal in Japan on this front, helping
to bring viable settlements to labor disputes at such companies as Toshiba, Ishikawajima Heavy Industries, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in addition to prompting talks between rival political factions including the left and right wings of theSocialist Party. Threatened by the spread of communism and worn out by endless factionalization and infighting, many labor leaders and leftist politicians were to see in
MRA the key to solving their problems.
5. New directions for Japan’s future. Many Japanese, discouraged by the Occupation’scontrol over Japanese foreign relations from trying to envision where their country
should head in the future, saw MRA as suggesting attractive new goals for postwar
Japan to pursue in its dealings with the outside world.
(To compare the case of Japan to that of Germany, see Religion, the Missing Dimension ofStatecraft.)16

The Time of the San Francisco Peace Treaty
Following the 1950 delegation, Japanese leaders were invited every year to MRA world
assemblies held in Caux in Switzerland or on Mackinac Island in the United States.
Frank Buchman spared no effort in assisting the smooth progress of the San Francisco
Peace Conference once it came time for the treaty with Japan to be signed in 1951. In
September, when the conference was to start, Buchman took out long-term reservations
for a banquet table at the top-floor restaurant of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, inviting delegates and other important figures from the different countries there every night toencourage them to proceed with negotiations. After the meal, the guests were taken to theGeary Theater to see the MRA musical Jotham Valley. This play about a feud brought toreconciliation at a farm in the American West succeeded in greatly moving everyone fromthe delegates to Japanese anti-treaty Diet members from the left wing of the Socialist
Party.
At the peace conference Yoshida Shigeru, Ikeda Hayato, Hoshijima Niro, TomabechiGizo, Tokugawa Muneyoshi, and Ichimada Hisato served as plenipotentiaries on theJapanese side, with Katayama Tetsu, Yamada Setsuo, and several others participating as
deputies and advisors and Kato Shidzue, Togano Satoko, and other Socialist Diet members as official observers.

A scene from Jotham Valley

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Shortly after the conclusion of the treaty on
September 8, French foreign minister Robert
Schuman commended Buchman for his contribution, remarking on how Buchman had already succeeded in achieving peace with Japan from as earlyas two years before that day’s signing. Buchman’s
activism also left a powerful impression on Bankof Japan director Ichimada, Diet member Hoshijima, and other Japanese envoys and attendees of
the conference, inspiring efforts toward securing abase for MRA activities in Japan that would, in thefollowing year, lead to the acquisition of the MRA
House in Tokyo and the establishment of the
MRA Foundation.

May 1952: The 1952 Japanese delegationen route to the MRA world assembly

July 1951: The 1951 Japanese MRA delegation at San Francisco City Hall following a visit with the
mayor

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Establishment of MRA House andthe MRA Foundation
MRA gained increasing public recognition in Japan in the years following the return of
the 1950 delegation, prompting numerous related gatherings and activities to be held
throughout the country. The time was one of growing ideological conflict in Japan, withstrife worsening not only between reformists and conservatives but also between leftist
and rightist factions of such organizations as labor unions and the Socialist Party. In thisenvironment, the MRA message of harmony and reconciliation through spiritual betterment drew attention from many fields, indeed contributing to improved relations
between management and labor of several corporations.
Meanwhile, desire to establish a base for MRA activities in Japan was growing amongpeople familiar with the operations of MRA through similar centers in other countries.
As discussed earlier, the first direct steps toward the realization of this goal came in thewake of Frank Buchman’s dedicated campaign to facilitate the negotiation of the San
Francisco Peace Treaty. Inspired by Buchman, several Japanese attending the conference,
including Ichimada Hisato and Hoshijima Niro, began actively seeking to create an MRATokyo headquarters in an effort also joined by Supreme Court judge Tanaka Kotaro, education mminister Amano Teiyu, Keidanren chairman Ishikawa Ichiro, Toshiba president
Ishizaka Taizo, Mainichi Newspapers president Honda Chikao, and others already affiliated with MRA. It was believed that once this headquarters opened, it would provide avenue where people could set aside differences in political affiliations and beliefs to gather in a rational and sincere environment devoted to discussing the outlines of domestic
and foreign policy in Japan following the eventual return of sovereignty.
In December 1951, Republican U.S. senator Alexander Smith and Democratic House

MRA House

19representative Sparkman arrived on a visit to Japan, where they were invited to a dinnerattended by Ichimada, Honda, Kato Kanju and his wife Shidzue, Kuriyama Chojiro,
Japan Telecommunications Workers’ Union chairman Kubo Hitoshi, Horinouchi
Kensuke, Mitsui Takasumi and his wife, Sohma Yasutane, and Sohma’s wife Yukika, who
also acted as interpreter. The congressmen found themselves greatly impressed by theearnest and sincere views expressed by their Japanese hosts regarding the future of Japanand the world, while the Japanese attendees, for their part struck anew by the need for an
established venue for holding more international dialogues of this kind, resolved to take
immediate action toward making the MRA headquarters a reality.
A luncheon to discuss the matter was accordingly hosted by Ichimada at his official
residence on December 25, attended by Ishikawa, Mitsubishi Bank president Chigira
Sozaburo, Taisho Marine and Fire Insurance president Yamane, and Imperial Hotel president Inumaru Tetsuzo, among others.
Another meeting of 25 influential leaders—including Ichimada, Ishizaka, Kuriyama,
Kato, Tashiro Shigeki, Kurata Chikara, Yuasa Yuichi, and Togano Satoko—followed inearly January, at which time the participants agreed on a plan to purchase a house and surrounding property located in central Tokyo in Azabu, Minato ward, for 16 million yen,financed for the time being (as according to Ichimada’s proposal) through donations andloans.
The necessary funds were readied by the end of March, and on April 2 Basil Entwistle,
Sohma Toyotane, and their wives took up residence at MRA House, now open for activities. Measures had been taken concurrently to set up a parent body for the MRA House
that would manage donations, loans, and other financial matters as well as support future
activities. The MRA Foundation was thus established. It received official approval of its
legal status by the Ministryof Education, Science andCulture in March 1952.
The voluntary Associationof MRA Supporters was
also established to help raise
funds for MRA activities,
thereby providing an apparatus through which toaccept regular donations
from the many corporations
that had signed on as members.
The MRA House verandah
20Tour of MRA Musical and Buchman’s Visit to JapanIn June 1955, the MRA musical The Vanishing Island arrived on a tour of Japan. The
entourage that landed at Haneda Airport was made up of 180 individuals from 25 countries, including not only lighting and stage crews and the more than 100 members of thecast but also such dignitaries as Danish Conservative People’s Party leader and former
NATO chairman Ole Bjørn Kraft, Tunisian minister of state (later foreign minister)
Mohamed Masmoudi, British member of Parliament John McGovern of the Labour
Party, former Swiss chancellor Oskar Leimgrüber, Eastern Nigerian member of Parliament Basil Charles Okwu, and Majid Movaghar, representative of Shah Pahlavi of Iran.
Following World War II, MRA frequently turned to theater, film, and other audiovisual media to help disseminate its ideals among the public. Such media offered a means
to dramatize subtle feelings and moral truths that could not be captured in words alone
while also drawing on visual images to appeal directly to people’s sensibilities. Compared
to dialogue sessions or lectures, they also enabled contact with wider and more generalaudiences, who, touched by the messages conveyed, often responded in ways greater than
expected.

Members of the Vanishing Island delegation in front of their U.S. Air Force transport plane

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The Vanishing Island MusicalWritten by Peter Howard in three acts, The Vanishing Island portrayed two allegoricalcountries, the capitalistic Eiluph’mei (I Love Me) and the communistic Weiheit’tiu (WeHate You), describing the political, economic, and moral weaknesses of each while also setting out the possibility of a new order that overcomes these faults and urging individuals,
families, and organizations alike to take action toward this goal. In the real-life Eiluph’meiof the time, McCarthyism and other excesses were exposing the vulnerabilities and faultsof the Western camp at the same time that anxiety and apprehension ran rife over the
powerful spread of Communism, which seemed to prove (to borrow from Mao Zedong’s
famous 1957 declaration) that the east wind was indeed prevailing over the west wind.
Thus the play represented an attempt by MRA to effectively respond to this crisis by indicating a third and better path.

Scene from the play

Scene from the play: The Land of We Hate You

Scene from the play: The Land of I Love Me

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On June 15, representatives from all the political parties of the Diet put aside theirusual rivalries to welcome the Vanishing Island delegation at a reception hosted by Prime
Minister Hatoyama Ichiro at his official residence. Members of the Lower House fromthe conservative Liberal and Japan Democratic parties as well as the left and right wingsof the Socialist Party sat together for the four-and-a-half-hour reception, where Upper
House President Kawai Yahachi gave a speech in which he assigned highest priority to thetask of rebuilding Japan according to MRA principles.
The performances given at Tokyo Theater and Osaka’s Kitano Theater during the
tour’s ten-day stay were attended by members of the imperial family, the prime ministerand his wife, and ambassadors and envoys from 20 countries along with others from varied segments of the general public. A 45-minute program of highlights from the play was
also broadcast nationwide on NHK.
This large-scale musical featuring over 100 characters brought with it specialized stage
and sound sets designed to be easily transportable by airplane over long distances yetcapable of quickly accommodating performances whether in a formal urban theater oroutdoors. Indeed, the production did go on to perform in such open-air settings as palacecourtyards and city squares during the Asian and Middle Eastern stops that it made in themonths following its stay in Japan, drawing surprisingly large crowds. That the production was so well equipped was testimony to the human and material resources MRA
poured into the project as a vital part of its worldwide strategy.
Other MRA plays performed in Japan in the early 1950s included The Forgotten
Factor, written by Alan Thornhill, and Boss, also by Peter Howard. In 1951, a group ofsome ten influential leaders including Ichimada Hisato, Ichimura Kiyoshi, Ishizaka

Prime Minister and Mrs. Hatoyama Ichiro (secondrow) at the Tokyo Theater performance

Hatoyama (left) with Tunisian minister of state
Mohamed Masmoudi, one of the members of thedelegation

23

Taizo, and Hoshijima Niro arranged a performance of The Forgotten Factor from September 25 to 27 at the Teikoku Theater in Tokyo. Boss, meanwhile, was performed fromMarch to April 1955 at Tokyo’s Dai-ichi Seimei Hall and Marunouchi Hall in a production sponsored by Ishizaka, Yamagiwa Masamichi, Moroi Kan’ichi, and Domen Toyonobu among others and attended by Princess Chichibu, Hatoyama Kaoru (wife of theprime minister), and other political notables on one hand and labor activists including
members of unions at such companies as Nissan Motors and shipbuilder Hitachi Zosen
on the other. On April 26, the play was given again in a performance organized by
Hatoyama at his official residence for an audience of about 30 Diet members.

Visit to Japan by Frank Buchman
At 5 p.m. on April 26, 1956, Frank Buchman landed at Haneda Airport in what would
be his first visit to Japan since World War II. The airport was thronged with those gathered to welcome him, including Finance Minister Ichimada Hisato, Diet members fromthe different political parties, labor leaders, and officers of the Japan Seinendan [Youth
Association] Council. Buchman returned the favor with a message in which he called
Japan “a lighthouse and powerhouse for Asia.” The scene of the welcome was broadcast
nationwide on radio and television.
In addition to being entertained by Prime Minister Hatoyama Ichiro and his wife, who
invited Buchman to their home in the Tokyo district of Otowa on April 29 (theEmperor’s Birthday) in gratitude for his warm-hearted and consistent assistance of postwar Japan, Buchman visited the Diet, the governor of Tokyo, the director of the Bank ofFinance Minister Ichimada(center) greeting Buchman at
Haneda Airport

24

Japan, and labor leaders including Chairman Takita Minoru of the Japan Trade Union
Congress and Chairman Yanagisawa Renzo of the Ishikawajima chapter of the All-Japan
Shipbuilding and Engineering Union, receiving a warm welcome wherever he went. He
also received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.
After staying in Japan for six days, Buchman left on May 2 for Taipei, where he met
with President Chiang Kai-shek before continuing on to visit President Ramon
Magsaysay in the Philippines, Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram in Thailand, andPresident Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam, making his way south around Asia to Europe. He
was honored in each country for his contributions.

Prime Minister Hatoyama (left)
welcoming Buchman into his home

Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru (left) presenting Buchman with the Order of the RisingSun, Gold and Silver Star

Governor of Tokyo Yasui Seiichiro (right) presenting
Buchman with keys to the city25

Reconciliation with Asia
In June 1955, The Vanishing Island wrapped up its ten-day tour of Japan to leave for
Taiwan and the Philippines. At this time, Diet members Hoshijima Niro (Liberal
Democratic Party) and Kato Kanju (Socialist Party), together with Sohma Yukika andNakajima Katsuji, joined the delegation to accompany it as far as Manila. Anger against
brutal Japanese actions during wartime still ran strong in the Philippines, and it was only
thanks to special negotiations with government officials conducted by MRA on theirbehalf that the four were able to gain entry into the country.
Following a performance of the play, Hoshijima went before an audience noisy withdisapproval at seeing a Japanese addressing them from on stage for the first time sinceWorld War II. Through interpreter Sohma Yukika, he earnestly conveyed words of apology for the war. Prompted by this gesture, President Ramon Magsaysay agreed to receive
the four along with other members of the delegation and thereafter lent active support to
MRA-mediated contact with Japan, for example through granting special permission fora Japanese delegation to attend the MRA world assembly held in the Filipino town of
Baguio in spring 1957. Magsaysay unfortunately died in a plane crash shortly before thistime, and the event was attended instead by his successor Carlos Garcia.
Aside from Garcia, participants in the Baguio assembly included, from the Philippines, Senator Ross Lim, labor leader Roberto Oca, and the president of Far Eastern
University with his wife; from
Taiwan, General Ho Ying-chin;from South Korea, National
Assembly members Park Hyunsook (formerly a cabinet minister), Chung Chun, and Yoon
Sung-soon, chairman of theForeign Affairs Committee;
and from Japan, a delegation of
ten-plus members including
Hoshijima, Kato Shidzue,
Sohma Yukika, and Yanagisawa
Renzo. Anger and hatred toward
Japan remained deep-seated on
the Filipino side, adding muchtension to the atmosphere, but Diet member Hoshijima Niro speaking at the Baguio world
toward the end the Japanese assembly while Sohma Yukika interprets for him at left26

delegation’s sincere expressions of repentance andapology led both private andgroup attitudes to soften,
turning the air into one more
conducive to candid dialogue.
Even more delicate was thequestion of how to deal withthe members of the Koreandelegation, who carried theraw hurt not only of 36 yearsof colonial rule by the
Empire of Japan but also of
President Carlos Garcia of the Philippines (left) sitting alongside
the postwar division of their
Senator Ross Lim
country into north andsouth and the Korean War shortly following. The Korean members were cold toward theJapanese delegates, and at first efforts to approach them were entirely rebuffed.
Recognizing that such might be the case from even before they set out, the Japanese attendees had prepared for the encounter by conferring with Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke
and others responsible for Japanese foreign policy so as to be able to offer some substantive gesture toward
breaking the deadlock in
relations between thetwo countries.
In addition to making personal apologies
for the war, the delegatesthus formally conveyed
to their Korean counterparts the Japanese government’s willingness torescind the so-called“Kubota statement” (aDelegates to Baguio: from left, Hoshijima, Korean National Assembly
1953 comment by diplomembers Park Hyun-sook (former cabinet minister) and Yoon Sungmat Kubota Kan’ichiro
soon (chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee), and Japanese Dietasserting that Japanese
member Kato Shidzue
27colonization had been beneficial to Korea; normalization talks had been halted by
Korean anger over the comment) as well as to renounce all claims over Japanese property
lost in Korea at the end of the war. Such overtures helped slowly foster personal trust
between the two sides, particularly between the women of both parties, paving the way forthe resumption of diplomatic negotiations a few years later.
In Europe, as discussed earlier, successful postwar reconstruction had hinged on being
able to reconcile formerly belligerent countries including Germany and France, a task into
which MRA poured tremendous effort from its headquarters in Caux. Gradually the feelings of hatred, enmity, and remorse swirling within the two nations gave way to German
contrition on one side and French forgiveness and repentance over past animosity on theother, at the same time that Germany almost immediately launched into a policy of offering apology and atonement toward its former enemies and Israel as a crucial part of its
goals, indeed its mission, as a nation. In this way, reconciliation proceeded from a personal level to the point where it began to be reflected in diplomatic attitudes and national policy. Visits to Caux by such leaders as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman also contributed to this process, eventually leading to the German- and French-led European
Coal and Steel Community and other frameworks that would define the political and economic structure of western Europe in the years following World War II.
In the case of Japan, by contrast, whereas the members of the 1950 MRA delegation
did express regret and apology over World War II, these declarations were made inEurope and the United States in the absence of representatives of the Asian countries thatmost needed to hear them. Thus concrete efforts toward apologizing for and redressing
wartime wrongs were slow to begin, both on the private and the public level. This lacksprung in part from conditions within Asia itself: all of Southeast Asia except Thailand
remained under colonial rule and so had yet to be recognized internationally as sovereign
entities in their own right, while China was embroiled in civil strife and the Korean peninsula, too, would plunge into the Korean War from 1951 onwards. None of these regions
was therefore in a position either to seek wartime reparations or to attend relevantinternational conferences held in the West. And so it was a long time before the issues
involving Asia’s past with Japan, although certainly kept in mind by both sides, werebrought into open debate. As time passed, moreover, the keenness of the responsibility toatone for wartime actions in Asia eroded in the minds of many Japanese, complicating thematter even further when it did finally start to come under discussion.

28

The Cold War and MRA
As Cold War tensions heightened from around 1955 onward, many overseas MRA
activists began to profess great concern over Japan’s future. Kishi Nobusuke had just succeeded Hatoyama Ichiro and Ishibashi Tanzan as prime minister, and the political atmosphere of the country was growing ever more uncertain, with public opinion polarized andstudent-, labor-, and leftist-orchestrated protests taking place nationwide against everything from the police duties law to job evaluations for teachers and amendment of theJapan-U.S. security treaty.
Alarmed by what it saw as a strategic campaign by international (particularly Chinese)
communists to approach and sway Japanese leaders in different fields, MRA resolved tocounteract this influence by spreading awareness of a better alternative to communism.

Frank Buchman with officers of the Japan Seinendan Council

29

Japan Seinendan Visit to theUnited States
While similar programs for inviting
and winning over foreign opinion
leaders already existed in many organsof the free-world camp including the
U.S. Department of State, to MRA
these attempts seemed on the wholemuch too formulaic and bureaucratically run to be effective. Buchman Bird’s-eye view of the MRA headquarters on Mackinac
therefore launched his own large- Island
scale project to invite 100 officers
from the Japan Seinendan [Youth Association] Council (Nihon Seinendan Kyogikai) to
the MRA world assembly held on Mackinac Island in summer 1957.
Influencing Buchman’s decision may have been his knowledge of the warm reception
given in China to Japan Seinendan Council vice president Sagae Yoshiaki during his visit
the year before on the express invitation of Premier Zhou Enlai. While it remained
unclear just how much power the Seinendan Council actually wielded over Japanese public opinion, Buchman apparently decided that no more time could be lost in raisingawareness of MRA in Japan and disseminating MRA ideals through grassroots leaders.
Of course, given that at the time the MRA Foundation hardly possessed the wherewithal to pay for overseas travel for 100 people, the project was, in the end, financed largely
through the generosity of Buchman and other associated donors.
The news that over 100 Japan Seinendan Council officers, including those from theheadquarters as well as two from each of the prefectural branches, would travel en masse

Scenes from the play Asu e no michi [The Road to Tomorrow]30

to the United States for several months astonishedJapanese, sparking wide local media coverage and succeeding at least in the goal of making MRA better known
in Japan. Yet at the same time, the task of opening up the
Mackinac center to a whole host of local Japanese young
people and preparing the delegates linguistically and otherwise for such an experience abroad proved tremendous
even in terms of interpretation services, for example.
Whether the various activities enjoyed by the delegates—interaction with young people of other countries during
mealtimes, sports, meeting sessions, and other events;
trips to the theater and the movies; study and sightseeing
tours around Michigan—were able to accomplish all that
Buchman hoped for or intended, we will never know; but whatever the case, the opportunity afforded to the young Japanese leaders to directly come into contact with overseas
lifestyles and ways of thinking could have had no small lasting impact.
Exposure to MRA songs, films, and plays during the stay inspired several in the delegation to try their own hand at creating a Japanese play for disseminating MRA ideals,
and thus the four-act Asu e no michi [The Road to Tomorrow] was written, staged, andperformed at Mackinac by a group led by a participant from Toyoma prefecture named
Yamamoto Yoshinori. Closely reflecting Japanese mores, this story about the earnest
efforts of MRA-influenced volunteers to preserve harmony and prosperity in a farming
village embroiled in a bitter dispute with another over irrigation rights garnered muchapplause from the international audience. After the delegation’s return, the play was performed not only throughout Japan but also in the Philippines. The first MRA play to becreated by Japanese, Asu e no michi became a precursor of the many MRA-inspired works
that would be written, performed, and filmed in the country in years to come.

Interaction with Western European Socialist Parties
In summer 1959, a group of Japan Socialist Party members headed by Diet representatives Kato Shidzue from the Upper House and Tsukamoto Saburo from the Lower
House attended an MRA assembly in Caux, following which they traveled around western Europe, visiting leaders of Socialist parties in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland,
the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain.
At the time in Japan confrontation was escalating between the left and right over proposed revisions in the Japan-U.S. security treaty, with those opposed supported by
student, women’s, labor, and other citizen’s groups attacking the legitimacy of Kishi
31

Nobusuke’s cabinet and speaking out against the policies of the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party. In the opposition camp were many who had caved in to majority pressure andacquiesced in the anti-treaty campaign, while the governing party, too, was plagued bypolitically motivated infighting. In this tense atmosphere, easily susceptible to control byviolence, there was a danger that what under ordinary circumstances might have been
merely another political disagreement could flare up into something entirely unexpected.
The side-trips of the Japan Socialist Party group visiting Caux to meet leaders in
Europe were planned to give them a chance to learn firsthand the outlook and thinking ofSocialist politicians active in their respective countries. The group left Switzerland on
August 31, drawing on support from local MRA organizations and sometimes travelingWest Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt(second from left) flanked by Diet
members Tsukamoto Saburo (left)
and Kato Shidzue

Kato (left) and Tsukamoto (right) conversing with Guy Mollet, SFIO (French
Section of the Workers’ International)
head and former prime minister

32

The group upon arrival in Berlin

on chartered planes to accomplish their tight schedule of visiting seven countries in two
weeks.
The trip was an extremely fruitful one for the participants, who met such top
European political leaders as West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, SFIO (French Section of
the Workers’ International) leader and former prime minister Guy Mollet, and Väinö
Tanner, regarded as the father of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. Mollet recounted
how in 1958 he had sided with the conservative De Gaulle regime after becoming convinced that the strong-arm tactics of the Communist-led Popular Front that was gaining
momentum at the time would only lead to the disintegration of freedom and democracy
in western Europe. Brandt asserted that whether fascism or communism, Germany had
already had enough experience with totalitarianism.
Later writing about the experience in an essay contributed to the Yomiuri Shimbun,
Kato Shidzue stated that the Socialist leaders of the world already regarded the conceptof class struggle as outdated and as an objective that could, in the era of the atomic bomb,
lead to nuclear war. She argued that whereas Socialists like herself were prepared to fightto achieve a better social order, even the best institutions would result in yet more
exploitation if the human beings running them did not change as well. She concluded that
her true duty as a Socialist lay in “living for an all-encompassing ideology capable ofchanging capitalists and communists alike.”
Despite its brief two weeks, the tour was of great significance in that it helped inject
new perspectives into the Japanese opposition camp’s thinking and eventually led to the
Kato Letter to be taken up below.

33

The Miike Strike and Japan Tour of Hoffnung
Foremost among the many ideologically based confrontations polarizing Japan during
this period were those involving labor and management, of which the 1959–1960 Miike
coal-mine strike in Kyushu was one of the most violent and protracted. Hoping to contribute to a resolution of the situation, MRA arranged a Japanese tour of Hoffnung[Hope], a play written and performed by a group of coal workers from Germany’s Ruhrregion. The group arrived at Haneda Airport on March 14, 1960, for a seven-week stay,
traveling mainly aboard the trains offered by the Japan National Railways from Tokyo via
the Kansai region to Kyushu, then back again through Tokyo and north to Hokkaido
before leaving on May 4 for the United States. During the tour, the troupe staged the play
before a total of 49,000 people in 42 performances including special sessions for Japan
National Railways employees and members of the police, the Self-Defense Forces, andScene from the play Hoffnung

The German theater group
visiting Lower House Speaker
Kiyose Ichiro (right)

34

the Korean Residents’ Union as well as Miike mine workers and citizens from the neighboring city of Omuta.
The German theater group reached Omuta, Fukuoka prefecture, on April 13, scarcely two weeks after a bloody showdown between the striking union and the new union that
had split from it in favor of ending the strike. Amid the clamor of headband-wearing
members of the old union picketing on one hand versus adherents of the new union loudly appealing for support from the people of Omuta on the other, the play was performedat the civic center once in the afternoon in front of the unionists and their families andagain in the evening for the general public. A request then came for a third performancethat was given the next morning at nine for workers and management from the different
sections of the mine. A video recording of the performance together with interviews ofcast members was also broadcast through northern Kyushu by KBC (Kyushu Asahi
Broadcasting) for the one million viewers in its coverage area.
For those in Japanese coal mining, thrust by the growing substitution of oil for coal
into a struggle that even produced some incidents of bloodshed as the industry sought torestructure and revitalize, the chance to hear German coal workers directly relate theirattempts at solving the exact same problems through courageous technological innovation and labor-management cooperation proved significant. Covered widely by mass
media including the Mainichi, Nishinippon, Hokkaido, Kobe, and Jiji Shimpo newspapers,
the event afforded many constructive hints about dealing with the coal-mine issue, one of
the major areas of contention between leftists and rightists in Japan at the time.

Japan-U.S. Security Treaty Protests
As the protest over proposed revisions to the Japan-U.S. security treaty swelled throughspring and summer 1960, Tokyo MRA House fell into the curious role of being nearly thesole venue where people embroiled in the complicated confrontation could put aside theirdifferences to talk frankly with one another.
Considering the realities of the balance of power among the United States, Soviet
Union, and China, whose spheres of influence then effectively divided the world, there
perhaps was never any possibility that Japan would leave the U.S. umbrella for the communist camp no matter how strident domestic ideological clashes might become. Yet seeing the Diet Building overrun day in and day out by protesters waving red flags outsideand contending Diet members resorting to force to drive proceedings and resolutions into
cancellation or postponement inside, many people could not help but fear that the political system that had somehow kept the country running for 15 years since the end ofWorld War II was ready to fall apart at any moment.
35

Not only were members of the ruling and opposition parties divided, but even Diet
members and labor leaders supposedly in the same opposition camp were prevented bytheir entanglement in the popular demonstrations taking place outside from being able totalk straightforwardly and rationally about their differences in views about Japan’s future.
Even so, many gathered regularly at MRA House to attempt to openly discuss the current
state of events and unite under common goals to contemplate measures for the future.
Almost daily these influential ruling-party leaders, Socialist Party Diet members, head
Nishio Suehiro and other leaders of the Democratic Socialist Party, and labor activists
were to be found around the same table, deep in serious discussion over breakfast or dinner.
Despite such efforts the situation continued to escalate, and as the public was confronted with such shocking news as the sudden cancellation of a planned visit by U.S.
president Dwight D. Eisenhower to Japan and the death of a female student protester ina clash with police, a foreboding mood began to take hold even among those who had
until then kept to the sidelines. Then, amid this crisis on June 17, Upper House representative Kato Shidzue published the open letter shown below addressed to her Socialist
Party in the morning editions of the three major nationwide newspapers Asahi Shimbun,
Yomiuri Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun.
The missive generated considerable nationwide response, much of it from readersfrom all political viewpoints agreeing with Kato and expressing praise and respect for her
extraordinary courage at stating her views. Discomfited by Kato’s departure from theparty line, the Socialist Party contemplated disciplinary measures, but eventually shifted
its stance quietly as the ripples of public opinion spread.
The overall climate was changing, too. The popular energy that had fueled the demonstrations dwindled, particularly once Kishi Nobusuke stepped down as prime minister. Wearied by prolonged conflict and hoping for change, the public began to adopt new
attitudes, thanks in part to the Kato message. And thus, along with the start of the Ikeda
Hayato cabinet with its soft-spoken stance and promise to double incomes for all
Japanese, Japan began to move out of its season of protest into a new era of rapid economic
growth.

36

Text of Kato Letter (MRA News, July 1, 1960)

Stand Up and Have Courageby Kato Shidzue
The violence of the Zengakuren offensive on June 15 came as ashock for many Japanese. As I witnessed the succession of eventson television, I was deeply pained as I considered the future of ourcountry. We must understand that it is outrageous to claim that thepolice have gone too far or that the government is at fault. This
shocking act, carried out by a few motivated by a destructive ideology, was done with the intent to overthrow the government by brute force. As a member of theSocialist Party who has been in the Diet for over a decade, I am deeply ashamed that thedemocracy of Japan is under the threat of destruction from such violence. Also, for the past few
weeks, I have been unable to speak out for what I believe is a just cause due to my lack of
courage, for which I apologize to the people of this country. Even after the joint plenary meeting of party members of both houses of the Diet passed a mistaken resolution, I was silent, letting it go by. Even when someone with courage spoke out, I did not stand up and lend my support. This was all due to my fear of criticism from my colleagues. But today, I swear that I willfight against communism and establish a true democracy in this nation.
Since May 19, Japan has become the battlegroundbetween communism and democracy. Communists,
with their “people’s front” backed by various supporters
such as the People’s Republic of China, are endeavoring
to bring down the Cabinet, trigger anti-American riots,
and tear this country apart. The debate over the decision
made by Prime Minister Kishi concerning the security
treaty revision is far off the focus of our problem. The
question we need to ask is, upon what kind of ideology
do we wish to build this country for ourselves and for ourchildren? By no means should Japan be a nation that only
follows the lead of the United States, but neither shall it
be under the dominion of China or the Soviet Union. If
we but stand up and have courage, speak out for what we
think is right, and fight for it, I believe we can save Japanand the rest of Asia.
(from the “Koe” [Voice] column,
Asahi shimbun, June 17, 1960)

37

Tiger Takes on the WorldIn July 1960, a delegation of 60
Japanese departed Haneda Airport en route to Caux, among
them Lower House member
Tanikawa Kazuo of Hiroshima,
Upper House member Kondo
Tsuruyo, Chairman Ota Sueoof the Kyushu branch of the
National Railway Workers’
Union, former secretary general
Kanbe Hideo of the Tokyo
March 1961: Visiting former U.S. president Dwight
Teachers’ Union, and officers
D. Eisenhower (right)
from the labor unions of suchcompanies as Mitsui Zosen and Toyo Kogyo (present-day Mazda Corporation). Also
among this group were the students who would later become the core force behind thecreation of the play Tiger.
When the entourage departed, the conflict over the 1960 revisions to the Japan-U.S.
security treaty was calming down following the change in prime ministers from Kishi
Nobusuke to Ikeda Hayato, leaving Japan in a sort of lull out of which it was just beginning to emerge into a nonideologically oriented phase of rapid economic growth. Even so,given how much worldwide attention the Japanese political scene had commanded asrecently as a few weeks previously, the delegates found themselves each in their own way
peppered with questions fromtheir international colleagues.
The students on the delegation
included both those who hadtaken part in anti-treaty demonstrations and those who had not;but as they grew to realize theenormity of the impact that the
Zengakuren (National Federationof Students’ Self-government
Associations; one of the prominent bodies behind the demonstrations) had had on the world,
The delegation with Marshal Juarez Tavora of Brazil
38

all began to reflect anew on the meaning of the unrest that had suddenly swept throughJapan in its fifteenth year since the end of World War II.
The outcome of these reflections was the play Tiger, written and produced in the serenity of Caux by a group of student-led Japanese assisted by theater professionals. At first
the group, which included Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party and labor
activists with no affiliation to Zengakuren, staged the play at Caux Mountain House,intending it to serve as no more than a primer on the background to the 1960 demonstrations for the international audience gathered there. Yet the play evoked a much greaterthan-expected response, and before anyone knew it the project had grown into a tour of
unprecedented scale that left Caux in August, going quite literally around the world, from
Europe to North and South America, Cyprus, India, Vietnam, and Taiwan, and performing in 13 countries and regions in front of an estimated 20 million people before
returning to Japan two years later toward the end of June 1962. For more details on thesedevelopments, hardly believable even to the participants themselves, see Sohma Fujiko,Tora sekai o yuku [Tiger Goes around the World], Bunkyo Shoin, 1962.

Performance given in the local language of Quechua
before 40,000 native Peruvians at the ruins of the Incan
fortress of Sachsaywaman

An audience at Iquitos, near the upper
reaches of the Amazon River in eastern
Peru

39

Tour Itinerary (from Tora sekai o yuku [Tiger Goes around the World])
Itinerary
Year/month/dateDestination

1960 July 7

Departure from Haneda Airport (Tokyo)

July 7
July 28
Aug. 28

Switzerland

Dec. 21
1961 Jan. 25
Jan. 25
Feb. 14
Feb. 14

Switzerland

Germany

FranceUSA

Arrival at Caux
Departure from Caux
Arrival at Essen; to Gelsenkirchen, Rheinhausen,
Dortmund, Bochum, Augsburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf,
Wuppertal, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Weinheim, Koblenz,
Maria-laach, Bad Godesberg, and Bonn
Arrival at Caux
Departure from Caux
Arrival at Paris
Departure from Paris
Arrival at New York; to Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles,
and Miami
Departure from Miami
Arrival at São Paulo; to Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Niteroi,
Petropolis, Recife, Campina Grande, João Pessoa, Natal,
Fortaleza, Belem, and Manaus
Iquitos, Piura, Talara, Chiclayo, Trujillo, Lima, Cusco, andPuno

Apr. 27
Apr. 27

BrazilJuly 28

Peru

Oct. 8Bolivia

La Paz, Altiplano, Tihuanaku, Catavi, and OruroOct. 28

Chile

Maria Helena, Antofagasta, and Santiago

Nov. 30

BrazilRio de Janeiro, Petropolis, São Paulo, and Santos

1962 Feb. 1

Departure from São PauloFeb. 1

Switzerland

Arrival at Caux

Feb. 17
Feb. 17

CyprusDeparture from Caux
Nicosia, Larnaca, Lefke, Paphos, Famagusta, Salamis, andLimassolMar. 2

India

Arrival at Calcutta

Mar. 29

Departure from Calcutta

Mar. 29
May 8

East Pakistan
VietnamArrival at Dacca; to Chittagong
Saigon, Nha Trang, Qui Nohon, Hue, Da Lat, Saigon, Bien
Hoa, Vinh Long, and Saigon

June 8

TaiwanKaohsiung, Taipei, Kinmen Island, and Taipei

June 26

40

Major stops

Arrival at Haneda Airport

Performance at the National
Stadium in Lima

President Makarios III (second
from right) of Cyprus greeting
the Tiger delegation

Visiting President Ngo Dinh
Diem of South Vietnam

41

The delegation heading for Vinh Long, one of the battlefields of the Vietnam War

Performance before South Vietnamese soldiers

Scene depicting Zengakuren students leading a demonstration near
the Diet Building42

Activities since the Opening of the MRA Asia CenterFirst Odawara World Assembly and the MusicalSpace Is So Startling
The October 22, 1962, opening ceremonies of the MRA
Asia Center were followed by another commemorative event,the first Odawara MRA world assembly, which brought
together hundreds of participants in what proved to be aresounding success. The 100-plus cast members of the musical Space Is So Startling, created and produced by Peter
Howard expressly for the occasion, arrived in Japan at thistime to stage a special performance at the Tokyo Bunka
Kaikan before going on to stops in Sapporo, Osaka, andother cities. Also given at the Odawara Civic Auditorium
was Tiger, just returned from its over two-year-long world
tour.

Scene from Space Is So
Startling: “Dreams that may
yet come true”

Scene from Space Is So Startling: “The simple
master plan ending the fear of war and strife andre-uniting man”

Scene from Space Is So Startling: “We’ve got to be
first. We’ll get to the Moon this time—or burst!”

43

Second Odawara World Assembly andPlay Beyond Communism to Revolution
In April 1963, the second Odawara MRA
world assembly was held with numerous delegates participating from both Japan and abroad.
On this occasion, Peter Howard, who had
assumed leadership of the international MRA
movement upon the death of founder Frank
Buchman in 1961, came to Japan to lecture atPeter Howard
Waseda University’s Ono Azusa Memorial Hallon the theme “beyond communism to revolution.” Given at a time when the aftereffects of the 1960 anti-Security Treaty demonstrations were still being felt, this prescient speech setting forth ideas for remaking the world
through moral betterment became the basis of a musical by the same name (written by
Kimura Yoshinori) created using the Asia Center facilities by student participants of the
Odawara assembly.
Following its debut at Daiwa Securities Hall in Tokyo in June, Beyond Communism to
Revolution toured theaters, universities, and Self-defense Force outposts all over thecountry including in the Kyushu, Shikoku, San’in, Kinki, Tokai, Kanto, and Hokkaido
regions. An SDF transport was provided for the trip from Tokyo to Hokkaido, where, inthe depths of winter, the company made the rounds of the majority of the SDF bases on
the island. Between these domestic performances, the play also traveled to India in a twomonth tour starting in November.

Scene from the play Beyond Communism to Revolution

44

Growth of High School Student Activities
The Sapporo performance of Beyond
Communism to Revolution inspired agroup led by students from the
Sapporo Koran Girls’ High School todraw on their personal experiences tocreate the musical Hikari wa hoppo
kara [Light Springs from the North]in 1964 and Hokkyokusei [TheNorth Star] in the following year,
both performed not only throughout
Hokkaido but also in Odawara andTokyo. These works, together with
Parade in Hokkaido
the play Asu dewa ososugiru [Tomorrow Is Too Late] written by Hokkaido University student and former radical aspirant
Kimoto Tsukasa, became part of the growing use of drama and film to promote Japanese
MRA activities. Hokkyokusei was broadcast throughout Hokkaido by Sapporo
Television. Closer to the MRA Asia Center, meanwhile, the play Judai no bakuhatsu[Teen Explosion] was staged by high school students from Odawara.
In summer 1965, the youth involved in the above plays traveled to the Mackinac MRA
world assembly as part of a 100-member delegation that included 18 high school and 25
university students accompanied by eight university students from South Korea.
Hokkyokusei was performed at Mackinac, Charleston, Santa Fe, and elsewhere, all togreat acclaim. Asu dewa ososugiru was adapted for film at Mackinac.

Odawara high school members of theplay Judai no bakuhatsu [TeenExplosion]

45

Summer 1965: The youth delegation in the United States

Summer 1965: The youth delegation visiting theWest Virginia State Capitol
Residents of a Native American reservation in New Mexico attending a performance of Hokkyokusei [The North Star]46

“Sing-Out ’65” Japan TourOne outcome of the summer 1965 Mackinac
world assembly was “Sing-Out ’65,” a new type ofshow given by young performers mostly from theUnited States. Incorporating elements of the hootenanny and other music styles popular at thetime, the show featured a large ensemble of youth
coming together onstage for a rousing performance of songs straightforwardly addressing U.S.
social issues, among them “What Color is God’s
Skin?” “The Ballad of Joan of Arc,” “Freedom Isn’t
Free,” and “Which Way America?” The program
was of promisingly high quality, with folk ballads
such as “Bring Back Willie to Me” singing of thepain of the Vietnam War on one hand and “Up with People,” a full-chorus number inpraise of humanity, rounding out the finale on the other. Created at a time when entirely
new modes of musical expression as represented by Woodstock were gaining fans all over
the world, “Sing-Out ’65” drew flocks of young people eager to participate, succeeding far
beyond expectations.
The Japanese present at the assembly, including Odawara Mayor Suzuki Juro, ElectricPower Development Company president Fujii Takaharu, and the abovementioned highschool and university student members of the delegation, were also greatly excited by thisshow alive with the spirit of a new age, and arrangements were immediately made to bringit to Japan. Thus in September the over 150 members of “Sing-Out” arrived aboard a

Prime Minister Sato Eisaku (second from left)
with cast members

Lower House Speaker Funada Naka (right)
with cast members

47

Concert at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium

Concert at Sophia University

48

Concert at Waseda University Okuma Auditorium guest-starring Sakamoto Kyu

chartered flight, taking the quite unusual route of entering Japan from Hokkaido’s
Chitose Airport (instead of from Tokyo) and launching their tour at the Nakajima Sports
Center in Sapporo. From there the company moved to Tokyo, performing before receptive audiences at such venues as the Kabuki-za, Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium,
Waseda University Okuma Auditorium, and Nihon University Hall (formerly the
Kokugikan). The Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium concert attracted 7,500 listeners
including Prime Minister Sato Eisaku and his wife, who visited the cast backstage after
the performance. The Okuma Auditorium concert guest-starred popular singer
Sakamoto Kyu. Incidentally, the grand piano donated by Sato on the occasion of the tour
is, thanks to regular maintenance, still functioning in good condition at the Asia Center
to this day.

Third Odawara World Assembly and “Sing-Out ’65” Korean TourThe next stop for “Sing-Out ’65” was the third Odawara MRA world assembly, held at
the MRA Asia Center from October 10 to 17 and attended by over 2,000 delegates from25 countries including the United States, South Korea, Vietnam, Great Britain, France,
Canada, India, Ceylon, and Australia. During the event the company gave several concerts including at the Odawara Civic Auditorium and the Ground Self-Defense Force
49

Fuji School in Gotenba, Shizuoka prefecture, moving on
after the close of sessions to
the Kansai region to perform
at Kobe Central Gymnasium
before an audience of 5,000.
Next the cast boarded a ferryfrom Kokura in Fukuoka prefecture to South Korea, where
they had been invited byPrime Minister Jeong Il-gwon.
Korean prime minister Jeong Il-gwon (second from right)
At this time the world assemand family applauding “Sing-Out ’65” at the world assembly, too, switched venues frombly in Seoul, accompanied by U.S. ambassador Winthrop
Odawara to Seoul, reconvenG. Brown (left)
ing for an additional session
from October 20 to 24 that was attended by 1,450 representatives from around Korea.
The Seoul performance of “Sing-Out ’65” drew 2,100 listeners including Jeong, while
another 500 had to be turned away from the packed auditorium.

“Let’s Go ’66” and Budokan Concert
The pioneering format and forward-looking messages of “Sing-Out ’65” were enthusiastically embraced by Japanese and Korean youth, and in Japan a parallel show entitled“Let’s Go” was created that traveled around the country before embarking on a 1966
tour of South Korea, Hong Kong,and seven Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines.
Not only were the concerts popular in themselves, but they also
inspired local young people tocreate their own sing-outs tailored to their own countries, giving rise to a new form of MRA
activity reaching out widely to
the general public. In December
1966, a joint group of Japanese
Members of “Let’s Go ’66” performing on the Yoshinaga“Let’s Go” and U.S. “Sing-Out”
Sayuri Show (Nippon Television)
performers visited Indonesia on50

invitation from the Indonesian Student Action Front (KAMI), involved since September
1965 alongside the military in heading the movement to overthrow President Sukarno,
for a three-week concert tour of Jakarta, Bandung, and elsewhere before tens of thousands
made up mostly of students and members of the military. The tour proved memorable,
conducted as it was amid the national unrest over the transfer of presidency from Sukarno
to Suharto.

Visiting President Ferdinand Marcos of thePhilippines

Concert in Manila

The company upon their arrival in Bandung
aboard an Indonesian Air Force transport

Concert in Jakarta

51

Back in Tokyo, “Let’s Go” performed at the Kosei Nenkin Hall in Shinjuku andShibuya Public Hall in addition to appearing on television and at high school and university festivals, capturing the hearts of young people and drawing new participants wherever it went.
In November 1966, more than 500 cast members came together for a “Let’s Go ’66”
extravaganza held at the Budokan before a much-talked-about crowd of over 10,000.

Concert at the Budokan

LP jacket

52

MRA Travelling School
As “Let’s Go”-type productions rose in popularity anddemand, so did the number of high school students
desiring long-term involvement, and thus in April 1967
the MRA Travelling School was established at the
MRA Asia Center with the cooperation of the NHK
Academy of Distance Learning in order to enable student performers to balance both stage and study. Overthe four years that the school was in existence, 67 students received education through video and audiotape
classes that could be taken even while touring in Japanand abroad. Student performance activities during thistime included a several-month-long appearance on
Ongaku no hana hiraku [The Flowers of Music Abloom],a television program developed by NHK in response to
the growing popularity of ensemble singing. (For moredetails, see the “Official History of the MRA International Travelling School” CD-ROM covering theschool’s activities from April 1967 to March 1970.)

Director General Hiratsuka
Masunori of the National
Institute for Educational
Research extending his congratulations at the school opening
ceremonies

Performing on the NHK program Ongaku no hana hiraku [The Flowers of Music Abloom]

53

The students while traveling in Japan

Catalog for the MRA
Travelling School (renamed
the MRA International
Travelling School in 1968)
Video lecture54

“Sing-Out Asia” U.S. TourIn July 1968, students from the MRA International Travelling School joined young
people from South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to form the 150member troupe “Sing-Out Asia,” using the auditorium of the MRA Asia Center to put
together a program that they then took with them by chartered Pan American DC8 planeto the United States. For roughly three months before heading home in October thegroup toured the United States, starting from San Diego on the West Coast and travelingthrough the Midwest to the Atlantic to visit and perform in 35 cities in 22 states along theway. Acclaimed wherever they went, the members traveled across the continent and backaboard four tour buses and two trucks and stayed with private families at each stop, managing to cover most of their plane, luggage, and other expenses by selling out the approximately 40,000 LPs they made from a master recording prepared while in Japan.
Contributing to the tour’s success from behind the scenes, meanwhile, were U.S. MRA
supporters, who helped arrange for everything from transportation, performance venues,
and stage and lighting setup to accommodations for the performers.

The “Sing-Out Asia” company onstage

55

Members of “Sing-Out Asia” visiting the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Song “Namida o Koete” and NHK Program Stage 101
As the fame of “Sing-Out” rose, a semiprofessional singing group composed of Japaneseand non-Japanese of university age and older was formed to accommodate requests for
performances pouring in from all around the country.
On July 25, 1969, the group won the grand prize at thefirst Yamaha Nemu Popular Festival held at Nemu no
Sato in Mie prefecture with the song “Namida o koete”[Beyond Tears], composed by Nakamura Hachidai
and turned into an LP released nationwide by RCA in
November. From January 1970 the group also
appeared on the NHK music program Stage 101, successor to Ongaku no hana hiraku.
LP jacket

56

Language Institute of Japan (LIOJ)
In 1968, the Language Instituteof Japan (LIOJ) was establishedusing the boarding facilities ofthe MRA Asia Center. The
school initially concentrated onprograms to give Japanese students planning to study abroad
English proficiency throughintensive live-in sessions of several weeks to several months.
The instructors were young
men and women (many stuLIOJ founder and first director Rowland Harker, a supdents of MRA-sponsored
porter of MRA activities in Japan through the pre- andpost-World War II years, with his wife Terttu
Mackinac College) invited fromthe United States and Canada.
Rising interest in similar workshops among businesspeople and teachers of English soon
led the institute to begin offering more advanced and focused programs overseen by
Director Rowland Harker, his wife Terttu, and American, British, Australian, and otherstaff professionally trained in language education.
LIOJ opened an annual summer workshop for teachers of English in Japan in 1969,
followed in 1970 by an intensive English-language course for businesspeople that included a month-long stay at the center. Offered at a time when Japanese companies were
just beginning to branch out abroad, this hugely successful latter course was besieged byapplicants from top-ranking corporations who filled up the waiting list. A total of 4,771
trainees took part over the years, contributing greatly to the income of the MRA Asia
Center.
The summer teachers’ workshop, too, reached its thirty-fourth session in 2002 in a
program more successful than ever, drawing 71 participants from all over Japan as well asfrom South Korea, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and elsewhere. These formed
the latest in the list of 4,052 educators, including 165 from abroad and participants
returning over multiple years, to attend the workshop since its start.
A total of 336 instructors from countries as diverse as the United States, Great Britain,
Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Ireland, Hungary, and Germany taught at LIOJ
over the years, not to mention the numerous first-class linguists and educators from allover the world invited especially for the summer workshops. From 1993 to 1999, LIOJ
57

LIOJ 2002 summer workshop

collaborated with Srinakharinwirot University in Thailand to organize a series of teamteaching exchange programs for English-language educators held in both countries that
altogether trained 36 participants. Meanwhile, the English day classes also offered by
LIOJ for nearby residents since 1971 were attended by a total of 18,510 students ranging
from school-age children to adults as of 2002. Other recent LIOJ projects included camps
for high school students and team-teaching programs at public schools in Hakone-cho
and other neighboring areas.

Intellectual Exchange with Southeast Asian Countries
Once its financial circumstances improved from 1970 onward, the MRA Asia Center
began focusing on strengthening interaction with Asia. In 1971 it initiated the East West
Seminar (EWS) aimed to promote intellectual exchange with Southeast Asia, responding in 1973 to the spread of boycotts against Japanese goods in Thailand and elsewhere in
the region by sponsoring an international seminar on “Asia in the World Community”
held jointly with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and later turned into the bookTonan Ajia no Nihon hihan [Southeast Asian Criticism of Japan] (Simul Shuppankai,1974). In 1975, an EWS symposium on “The ASEAN: Problems and Prospects in a
Changing World” was held again at Chulalongkorn University, the proceedings of whichwere published by the University of Texas Press.
58

Deepening EWS involvement with Southeast Asia resulted
over the years in such additional publications as Nihon o mitsumeru Tonan Ajia [Southeast Asian Eyes on Japan] (1977),
Shinjitsu no Indoneshia [The True Indonesia] (1979), andTonan Ajia itsutsu no kuni: Sono seizon senryaku [Strategies ofSurvival: The Foreign Policy Dilemmas of Smaller AsianStates] (1981), all from Simul Shuppankai. From 1978 EWS
hosted a series of Asian Dialogue symposiums jointly with theJapan Center for International Exchange ( JCIE), also cooperating with JCIE again to hold another series of Japan-Thai seminars from the following year.

International seminar at Chulalongkorn University

Sponsored Programs
From 1975, the MRA Foundation began doing its part to support programs related toSoutheast Asia, for example helping to establish the Japan-North Sumatra Friendship
Fund and Asian Community Trust (ACT), sponsoring projects in Indonesia run by the
Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, and providing graduate course scholarships
in economics at Thammasat University in Thailand. Despite cutbacks forced by postbubble low interest rates, involvement in several of these projects continues to this day. As
for sponsorship activities in Japan, the MRA Foundation set up a fund for the International MRA Association of Japan (now Initiatives of Change Japan) upon the NGO’s
founding in 1984 and has supported its operating costs ever since. Other grant recipients
included the Japan Center for International Exchange ( JCIE), the Japan NGO Center forInternational Cooperation ( JANIC), Foundation Arc-en-Ciel, the Japan Return59

Programme, the Hokkaido International Agri-exchange Association, the Asian Youth
Forum, the International Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry, and Global
Youth United (GYU), an exchange program with Myanmar youth.

Off Campus Activities (OCA)
Of the various programs sponsored by the center, among the most significant in terms ofboth content and scope was Off Campus Activities (OCA; Sohma Toyotane, representative), begun in 1972 to promote exchange between Thai and Japanese youth. OCA ran awide variety of interacademic and interstudent exchange and training programs primarily between the Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Economics (among other bases inThailand) and such Japanese academic centers as the Saitama University Faculty of
Economics, Nagoya University Graduate School of International Development, Kanazawa University, Gakushuin University Faculty of Economics, Keio University Facultyof Business and Commerce, and the Faculty of Administration of the Prefectural
University of Kumamoto. One long-running project involved veterinary students from
Chulalongkorn University coming to Japan to visit the Japanese Society of Veterinary
Science, the Nihon University College of Agriculture, and other relevant institutions inTokyo prior to taking part in a roughly 20-day training program at the agriculture facultyof Miyazaki University. Altogether, 950 Thai youth have visited Japan under the auspicesof OCA in the over 30 years since its inception.
OCA efforts also proved instrumental in 2001 in realizing the long-planned presentation of an honorary doctorate in management from Gakushuin University to Princess

October 1993: Students from Nagoya University
on a visit to Chulalongkorn University in
Thailand

September 19, 2001: Her Royal Highness Maha
Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand is presented anhonorary doctorate in management from
Gakushuin University by President Ogura
Yoshihiko60

Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, known worldwide for her extraordinary popularity among the Thai people as a royal figure of outstanding intelligence and grace. Arriving
in Japan on September 17, her highness attended a dinner with the emperor and empressof Japan the following evening and visited Gakushuin University on the 19th, taking partin a luncheon hosted by the president of the university followed by the degree-awarding
ceremony and delivery of a special address, before returning home from Narita Airport.

Refurbishment and Reopening of Asia Center Odawara
In 1993, the MRA Asia Center underwent refurbishments totaling nearly 1 billion yen to
deal with the wear and tear of the 30 years since its opening in 1962. Following extensive
work including complete overhaul of the lodging accommodations, construction of new
Cafe Alcantara and Akebono dining rooms, and remodeling of the office, kitchen, andother facilities, the building, now renamed Asia Center Odawara, reopened as a community guest and seminar house in an April ceremony attended by Odawara Mayor Ozawa
Yoshiaki among others. To further commemorate the opening, in June the center held amajor international symposium entitled “Grassroots Initiative to Bring Asia and Japan
Closer Together” that invited 36 Japanese and foreign panelists from a wide range of specialties for stimulating debate on the present and future of NGO and other forms ofinternational cooperation.

Open symposium “Grassroots Initiative to Bring
Asia and Japan Closer Together”

Journalist Shima Nobuhiko delivering a
keynote speech

61

New Asia Center: Seminar room

New Asia Center: Akebono (“dawn”)
dining room

New Asia Center: Lobby

New Asia Center: Room accommodations

62

New Asia Center: Cafe Alcantara

Epilogue
The Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and other serious earthquakes that subsequently occurred around the country raised public awareness about the safety of buildings. A
new law was enacted requiring improvements in buildings constructed under old regulations prior to 1981. Considering that the Asia Center is what is known as a “high public
use structure” under the new earthquake measures law, steps were taken to conduct a
detailed inspection of its structure.
The inspection revealed that the building, constructed according to earthquakeresistance standards set in 1962, could not be declared safe under the new regulations.
The results presented a difficult choice: either to undertake major refurbishment of thebuilding, including thorough reinforcements of the walls, windows, and pillars, or tocompletely rebuild.
The board of directors and trustees decided, forthe safety of visitors and the employees, to close thecenter in late June of 2006. They then began investigating the options for use for the land and building.
In October 2006, the city of Odawara proposed that,with the support from the Agency for Cultural Affairs
and Kanagawa prefecture, and on condition that thebuilding be demolished, they would purchase the Ceremony commemorating the transfer of the Asia Center property to theland in order to build a national historical park. The city of Odawara in 2007.
MRA Foundation decided to accept this proposal.
In October 2007, by curious coincidence just 45 years after the MRA Asia Center had
held its opening ceremonies on October 22, 1962, the ceremony was held transferring
the property between executive director of the Foundation Shibusawa Masahide andmayor of the city of Odawara
Ozawa Yoshiaki, and withthis the operations of the Asia
Center were officially discontinued.
The current plan of MRA
House is to continue promoting international exchange programs from its
base in Azabu, Tokyo.
Commemorative photograph taken at the farewell gathering held
March 30, 2007.

63

Chronology
1921
1938

May

1948

June

1949

June

1950

June

1951

June

1952

March
April

1953

June
August

1955

June

1956

May

1957

March
May

1958

May

1959

May
September

1960

March
August64Frank Buchman begins his movement based at Oxford University(and hence known as the Oxford Group)
Buchman voices his call for moral re-armament (MRA) in a speech
given in London
MRA conference in Los Angeles attended by Horinouchi Kensuke,
Mitsui Takasumi and wife, Sohma Yasutane and wife, and three otherJapanese
MRA world assembly in Caux attended by former prime minister
Katayama Tetsu, his wife, Mainichi Shimbun editor in chief
Takahashi, and Mainichi foreign desk chief Fujimoto
Sixty Japanese delegates attend an MRA world assembly in Caux followed by a tour of Europe and the United States
MRA world assembly on Mackinac Island, Michigan, attended by 47
Japanese delegates
MRA Foundation (Zaidan Hojin MRA House) established with
Mitsui Takasumi as organization representative
Headquarters for foundation set up in Azabu Fujimi-cho (presentday Minami Azabu) in Minato ward, Tokyo
Mackinac world assembly attended by 24 Japanese delegates
Sixteen Japanese delegates attend an MRA world assembly in Caux
followed by a tour of Europe
Japanese tour of the musical The Vanishing Island and accompanying
international delegation
MRA founder Buchman awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Goldand Silver Star, upon visiting Japan
Baguio world assembly held in the Philippines
Mackinac world assembly attended by 100 representatives of theJapan Seinendan Council
Mackinac world assembly attended by 70 Japanese delegates including members of second Japan Seinendan Council mission
MRA Asia conference held in Otsu, Shiga prefecture
Visit to Europe by members and others associated with the Japan
Socialist Party
Japanese tour of the play Hoffnung [Hope], written and performed byGerman coalminers from the Ruhr region
Japanese student-led play Tiger embarks on a two-year tour of 13
countries in Europe, North and South America, and Asia

1961

April

Sponsor group for the construction of the MRA Asia Center established with Kudo Shoshiro as board chairman

1962

October

MRA Asia Center opens in Odawara, Kanagawa prefecture

1963

NovemberIndian tour of musical Beyond Communism to Revolution

1964

OctoberTokyo Olympics begin; athletes invited to MRA House and MRA
Asia Center

1965

July

Visit to the United States by 100 Japanese youths including participants in the musical Hokkyokusei [The North Star]

September

Japanese tour of “Sing-Out ’65” featuring 150 young performers
mostly from the United States

1966

DecemberSoutheast Asian tour of “Let’s Go ’66” featuring youths from Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, andThailand

1967

April

MRA Travelling School established

1968

March

Language Institute of Japan (LIOJ) established

July“Sing-Out Asia” troupe made up of 150 performers from five Asian
countries tour 35 U.S. cities in 22 states

April

New headquarters building for the MRA Foundation constructed in
Minami Azabu

AugustLIOJ begins offering annual summer workshops for educators ofEnglish

1970

March

LIOJ begins offering intensive camps in business English

1971

October

East West Seminar (EWS) established to promote cultural exchange
between East and West

1973

June

“Asia in the World Community” symposium held in Bangkok

1974

February

Tonan Ajia no Nihon hihan [Southeast Asian Criticism of Japan] published from Simul Shuppankai

1975

December“The ASEAN: Problems and Prospects in a Changing World” symposium held in Bangkok

1977

February

Nihon o mitsumeru Tonan Ajia [Southeast Asian Eyes on Japan] published by Simul Shuppankai

NovemberFirst Asian Dialogue symposium held at the MRA Asia Center

March

Japan-North Sumatra Friendship Fund established with assistance of
MRA Foundation

September

Second Asian Dialogue symposium held in Bangkok

March

Third Asian Dialogue symposium held at the MRA Asia Center

1969

1978

1979

65

May

Shinjitsu no Indoneshia [The True Indonesia] ( Japanese translationfrom the Indonesian) published by Simul Shuppankai

November

Asian Community Trust (ACT) established with assistance of MRA
Foundation

DecemberJapan-Thai seminar held at the International House of Japan

1981

June

Tonan Ajia itsutsu no kuni: Sono seizon senryaku ( Japanese translationof Strategies of Survival: The Foreign Policy Dilemmas of Smaller AsianStates by Charles E. Morrison) published by Simul Shuppankai

1982

May

Remodeling of Asia Center dining facilities and kitchen

1984

September

Japan and the Asian Pacific Region published by Croom Helm

1985

January

Nihon wa Ajia ka [Is Japan Part of Asia?] ( Japanese translation ofabove) published by Simul Shuppankai

1986

December

Guest house added to Asia Center

1989

March

Remodeling of Asia Center Hakone building
Shibusawa Keizo Memorial Fund established

September

East annex added to Asia Center

March

Remodeling of fourth and fifth floors of Asia Center

September

Pacific Asia in the 1990s published by Routledge

March

Remodeling of the Asia Center main building (B1 to third floors)

April

MRA Asia Center renamed Asia Center Odawara

July

International symposium on “Grassroots Initiative to Bring Asia andJapan Closer Together” held at Asia Center Odawara jointly with theJapan Center for International Exchange ( JCIE)

1994

OctoberInternational dialogue session on “From a Beneficiary to a Creator ofPeace” held at Asia Center Odawara jointly with International MRA
Association of Japan and the National Institute for Research
Advancement

1998

AugustHolding of LIOJ “EFL Education in Japan and Asia” symposium andpublication of book Perspectives on Secondary School EFL Education,
both to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of LIOJ

2001

April

New large-scale bathing facilities added to Asia Center

2002

October

Creation of Asia Center Odawara 40th Anniversary Publication:
Postwar Japan and the Work of Moral Re-Armament booklet and CDROM (in Japanese)

2006

June

Operations of the Asia Center Odawara discontinued.

1991
1993

66

Appendix 1:
The Pre-World War II MRA Movement andActivities in Japan
MRA founder Frank N. D. Buchman spent his early years in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
home to generations of Pennsylvania Dutch, descendants of European immigrants
known for their deeply religious character. Himself one of their members (his ancestors
were said to be Swiss, from near Sankt Gallen in the eastern part of the country),
Buchman became a Lutheran minister and ran an orphanage among other charitableworks until 1908 when troubles over the management of one of his institutions drove
him, deeply hurt, to leave for Great Britain. There, at Keswick in the scenic Lake Districtin the north of England, he had a spiritual experience that inspired him to begin missionary work. Assisted by youthful followers, he preached moral reform through adherence tothe “four absolutes” (honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love), and soon the circle of thoseseeking to create better communities and a better world based on these values had spreadfrom Great Britain through western Europe as far as South Africa. Many of the movement’s early supporters were students and faculty of Oxford University, as a result of
which it acquired the name the Oxford Group.
Following World War I, the Oxford Group organized many programs seeking tocounter the moral vacuum and despair plaguing western Europe since the end of fighting.

Mitsui Takasumi, who encountered Buchman
while at Oxford University before World War
II and led the establishment of the MRA
House and other Japanese MRA activities in
the postwar years, with his wife67

Once faced in the 1930s with the rise of Nazi
Germany and spread of Communist revolutions in
Russia and elsewhere, the movement began extending its scope beyond Europe toward “remaking theworld” according to principles set out by Buchman(and later compiled in the 1947 book of the same
title), a shift that culminated in Buchman’s 1938
speech at East Ham Town Hall in East London inwhich he called for “moral re-armament” (MRA).
This term encapsulated Buchman’s belief in theneed to create a new world by arming people notmilitarily, but spiritually and morally. In this way,
MRA was transformed from the fairly Christianoriented movement that it had been during its time Cover of October 1938 issue of Kaihen
seikatsu [Life of Reform]
as the Oxford Group into one pursuing worldwide
activities based on unique spiritual and ideological principles.
Meanwhile, the Oxford Group had also found a foothold in Japan, where followers
issued the periodical Kaihen seikatsu [Life of Reform], held regular conferences in various
parts of the country, and otherwise carried out activities that proved successful mostly inpromoting religious living. Frequent contributors to Kaihen seikatsu included such Christianactivists as Kagawa Toyohiko, Yamane Yoshiichi, and Takahara Yoshio.
After 1938, as details of the transformation of the Oxford Group into MRA and otherdevelopments reached Japan, Japanese adherents, too, began to follow Buchman in his farreaching quest to remake the world, and the tone of Kaihen seikatsu changed accordingly.
In 1939, American Rowland Harker was sent to Japan by Buchman to assist MRA
activities in the country while also teaching at such educational institutions as Aoyama
Gakuin and First HighSchool. With the attack
on Pearl Harbor and theoutbreak of war between
Japan and the UnitedStates in 1941, however,
he was deported, effectively putting a stop to
the MRA movement inJapan until after World
August 24, 1928: Conference of Japanese Oxford GroupWar II.
participants in Gifu
68

Appendix 2Frank Buchman: His Life and Work
ProfileHis eyes, smiling behind the glasses, were warm,
but they had the power to penetrate right throughyou. Whomever he met, Frank Buchman (1878–
1961) would hold out his hand for a heartfelt
handshake, a hand surprisingly soft.
For many people, Buchman must have been thetype of person they had never known before. He
was warm-hearted but mysterious. Those who
were in his company had a tendency to feel vaguely
uneasy, as if made somehow acutely aware thatthey were not doing enough of what they were supposed to do. That he had committed his life tosomething very special, something very big andimportant, was in many ways evident as he spoke
and in his ordinary demeanor and actions. Hisbearing and aura were such that those who might
Dr. Frank Buchman
be doing things in a perfunctory or careless way
became all the more self-conscious and uneasy.
Unlike politicians, industrialists, artists, or other so-called great people, there wassomething about him that was not quite of this world. The strength of his beliefs andcommitment was hard to doubt. When you looked him in the eye, you were forced to confront the integrity of your own conscience.
Many people found their whole lives changed as a result of meeting Buchman.
Encounter with him suddenly exposed their ways of living, their relationships with theirfamilies and society, etc., in a new light, making them look completely different than
before. These people found themselves forced to review the fundamental conditions of
their lives—their jobs, their countries, and the world, which they had felt complacent
about or accepted with resignation as unchangeable. Their confidence in the ordinary,
which they had taken for granted and been satisfied with, wavered, and they were awakened from deep within to a new sensibility, consciousness and way of thinking.

69

Many Africans and Asians said they did not feel Buchman to be an American. ManyJapanese remarked that while in his presence they were never made to feel self-consciousof themselves as being Japanese, adding it was the first time they had felt that way in dealing with Americans since the Pacific War. He seems to have had the power to gently
embrace the pride of Japanese wounded from having lost the war. It may be a cliché to saythat all people are equal before God, but Buchman embodied that fact. He taught postwar Japanese the importance of modesty and love of humankind. Prime Minister
Hatoyama Ichiro repeatedly invited him to the official residence and his private home,sought his advice, and presented him a medal for his contributions to postwar Japan.

Expansion in Scale and Scope of the MRA Movement
When Frank Buchman died at the age of 84 at Freudenstadt, a small town in southern
Germany, in the summer of 1961, the work of Moral Re-Armament was literally sweeping the world. In addition to the centers of activities in Caux, Switzerland and on
Mackinac Island, Michigan, with lodging accommodations for hundreds of guests andcomplete with theater and other facilities, it had already been decided that a facility would
be constructed in Odawara, near Tokyo, scheduled to open in October of the following
year as Asia’s first MRA center.
Like the MRA House in Tokyo, stately houses had been donated to MRA or purchased by it in many major cities across the world, and with these places as bases various
activities were under way. In London, for example, all sorts of conferences and publication
projects were conducted and a worldwide network maintained from the historic mansion
at 45 Berkeley Square where Clive of India had once lived and seven other fine residencesin the vicinity.
In Washington D.C. at the mansion of the Ely family on the vast grounds of a prime
downtown location diagonally opposite the Japanese ambassador’s official residence on
Massachusetts Avenue, close contacts were made day and night among people involved indecision making in world affairs, including American members of Congress and highranking government officials and leaders of other countries visiting the United States.
Seven Arches in Tucson, Arizona, where Buchman frequently stayed after turning 80,
was a dreamlike house filled with sunshine and surrounded by huge cactuses. Other mansions included the Armah in Melbourne, Tirley Garth in western England, and Dellwood
on spacious grounds in the suburbs of New York. All these houses had been donated tothe cause by those inspired by their encounter with Buchman.
Hundreds of promising and talented people left their jobs to engage in MRA activities
in other countries virtually without remuneration. Influential politicians and businesspeople, intellectuals, union leaders, and many others in various fields provided tangible
70and intangible support in order to realize Buchman’s ideals. Looking at the large scale andluxuriousness of the MRA houses and Buchman’s personal connections extending overthe entire world, many did fear the presence of some enormous power behind MRA andharbored suspicions and doubts, criticizing the movement. Buchman had great influence
through his connections, it is true, but that influence was not a political one and the assets
owned and managed in various countries were of a type that could not be measured interms of economic logic.
Buchman’s achievements, whatever vicissitudes were involved, were tremendous for aclergyman born 84 years before in Allentown, a small town in Pennsylvania. Almost all
the driving force behind these accomplishments came from the spiritual energy injected
into people by their encounter with Buchman. Through contact with him, they felt deeprooted hatreds, disappointments, sorrows, and fears dissolve, and a new life set in motion.
Buchman knew from his own experience that changes in individuals’ lives could release
the energy to change institutions and power relations surrounding them. Their souls,
once free from the small shell of the self or the ego, opened up to the broader world andthe search for self-realization. They were willingly mobilized to achieve Buchman’s
dream, which was to remake the world. For many people, regardless of age or gender, it
was an extremely exciting experience to participate in world-level activities transcending
the constraints of their places of work and home countries.

Challenge to History
The twentieth-century world produced many people of genius who participated in themaking of its history, including Lenin, Mao Zedong, Churchill, and Gandhi. Frank
Buchman was of the same type as these in that he took up the challenge of shaping world
history, relying only on his unswerving conviction.
The nineteenth century, it is said, was the era of the discovery and establishment of thepower and dignity of the individual. Rule by the privileged classes—kings, the church,
and the aristocracy—weakened, and individual rights and interests were given priority,
leading to the birth of democratic ideas and the beginning of efforts to devise apparatuses for realizing those ideas. The twentieth century is said to be one in which society
became aware of itself. National socialism, rallying all the resources of society, i.e., thestate, brought about great wars that shook the world. Communism, under the banner ofworking class interests, launched widespread campaigns in various countries and completely altered the landscape of the world.
Humankind had discovered the enormous power that could be wielded by rallying
groups of individuals. It had also been demonstrated, on the other hand, that if that71

power, great as it might be, took the wrong path, grave dangers would arise. Buchmaninstinctively sensed the contradiction and resolved to challenge it by proposing a better
alternative. National socialism had mobilized a nation (Germany in this case) but accomplished little other than to oppress other nations or make them its enemies. A specificsocial class, with a support base transcending national borders, could find solidarity
worldwide, but inevitably came into conflict with people outside that class. As it turned
out, the twentieth century was swayed by conflicts set in motion by national socialism andcommunism and witnessed massive tragedies.
Fearing that the idea of giving preference to a specific nation or class would lead to thedestruction of the world, Buchman advocated a philosophy embracing all countries,
nations, and classes for the sake of the survival and prosperity of the human race. Upholding the ideology of unity and harmony against conflict and struggle, he made a braveattempt to shape the history of the twentieth century. That challenge consumed his lifeand gave him extraordinary charisma. His strategies and tactics proved extremely effective, moreover, and contributed to the solution of many disputes throughout the world.
In areas that were the targets of powerful Soviet ideological offensives after World War
II, such as Britain’s ports and harbors and the Ruhr industrial district of Germany, a crisis was often avoided because some leaders involved in a labor dispute changed their viewsof life under the influence of MRA. Buchman’s role in an agreement between Germany
and France to establish the European Coal and Steel Community is remembered in diplomatic history. (See Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft.) Diet member Kato
Shidzue’s letter calling for harmony at the height of the mass protest over revision of the
U.S.-Japan security treaty in 1960 changed the course of postwar Japanese history. It isdifficult to demonstrate specific processes and assess quantitative effects, but there are
numerous cases in which Buchman took effective measures at crucial junctures, thereby
changing the course of a dispute.
For those who had witnessed the power of communism in those days, its decline andcollapse starting in the 1990s were hard to believe. Even Buchman must not have imagined that a huge ideological force that could mobilize all the resources and people of continental states like the Soviet Union and China would lose its energy so precipitously. Ina sense, however, the outcome was what he had predicted. He believed that no matter
how wonderful and future-oriented a system might be, if it was run by people of poor caliber whose purposes in life are small-minded, that system would not function properly.
Communism, an ideology based on the protest and hatred of those who suffered unreasonable exploitation by “capitalists” and despotic rulers, attracted many people
throughout the world. This ideology, which gained momentum by taking advantage ofdisunity and conflict, can be said to have sown the seeds of disintegration within itself.
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The amoral formula that condoned anything to serve the purposes of the organizationmust have led communism to its own destruction. Any system that cannot overcome themoral weaknesses of those who administer it is bound to become ensnared in bureaucratic inefficiency. However coolheaded and rational a system may look, it can eventually fall
due to human weaknesses, and this is exactly what Buchman predicted. For communism
to function, it would have had to adopt the all-encompassing ideas that Buchman advocated.

Charisma: Light and Shadow
As a Lutheran minister, Buchman’s starting point was his embrace of Christian faith, but
he did not attempt to convert to Christianity those who offered to cooperate with MRA.
Regardless of their religious denomination, however, he wanted them to consider thingsin terms of conscience. Because following one’s conscience is a universal truth, it was hard
not to cooperate with his endeavors.
For many, Buchman’s outlook and attitudes were reminiscent of Eastern thinking. One
day a young man went to see Buchman and, after having confessed that he was depressed
for some reason and had succumbed to sexual temptation, he tearfully begged to beallowed to leave MRA. Buchman gently reminded him that those who have fallen as far
as they can fall, no matter how besmirched they might have become, will, once they awaken to the error of their ways, become able to work even more effectively than before. This
advice had the ring of the Buddhist tale that the deeper the muddy waters, the more beautiful the flowers of the lotus that thrives there. Buchman held that one could achieve effective results not just when a shining model of morality; even while agonizing over sinful
acts—as long as one was honest—one could change things for the better and have a positive impact on people.
On one of those days when he was absorbed in meditation at his Arizona house,
Buchman talked about the millions in the people’s communes in China. He said that hebelieved their sufferings would continue for many more years, and that made him sad.
That was five years before the storm of the Cultural Revolution began raging. Buchmancared about people all over the globe and had a god-like air about him as if he was watching over the whole world; perhaps because of that, he had a complexity that was difficult
to comprehend by ordinary logic. He grasped, as if under one single theme, the variety of
topics like religion, politics, economics, and the family. This vastness of his perspective
was both the source and limit of his extraordinary charisma.
Buchman preferred not to create organizations or systems by which to control the
MRA activities that were expanding worldwide. He knew too many cases in which existing religious or political groups had lost their original vigor as their organizations grew73

bureaucratic and their personnel succumbed to inertia. Instead of establishing organizations, he tried to leave everything to individual conscience. This approach proved effective
in keeping the “organization disease” at bay, but when opinion was divided within a group
there were no mechanisms to resolve the divide. After Buchman passed away, MRA activities with the participation of various countries and individuals began dispersing, quickly
losing the centripetal force that had prevailed until right before his death.
Buchman’s followers respected him deeply, but at the same time they sometimes had
different dreams for the work he led, depending on their personalities and environments.
Some of them were attracted by his religious magnetism while others were absorbed intrying to materialize his ideals on the scene of world politics. While Buchman was alive,
all of them believed they were conducting activities in line with his values and principles
and worked together secure in that conviction. Once he was gone, however, they began
giving priority to their own favored fields, whether the youth movement, religious
activism, or politics. They became divided over the strategy of the whole movement.
Individual people’s beliefs and convictions had been the driving force of the movement, sothat it became difficult to artificially organize and unify these people after the loss of theircentral figure.
That may have been a natural outcome for a movement that had been driven solely by
individual conscience. Even from before World War II there had arisen a number ofsmaller groups of movement activists that had branched off to pursue separate causes.
Some, like the Alcoholics Anonymous, bore rich fruit. The Caux Round Table (CRT),
headquartered in Caux, Switzerland, has held a conference every year, advocating implementation of the CRT Principles for Business targeted at business leaders around theworld. The American youth movement “Up with People,” begun in the United States in
the fourth year after Buchman’s death, produced notable results worldwide until its discontinuation in 2000. Individual endeavors making the most of the spirit each person
inherited from MRA, in whatever form, may be the best ways of carrying on Buchman’s
legacy.
After Buchman’s death, MRA activists in various parts of the world realized anew how
great his charisma had been. Encounter with him had fundamentally changed the courseand content of countless people’s lives. Some had left a political party or an organization
with which they had worked for decades in order to devote themselves to the Buchman
movement. Others, determined to serve its cause, had donated all their assets to it, keeping for themselves only a suitcase of clothing. Buchman had had the confidence andcharisma enough to receive such dedication and donations as gifts from God.
Fund-raising meetings in Buchman’s presence always had an extraordinary and tense
atmosphere as the conflict between self-interest and ideals unfolded. It was not rare that74

a meeting lasting but a few hours would net nearly 100 million yen for the movement.
Buchman would have said that it was the work of God and that he was only a humble
medium of God’s will. As a matter of fact, though, without that medium such a remarkable phenomenon would never have occurred.
The construction of the MRA Asia Center was completed in October 1962, one anda half years after Buchman passed away. His charisma continued to inspire people, and asplendid building was completed even after his death. The fund-raising magic that he had
been able to wield, however, finally dissipated, and by the time the center opened, it had ahuge debt of 200 million yen in the monetary value at that time. Later, it became difficult
even to raise funds for the building’s operating expenses, but thanks to strenuous and persistent efforts, the center’s mortgage was finally paid off in full 30 years later, in 1990. For
the MRA Foundation, freedom from debt was a greatjoy, but the previous three
decades had also forced it torealize that it had no choice
but to rely on its own capacity
and ability to carry on after
Buchman’s death.
Forty-one years have passed
since Buchman passed away.
Efforts are now underway tointegrate and revitalize activities in various countries, but
it is no longer possible or feasible to conduct programs inthe same form and content as
during the time Buchman
was active. All that can bedone is to carry on the best of
Buchman’s spirit within ourmeans and capabilities and ina manner satisfactory to ourselves.
(Shibusawa Masahide)
45 Berkeley Square, London

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