THE VILLAGE THAT LIVES BY THE BIBLE - Part I It was early in 1945 when, as a correspondent with the US forces beating out their bloody victory on Okinawa, I first came upon Shimabuku, the strangest & most inspiring community I ever saw. Huddled beneath its groves of Banyan & twisted Pine trees, this remote village of some 1,000 souls was in the path of the American advance & so received a severe shelling. But when an advance patrol swept up to the village compound, the GIs stopped dead in their tracks. Barring their way were 2 little old men; they bowed low & began to speak. The battle-hardened sergeant, wary of enemy tricks, held up his hand & summoned a Nisei interpreter. The interpreter shook his head. I dont get it. Seems were being welcomed -- as fellow Christians. One says hes the mayor of the village, the others the schoolmaster. Thats a Bible the older one has in his hand. They seem to be asking for just one thing: a picture of Jesus. The Sergeant spat reflectively on the ground then grunted, Better call the chaplain. The chaplain came, & with him a brace of correspondents. Guided by the 2 old men -- Mojun Nakamura, the mayor, & Shosei Kina, the schoolmaster -- we cautiously toured the compound. Wed seen other Okinawa villages, uniformly down-at-the-heels & despairing; by contrast, by smiles, & dignified bows. Proudly the 2 old men showed us their spotless homes, their terraced fields, fertile & neat, their storehouses & granaries, & their prized sugar mill. Gravely the old men talked on, & the interpreter said, Theyve met only one American before, long ago. Because he was a Christian, they assume we are, too -- though they cant quite understand why we came in shooting. Piecemeal, the incredible story came out. Thirty years before, an American missionary on his way to Japan had paused at Shimabuku. Hed stayed only long enough to make a pair of converts (these same 2 men), teach them a coujple of hymns, leave them a Japanese translation of the Bible & exhort them to live by it. Theyd had no contact with any Christian since. Yet during those 30 years, guided by the Bible, they had managed to create a Christian democracy at its purest. How had it happened? Picking their way through the Bible, the 2 converts had found not only an inspiring person on whom to pattern a life, but sound precepts on which to base their society. Theyd adopted the Ten Commandments as Shimabukus legal code; the Sermon on the Mount as their guide to social conduct. In Kinas school the Bible was the chief literature; it was read daily by all students, & major passages were memorized. In Nakamuras village government the precepts of the Bible were law. Nurtured on this Book, a whole generation of Shimabukans had drawn from it their ideas of human dignity & of the rights & responsibilities of citizenship. The result was plain to see. Shimabuku for years had had no jail, no brothel, no drunkness, no divorce; there was a high level of health & happiness. Next day, the tide of battle swept us on. But a few days later, during a lull, I requisitioned a jeep & a Japanese-speaking driver & went back to Shimabuku. Over the winding roads outside the village, huge truck convoys & endless lines of American troops moved dustily; behind them lumbered armored tanks & heavy artillery. But inside, Shimabuku was an oasis of serenity.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 01:07:59 +0000
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