“JUST AND CONSIDERATE”

Evening Star, Issue 25679, 31 December 1945, Page 4

“JUST AND CONSIDERATE”

JAP. PRISONERS CONVEY THANKS PADRE SAW MANY CHANGES OF HEART (R.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 31. The following letter has been received by the New Zealand Army from Lieutenant S. 'Kamikubo, of the Japanese Navy, the senior Japanese officer at the prisoner-of-war camp, Featherston :. —“ On behalf of the Japanese prisoners of war who have been detained in this camp for three years, I desire to express our thanks and appreciation for the just and considerate treatment that has been accorded us during our period of captivity. For and on behalf of all the prisoners of war at Featherston. (Signed) S. Kamikubo, senior officer.” Padre H. W. F. Troughton’s work at the Featherston Japanese prisoner-of-war camp has now finished, bnt. its influence may extend, he hopes, into the lives of many people back in the Japanese homeland, and may play its part in the ultimate conversion of the Japanese people to the Christian faith. A number of Japanese at the prison camp became Christians under Padre Troughton’s guidance, and were baptised. He held weekly services in the camp, and helped the men in their study of the New Testament, which was supplied to them in their own language. He was a missionary in Japan for five and a-half years before the war, and consequently was well fitted to understand the Japanese soldiers and play a part in their education in Western ideas.

When he came to Wellington from Featlierston to see his prison converts go home, Padre Troughton said he hoped later to he able to return to Japan and take his part in the reestablishment of missionary work there. So far, only a tiny percentage among, the hundred million people of Japan had become members of the Christian faith. “ In the two and a-half years 1 was at Featherston camp I watched a great change in the prisoners,” the padre said. “ They have come to understand our way of life and our outlook. The only way in which we can live happily together in the Pacific—and we must learn to do so—is to understand. one another, and by the conversion of the Japanese to the Christian faith, an understanding between the two peoples can be achieved. I feel that the Christian work done among the Japanese in the camp has been very well worth while, and will lead to further contacts later in Japan. Quite a number of the men on their return will get in touch with Christian churches in their homeland. We who have done missionary work in Japan feel that there is a great opportunity to develop this work now, and we are hoping that many volunteers will come forward.”