JAPANESE PRISONERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26040, 2 January 1946, Page 6

JAPANESE PRISONERS

GRATEFUL FOR TREATMENT NUMBER OF CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY (P.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 prisoner's of war who have been detained in this camp for three years, I desire to express our thanks and appreciation for the just and consideraie treatment that has been accorded us during our period of captivity. For and on behalf of all the prisoner's of war at Featherston. (Signed) S. Kamikubo, senior officer.” Padre H. W. F. Troughtons work at the Featherston Japanese prisoner-of-war camp has now finished, but 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 years and a-half 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 Featherston to see his prison converts leave for home, Padre Troughton said he hoped later to be 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 years and a-half I 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.”