Kinshicho Church, Japan

Pastor Kim YongHun (The Second Batch)

In April 2005, I went to the South Korean consulate in Tokyo to change my Korean driver’s license to a Japanese one.  While the five of us in the second batch were thinking of touring somewhere, Pastor Sung SunJae of Tokyo Korean Church suggested visiting the tomb of Pastor William Grainger, the first missionary to Japan, which we gladly accepted.

Though our Japanese was poor and we were unfamiliar with the area, we asked around and finally got to Aoyama Cemetery, which is near Harajuku Station, Meiji Shrine, and Omote-sando.  We dropped by the office and asked some of the workers to show us where the grave of Pastor Grainger was, because the cemetery was big.  They made a copy of a brief account of his life, and as we read it through, we were deeply touched by the fact that he was still called a missionary even though he was no longer living.  The cemetery was beautiful, like a lovely garden.  We couldn’t locate his grave, even with the map we were given, so each of us scattered to look for it.  Before long, we heard somebody say, “Here it is!” and gathered together.  We were filled with emotion as we saw the humble gravestone of Pastor Grainger beside the tomb of Kim OkKyoon, the famous Korean hero of the 1884 Gapsin Coup.

While Pastor William C. Grainger was working as the president of Healdsburg College (the present Pacific Union College), he accepted an appeal from a Japanese student, Okohira Teruhiko, to start a mission in Japan.  Mr. Okohira later became the first ordained Japanese pastor.  So he resigned his position and went to Yokohama as a missionary, arriving on November 19, 1896.  His wife and daughter came to Japan a year later.

After arriving in Japan, he opened a Bible school and began his evangelistic work.  One of the people that he led to the Lord there was Kuniya Hide, who later became a pastor and spread the gospel in Korea.  Pastor Grainger also set up the first Adventist church in Japan, starting with 17 church members.

But on October 31, 1899, only three years after he arrived in Japan, he was hospitalized by an unexpected severe fever.  Unfortunately, his condition got steadily worse, and he passed away on November 2 with his wife and students next to him.  He was 55 years old.

Before breathing his last breath, Pastor Grainger asked Pastor Kuniya, “Do you love those who follow you to Jesus?” and finally said, “I came to Japan to complete the mission, but I am about to die without reaching that goal.”

Even though he served in Japan for less than three years, his death sparked the work of Pastor Kuniya and eventually bore much fruit in Korea.  So the other missionaries and I earnestly prayed that we would learn from his example and love Japan as much as he did.

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