Kinshicho Church, Japan

Pastor Kim YongHun

My family was not able to take good care of Kinshicho Church because we were serving both it and Nishisugamo Church, but we lived at Nishisugamo Church.  I was at a loss as to how to reach out and lead the worship service, even though office furniture like desks and chairs had already been purchased.

Then two ladies contacted me in April and wanted to see me.  They were Adventist grandmothers living near Kinshicho.  I met them, expecting that God was leading me to a solution, but they went on and on about their difficult situations and how there was no possibility of hope.  This meeting left me with a heavy heart.  However, one of the ladies, Mrs. Kikuchi, invited me over to her house that evening.  My family and I went there feeling very surprised because this kind of invitation is rare in Japan.  And we found out something amazing as her husband told us her story over dinner.

She was born in Sakhalin when Northeast Asia was under the control of Japan.  The Soviets, Koreans and Japanese were living in Sakhalin back then, and she led a comfortable life under her caring father.  But she wondered why the Koreans around her made so much noise and often fought each other.  The Japanese that lived in Sakhalin returned to Japan after it was defeated, and the Soviet soldiers that were stationed in Sakhalin returned to their homes.  Her family returned to Japan, but her name was somehow deleted from the family register.  So she was left alone in Sakhalin as a 16-year-old girl.  Though alone, she assimilated into the Korean society there and lived with a Korean man that was 12 years older than she was.  I was told that she worked so hard to excel as a Korean woman that she spoke Korean, cooked Korean food and had three children.

Later on, she petitioned the Japanese prime minister to let her return to Japan, as she saw no future in Sakhalin.  Finally, she got permission to return in about 1960 and went to Japan with her husband and three children, who spoke no Japanese.  The first place they settled down in was Hokkaido, and she became an Adventist after she began to attend an Adventist church there.  She moved to Tokyo afterward and enjoyed life with her children.  However, she was lonely in Japan because people were so cold in their personal relationships compared to Korea.  She missed her Korean lifestyle and relieved her homesickness by watching Korean dramas.  Once she served as a colporteur and made her house a place of worship, but even church activities did not satisfy her.  It was then that she heard there would be a missionary from Korea, and that’s why she came to see me.  She treated me like her son, even in our first meeting, and began to attend Kinshicho Church because she wanted to encourage me and help out.  She is now a member of my church.

Mrs. Kikuchi is reducing the friction between my church members and me because she understands both Korea and Japan.  Though I felt at a loss in 2005, I am able to have hope for this church thanks to her presence.  She is healthier than many young people despite her old age and is well off, so she plays an important role in this church.  I believe that God has prepared many people like Mrs. Kikuchi elsewhere in Tokyo where there are many people and many stories.

Grandmother Kikuchi and her husband