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Japan

A Grain of Salt

By Fr. Jaime Del Rosario, omi

I came here in Japan 1996, I was ordained in September, 1995 at the Our Lady of Grace Parish in Caloocan City as an O.M.I. priest. I ministered in that Oblate Parish as a deacon and then as a priest for some months. Coming to Japan as a new priest, at the age of 28 is a really challenging mission for me.

The Oblates are known to going for the most difficult missions. As a seminarian I had a great desire to go the difficult missions, particularly in foreign lands. I thought that it was a noble self-offering to the Lord. But now that I’m into a difficult mission, I begin to realize that “difficult” really is difficult.

This is Evangelization!

By Sr. Remedios Carmen Locsin, R.A.

In Japan, there are numerous immigrants often in precarious situations, uprooted as they are from their original culture and country. To help them find interior peace and be connection with their own history is to enable them to survive. Such is the mission I find myself in at the present moment in a section of Tokyo.

Donna Cypriana Keeper of the Keys

By Ariel Presbitero

Japanese Filipino

On her favorite porch in front of her little two-room house, day after day, 78 years old Donna Cypriana sits quietly and watches as the streams of people pass along her street. I sense a little flicker of joy in her face ad she spots me, her ‘Japanese’ friend, approach. (For some reason, Donna Cypriana and most of the folk in this part of Brazil think we Filipinos are Japanese.)

Keeper of the Keys

Becoming Donna Cypriana’s friend didn’t come easy. Her little world is this little front space and her sparsely furnished sala and kitchen. Her son, Honesto, a cook in the nearby naval base lodges with her at night and on an occasional weekend, a grandson comes to stay with her. Her most important office is ‘Keeper of Church Keys’.

50 Years Ago When I Was A Little Girl

By Sr. Evangeline Canag, FSP

I am sending you...

From far away Rome, I heard John Paul II’s impassioned commissioning of the young people during the 10th World Youth Day in Manila: “To each one of you Christ says: “I am sending you....’ These words are addresses to you. The Church addresses them to all young people around the world today, though they are being addressed especially of the Philippines and to the young people of China, of Japan, Korea and Vietnam....”

New Year in Kyoto

By Sr. Margaret Lacson, MM

Akemashite Omefeto Gonzaimasu. [Congratulations, the New Year has opened.] You hear this phrase any where you go in Japan during the first days of the year.

The beginning of the New Year marks the most important holiday here in Japan. The Japanese prepare their homes for this event. They decorate their house with special New Year decorations hanging in their cars.

Yuma and Satoka

Translated by Fr. Bede Cleary

As Philip Bonifacio celebrated his first ordination anniversary in Japan, two Japanese, who had come all the way fir the ordination, recall their impression of the Philippines and Filipinos. We hope the memory will not make Philip homesick!

Yuma’s Story 
(3rd year elementary school)

After a three-and –a –half hour flight from Kansai International Airport, we finally arrived in Manila. The moment we arrived the warm humid air came surging towards us. (We had left Japan in the midst of winter.) Because the Christmas rush was at its peak, it took a long time for our luggage to come out. Next, we went to the Exchange Bank. I changed a thousand-yen note into pesos. The lady laughed, as if to say, “A Child indeed! With only one thousand – yen.” We boarded the cars which met our group. On the way into Malate, we pulled into a gasoline stand. The engine stalled, and the car refused to go. I was wondering how will the driver fix it, when he came out of the shop with a hammer and hit the engine with it a couple of times. Then everyone pushed, and off went and soon reached our pension. I thought the Filipinos were very clever.

Suddenly There was Silence

By: Fr. Rudy Fernandez SJ

A Filipino Jesuit teaching in Japan for a half a century, decided to tell the truth to the students-with beautiful results.

Summer Camp
One of the most important items of the summer curriculum for the junior high students is the summer camp. Our school has a campsite by a lake up in the mountains about fifty kilometers from the city. The boys stay at the camp for four days. Half of them stay at the unfurnished log cabin with just straw mats for sleeping and half of then stay in tents. After a couple of days they exchange places, those in the cabins go to the tents and those in the tents to the cabins.

The Hiroshima Nightmare

The Story of Mitsou Tomosawa

 At 8:15, one August morning  50 years ago, the Doomsday Clock struck midnight. The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb killed more than 75,000 and injured nearly 100,000 of the 245,000 residents. The city was destroyed.


There was a great flash of light, as if millions of flashbulbs were ignited at the same time. It was so bright that we couldn’t see anything. And instinctively, I started to run toward the air raid shelter.

For ‘Better or For Worse’ is Better

By: Fr. Rudy Fernandez, SJ

Fr. Rudy Fernandez is the first Society of Jesus (SJ) Pinoy missionary in Japan. He came to Japan in 1955. He was ordained after theological studies in Tokyo in 1962. He is presently teaching English and religion at the Jesuit high school in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Gakuin. One of his missions is advising and marrying young people in love.

Kyoko
Kyoko spent her junior and senior high school years- from twelve to eighteen- in Hiroshima jogakuin, a Protestant girl’s school in the city. She became acquainted with the Bible and Christian hymns and came to love them there. She was not a Christian herself, but that did not make her a rarity. Most of her fellow students were not Christian either. Buddhist and indifferent, mostly; typical of the student population of most Christian schools in Japan, more popularly known as mission schools. During those six she came to me with her friend Yukiko once a week to learn practical, conversational English.

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