|
 In
1898 the first Brotherhood Chapter was established in Japan by a Brotherhood missionary
who had gone there to help establish St. Andrew's College and stayed to teach
at the school.
As a result many Japanese became affiliated with the Episcopal
Church and by 1902 sufficient Chapters of the Brotherhood had been established
in Japan that it formed its own independent National Council to oversee its work
in Japan. Today The Brotherhood of St. Andrew in Japan still maintains it own
National Council.
About the time the Brotherhood began to flounder in
Japan, Bro. Paul Rusch went there to work for the YMCA. He re-establised the Brotherhood
ministry with the help of the Brotherhood in the U.S. While Bro. Rusch was forced
to leave Japan due to the coming threat of WWII in 1940, he had firmly established
the Brotherhood there and never lost his love for the Japanese people.
Following the war, retired Colonel Paul Rusch, who had been an intelligence officer
in the U.S. Army, returned to Japan. There, with assistance of the Brotherhood
in the U.S., he established a mission which includes a school, a hospital and
St. Andrew's Church in Kiyosato, Japan within sight of Mt. Fuji on a complex called
the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project now referred to as KEEP.
Bro. Andrew Agawa, a Japanese Brotherhood member, who became an officer in the
Japanese army, was awarded the Victoria Cross by the Queen of England after the
war. He had saved the lives of thousands of children and adult prisoners of war
in a POW camp of which he was the commanding officer.
Bro.
Agawa, at risk of his own life, prevented his prisoners from be conscripted into
forced labor where prisoners from other POW camps were slaughtered or died of
exhaustion and malnutrician.
Many Brotherhood missionaries volunteered to work in China, Brazil, Panama and
other countries where the Episcopal Church was being established. During these
years, the Church considered the Brotherhood as the evangelism arm of the Church.
During WWI, no Chapters were established in military bases overseas. However,
during WWII many Chapters were organized at bases behind and near the front lines.
Following the war, Chapters were formed among the Army of Occupation in Germany,
Italy, Japan and some of the Pacific islands where the commander was an Episcopalian
with knowledge of the Brotherhood and its ministry to bring men to Christ.
During the Korean conflict several Chapters were established at military
bases with permission of the base commander and at the request of the Episcopal
Chaplain. We have no record of Chapters being formed overseas during the Vietnam
war. | |
