We
need to return February 1946 to trace the origin of the Japan Baptist
hospital. It was when Japan was in chaos suffering from poverty
and disorder after World War II. A chaplain at the St. Luke's International
Hospital in Tokyo, which was a US army hospital at that time, having
been taken over by the occupational army, visited the Rev. Kiyoki
Yuya of Mejirogaoka Church. It was the only remaining Baptist Church
in Tokyo at that time. The Chaplain offered to help the Japanese
churches to contact churches in America. At that time Japanese were
prohibited to correspond with Americans. Rev. Yuya wrote a letter
to The Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention
in America for help to evangelize Japan. This was how initial contact
was made.
There were 6 parts to his letter.
1．To send Baptist missionaries.
2．To reopen a Seminary to educate evangelists and pastors.
3．To establish a nursing school to educate Christian nurses to
take an active part in medical missions.
4．To establish a Christian hospital for medical missions.
5．To send agricultural instructors to help Japanese farmers who
were seriously suffering
6．To support The Baptist Church and help the church to resume evangelization
This letter was written not only before The Japan Baptist Convention
was established but also before the missionary, Dr.E.D. Dozier visited
Japan to investigate the circumstances in October 1946. His father
had also been a missionary in Japan and he himself prayed and waited
in Hawaii for the end of the War so that he could evangelize in
Japan.
In April 1947, 16 Baptist churches having been merged into The United
Church of Christ in Japan left it and established The Japan Baptist
Convention. Dr. Theron Rankin, the Baptist Executive Director of
the Orient of the Southern Baptist Convention visited Japan then
and confirmed the 6 parts of Rev. Yuya's letter and the evangelism
was resumed in Japan. As soon as The Japan Baptist Convention was
established, it became a goal for the Baptist Convention to establish
hospitals and nursing schools, and a definite plan to do so became
our main object.
After that, Dr. J.P. Satterwhite who later became the first superintendent
of the hospital came to Japan as an army surgeon for the occupational
army. He met Rev. Yayu and Dr. Masahiko Kitahata of Tokyo University
Hospital who belonged to Mejirogaoka Baptist Church. They worked
over the plan together to establish the hospital, and the Board
of The Japan Baptist Convention which was held in Kobe in 1951 decided
to set up a preparatory committee to establish hospitals.
In June, the first preparatory committee was held in Tokyo, and
they developed the following agenda.
1．To establish a nursing school to cultivate the Christian spirit
of devotion and service.
2．To establish a practical hospital whose character is similar
to the combination of The Tokyo Adventist Hospital and St. Luke
International Hospital in Tokyo.
3．The hospital will have approximately 200 beds.
4．Tokyo was chosen as the proposed priority site.
5．To reserve a fund of 30,000,000 yen to establish the hospital.
And they chose Dr. J.P. Satterwhite and Dr. Kitahata as the first
medical staff.
The 7th Japan Baptist Convention Annual Meeting was held at the
former chapel for the occupational army in Okazaki, Kyoto in August
1953.
［Their plan was:］
1．To buy 33,000? of land where the present hospital is.
2．To designate the second Sunday of June as "Hospital Day"
to remind and understand better the role of the hospital.
3．To dedicate the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to the hospital,
which is a Christmas offering named for a female missionary who
devoted her life to evangelizing in China and died on a boat in
Kobe on her way home to the US.
One more thing you must not forget is that the Japan Baptist Convention's
motto, "Spread the Light of Christ all over Japan"was
resolved at this meeting. As you can see from those descriptions,
the Japan Baptist Hospital is a vital part of the Japan Baptist
Convention and where the Light of the Truth is most in demand. Also
the hospital was planned not just as caring for sick people but
also as a mission to be established with devoted prayer and precious
offerings. Therefore, we can say that the hospital's beginnings
are based only on the belief of Christianity. The Japan Baptist
hospital is for Jesus Christ.
At this time the founder, Dr. J.P. Satterwhite expressed the three
purposes of this hospital. They are stated in the employees' guide.
The Bible Scripture for this hospital opening was chosen from Matthew
9:35; "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching
in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and
healing every sickness and every disease among the people."
(The Yodogawa Christian Hospital's Bible Scripture is Matthew 4:23;
"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner
of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.") Jesus'
role was to teach the truth of the coming Kingdom and to cure every
sickness and disease among people. And also He allowed people to
pray for the daily food in the Lord's Prayer. The problems about
health, body and daily foods are the most basic to living. Jesus
was the Savior in this domain too. To continue His work for us
in the medical field which requires scientific and special skills,
you must not think that Christian beliefs, science and medical treatment
never works together, nor for must not consider human existence
as just a body based on your own understanding. Humans are social
and spiritual. Work in the medical field requires that we understand
the physical and spiritual nature of human beings.
Science has advanced so fast and become highly specialized. Because
so many fields are specialized, this has caused human fragmentation,
high technology makes people more materialistic. In these circumstances,
we see and treat every patient as a human and as a creation of God
. So from God, we have a deep respect and love each patient. We
must be capable to know what they need and do something about it.
We call this a Whole Person Healing. We have been trying to practice
this from the beginning.
It is said that people choose their own hospitals these days. To
be chosen and survive, the hospital must have its own character.
Whole Person Healing is based on the Christian belief, professional
views and the understanding of people. It is the character of the
Japan Baptist Hospital.
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