The Post War Period
First to arrive after the war were M/M Owen Still. Owen arrived in January, 1947 and Shirley followed in May, leaving their children in Hawaii to continue their education. They lived uncomplainingly in poverty in a small rented apartment in Setagaya-ku. Pauline and I visited them there early in 1948 as we finished our chaplaincy tour in Otsu. These were unforgettable hours. No people more typified the spirit and manner of Christ to the Japanese than this couple. Their life story is written by their daughter in the book In Word or In Deed (Mission Services, 1970, 2nd printing).
Harold Cole came back alone in March, 1947. He had a joyful reunion with Bro. Sugano and began holding classes again in a downtown building. Cole also bought the land adjoining the old seminary property. The Asahi church and kindergarten, the girls' dormitory and the mission house now stand on this property.
Meanwhile, M.B. Madden had raised $4,000 for a repatriation fund. When he could not return, he turned over the money to Harold Cole, who built the Clark house complete for that sum. $4000 would go a long way in those days.
Leone Cole and the children joined him in November, 1947 and they continued their work at Minoo.
Our people owe a debt of gratitude to Harold Cole for the property he bought, the solid buildings he built at the Seminary and elsewhere and for the superb group of missionaries which he recruited. Truly, his work lives after him, especially in Osaka Bible Seminary which has continued faithfully at its task since founding and for the last 33 years under the untiring leadership of Martin B. Clark.
Before returning to Japan herself, Mrs. Cunningham recruited Harold Sims and Andrew Patton at Atlanta Christian College. Harold and Lois Sims arrived as newlyweds, November, 1947. Andrew Patton came in 1948. He married Betty Armstrong during his first furlough and they returned to Japan in 1953. Through the good offices of Judge Hathcock of Atlanta, Stanley and Mabel Buttray (1949-1983) joined the Cunningham mission. Samuel and Emily Saunders (1948-1950) also worked with the Cunningham mission a short time.
Harold Sims started the Nakano church on the old property, the Mikawashima (Korean) church also on the former property and more recently the Mejirodai church in a Tokyo suburb. Andrew Patton started the Nishiogikubo church and worked with the churches at Kamiuma, Higashi- Nakano and Yokosuka. Stanley Buttray started the Kamiochiai church and the Yokosuka church, building on a small nucleus left by Daniel Wise of the U.S. Navy. He also worked with the Yochomachi church, which was started by Samuel Saunders. These were great days for the church in Japan in spite of shortages of everything.
Tokyo Bible Seminary, led by Andrew Patton, operated on the Higashi Nakano property for ten years (1948-1958). It turned out twenty graduates of whom seven are still active in the ministry.
Mrs. Cunningham returned also (November, 1947), built a small house on the site of the former one and lived out her days there. Having tea with her just after our return to Japan as missionaries and seeing her stand at the gate waving until we were out of sight is still one of the refreshing memories that Pauline and have of the past.
She died Christmas day, 1953. At her own request, she is buried in an unmarked grave in Zoshigaya Cemetery, Tokyo. Of course, her passing did not bring an end to the lasting influence of the Cunningham work. The work that W.D. Cunningham did, and the vision he had, proved to be the basis for a solid and continuing work in Tokyo in the post-war period.