MMB Beginnings in Japan
The beginnings of a house in Tokyo appear initially in the writings of Mother Margarita in 1928, while she was preparing for her First Missionary Trip accompanying the Third Missionary Expedition to Ponape (now Pohnpei). As Mother Margarita set out on this Third Expedition, Spanish Jesuit Father Jose Zameza who edited the magazine of Berriz– “Angeles de Las Misiones”, wanted to write an article about the Japan Missions and told Mother Margarita, “Mother, don’t return without leaving a shoe in Japan.”
In 1920 Admiral Shinjiro Yamamoto, a devout Catholic layman, had been sent by the Japanese Government to request from the Pope, Benedict XV, that religious orders be sent to the Pacific. Admiral Yamamoto actually welcomed Mother Margarita into his home during her first stay in Japan and later provided to her the materials requested by Father Zameza before her departure.
Another influential person in laying the groundwork in Japan was the Jesuit priest, Fr. Luis Carlos Faber, Procurator of the Missions in the Mariana and Caroline Islands. The lack of Catholic Schools in Japan was a concern, and a house for the formation of future vocations from the islands was needed. When Father Faber first met the Mercedarian sisters, he suggested to them the idea of a house in Tokyo to help meet these needs.
All of these realities were taken into consideration; Mother Margarita knew the Lord was telling her in her heart and mind to sow the seed of Berriz in Japan. These thoughts became a great desire for her. The result was that when she left Spain, she took some extra sisters with her, with hopes that she could make this a reality.
It was on the eve (September 23) of the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy (September 24) that Mother Margarita entered Tokyo for the first time. She was accompanied by Mothers Begona Dochao and Auxilio de Maria Urizar from the house in Wuhu, China and Mother Loreto Zubia, Superior of the house of Saipan. It was agreed upon that Mother Begona Dochao and Sister Angela Larranaga would go to Tokyo with Mother Loreto, and later go back to Wuhu. In her diary Mother Margarita says, “The very day of Our Blessed Mother, the inspiration and decisions began. Mother Begona and Sister Angela will not return to Wuhu nor will Mother Redentora Pasaman go to the islands. The three will remain in Japan studying the language until I return from the Pacific. When I return, it will be …whatever God wants, but I have absolute confidence that our Blessed Mother is going to help us and that the foundation will be established.”
Looking forward to this foundation in Japan, Mother Margarita made a series of plans and began to go about the city of Tokyo looking for a suitable living place, only to find that Japanese houses were like dollhouses, and did not provide the conditions she required, plus the rent was exorbitant. So, on October 3, the Feast of the Little Flower, Patroness of the Missions, Mother Margarita and the sisters presented themselves to the Archbishop of Tokyo, Bishop Chambon, who was from the Foreign Missions of Paris. But God had preceded them. After explaining the difficulty in finding a house and her plans for a foundation, the Archbishop generously offered Mother Margarita the opportunity to build a house where his garden was then located. This was a true grace bestowed on the sisters, since other communities had come through Tokyo with the intention of a foundation, and such an offer had not been made to any of them. On October 8, the promise became a reality and the Archbishop gave written permission for the foundation.
There were so many small miracles in overcoming many obstacles to this Mission in Tokyo, but the providence of God walked with the sisters. First of all, Mother Margarita had to speak with the Bishop in French, and she worried that she would stammer a lot. But it was finally decided that the House of the Mercedarians would be built at the entrance to the Archbishop’s gardens. Behind that was a small house where the missionaries who worked for the Archbishop used to rest. It would be vacated by March and they could use it for giving classes. The Cathedral was close by within the garden walls. Father Candu, a French priest, offered to teach the sisters Japanese. Also, being close to the protection of the Archbishop was an advantage for the sisters.
Finding the money to begin the construction of the house, however, was the most urgent problem. Mother Margarita began this foundation with severe financial difficulties. She asked Berriz for 30,000 pesetas, and three days later asked for an additional 5,000 more because they needed to build a loft to protect them from the heat and cold.
Later, despite the publicity of the sisters offering classes, they had difficulty getting pupils and had to borrow money just to survive. The future did not look good. The location, in the Archbishop’s garden, was not conducive to their needs; they needed to build a school elsewhere.
They were offered the purchase of the school in Koenji by the Sisters of Saint Maur. They did not have the personnel to run it, and were using it as an orphanage. They wanted to sell it for 185,000 yen or 400,000 pesetas. The sisters of Saint Maur told the Mercedarians they would have the school full because it was well located and easy to get to in the city of Tokyo. After studying several other proposals, the Mercedarians decided the offer of the Sisters of Saint Maur was the best, but needed to rent the school for five years, evaluating the results before buying it.
Securing the Site for the School of Koen
In a letter to Mother Margarita, Sister Begona Dochao said: “it is necessary to give up completely the idea of renting Koenji and to buy it, adding an adjacent piece of land lest we become completely boxed in and later have to pay much more.” At the same time a lady from Mexico offered about 20,000 pesetas for five years either to rent Koenji or to provide collateral for another loan. But the Sisters of St. Maur asked for some 70,000 yen in cash and the remainder of the 180,000 to be paid in 4 years at 4% interest. In the case that this could not be paid for in 6 years the house would belong to the sisters of St. Maur under certain conditions.
The Sisters of Saint Maur amended it to say they would not have to pay anything at the beginning. The Mercedarians were ready to sign a contract but needed a guarantee on the land before signing a contract. The cable with the affirmative answer did not arrive till November 24. On November 22, 1930, Mother Margarita wrote: “You can’t imagine what it means for Berriz, in these moments to give up 96 thousand pesetas, the value of the 20 ,000 yen they need.” (It was the time of the Second Republic in Spain, a bad financial situation that brought with it an enormous drop in the value of the peseta and the stock market.) Mother Margarita continued, “Life has become so expensive in Spain that the sisters there were barely surviving and seeking work everywhere. Nevertheless, we have very happily risked that capital for the land trusting only in the Providence of God, which has never failed us…when it is a question of the missions.”
The contract had been accepted counting on the money from Mexico, and when Mother Margarita was already on her way to Tokyo for the inauguration of Koen, they sent word from Berriz that the donor had retired her offering. However, no one was discouraged. They just continued to grow in the abandonment of God’s Providence. The purchase of the school was however accepted counting on the Providence of God and counting on the fact that once the first years were over, the school would produce enough to start paying off the debt. In these moments of 1931, the MMB’s had to face a debt of 181,000 yen to be paid off in four years, with the interests of the capital paid every three months. These conditions were impossible to fulfill; at the time of WWII, there was still something left to pay, eventually the debt was paid off, despite the fact that the school was totally destroyed in the war. The reason for the protracted lack of payment was that the school didn’t produce enough to pay the interests and start paying off the capital as had been expected.
The house in Tokyo suffered for a long time, much more than it could appear at first sight. The missionaries of one of the expeditions were surprised by the mended habits since the sisters were so frugal, always looking for ways to save. The expenses were unavoidable because the demands of a school in Tokyo were so pressing. They began the preparations in the first months of 1931; course preparation, uniforms, enrollment of pupils that began on March 5th. The inauguration of the school was planned for April.
Mother Margarita left Berriz on January 12, 1931, along with Cecilia Gallarzagoitia, Principal of the School of Berriz , and three missionaries assigned to Tokyo. The missionaries arrived on February 27, and Mother Margarita with her companions arrived on March 19, after first visiting the house in Wuhu, China. On April 5, 1931 which was Easter Sunday, the final preparations were made and the following day the Catholic inauguration of Koen was held. The Archbishop spoke briefly in French and the Spanish ambassador answered him.
On April 8, the school opened its doors to the first 27 students at Koen. A new step in the life of the Mercedarian Missionaries in Tokyo began. While financial difficulties continued to plague the sisters, they were finally able to get enough money to buy the land next to the school to expand. But the sisters still needed to pay the Sisters of St. Maur, they needed to pay the teachers, and the number of students attending the school was not enough to do so. They couldn’t admit more girls because of a lack of room, and they could not build the expansion until the Sisters of St. Maur were paid off. It was a vicious cycle.
Added to that, was that the work of evangelization for which they had come to Japan in the first place, was impossible. The catechism class, which Koen gave voluntarily once a week to all who wished to attend, had to be suspended once the political situation worsened. Until the sisters were fully immersed in the language, Japanese lay people handled the catechesis. Even then, catechetical work could not guarantee a definitive step toward baptism. The difficulties that they had to overcome in order to obtain the permission of families for a baptism were great. Nevertheless, God was with the sisters and over the years many did receive baptism. Probably, the greatest means of evangelization was the environment created by the Mercedarian sisters themselves. The piety of the sisters inspired the schoolgirls to see something special in the lives of the missionaries that they also desired.
(To be continued. . .)
