MORE REAR-M MIR RRO OR
Gunpei Yamamuro
A MARCH LIKE NO OTHER General John Larsson (Retired) shares fascinating glimpses of the early Army
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ARLY morning on 1 August 1900 in Tokyo, the most daring march ever undertaken by The Salvation Army set off. And no Army march has ever had greater consequences for good. The Army had only been in Japan for five years, and numbered a scant 50 officers and a few hundred Salvationists. The march that morning was headed by two Brits, Territorial Commander Colonel Henry Bullard and Chief Secretary Major Charles Duce, together with Japanese Captain Gunpei Yamamuro, editor of the Japanese War Cry. Under their leadership the 50 officers marched into the Yoshiwara, a one-mile-square walled city within Tokyo that was the stronghold of licensed prostitution in the capital and housed almost 5,000 girls. These girls were virtually slaves of the brothel keepers, who insistently told them that there could be no escape. An imperial ordinance of 1872 had ordered that no prostitute could be held against her will, but it was written in hard-tounderstand classical Japanese and the brothel owners made sure it was not communicated to their girls. The brilliant Gunpei Yamamuro, who as a 23-year-old Christian had become the first Japanese Salvationist and then the first Japanese officer, prepared a special rescue number of the War Cry. Printed on its front page in bold characters was the operative clause of the 1872 ordinance, rendered into colloquial Japanese by Yamamuro, which told the women that they could be free if they wished and that the Army was prepared to help them. Armed with hundreds of copies of this
War Cry, and with banners flying, the officers marched into the Yoshiwara, proclaiming their good news from the street corners like town criers. But within minutes a taskforce of 300 thugs in the pay of the brothel keepers swung into attack. In the skirmish that followed, many officers, including Yamamuro, were wounded. The girls screamed and ran for cover. It was pandemonium. Ranged against the diminutive ‘David’ of the Army was the mega-gigantic ‘Goliath’ of some of the most powerful vested interests of the land. The day after the march, as the Army’s leaders had anticipated, the press arrived in force at the Army headquarters and, to a man, the editors joined the Army’s campaign and gave it front-page treatment. From then on it was not only Salvationists who were assailed in the streets, so were pressmen who were writing up the story. The editorial plants of two leading papers were so badly wrecked by gangs of thugs that the papers were forced out of business. But the papers that survived issued two or three editions daily so that readers could follow the evolving story. ‘March on, Salvation Army,’ applauded one paper, ‘and bring liberty to the captives.’ The events aroused such nationwide agitation that already by October an imperial ordinance decreed that any prostitute desiring her liberty could achieve it by stating her wish at the nearest police station. The consequences of that march into the Yoshiwara were by any measure spectacular. In the space of one year,
12,000 prostitutes obtained their release, with many of them assisted in the process by the Army. By 1902, two years later, 14,000 prostitutes had renounced their way of life and the number of brothel clients, over a million in 1900, had dropped to less than half. In 1920 a roll of honour was prepared by the government listing ‘the benefactors of Japan’. In the roll only five Europeans are numbered, but among them, to mark a nation’s gratitude, are Commissioner Henry Bullard and Lieut-Commissioner Charles Duce. And it all began with a march! Young Gunpei Yamamuro went from achievement to achievement. The year before the march against prostitution he had used his communication skills to write a book entitled The Common People’s Gospel. This simple story of the life and teaching of Jesus was on its way to becoming a Japanese classic. The Yoshiwara events made the author even better known and increased its sales. To date, the book has sold more than 3 million copies in more than 500 editions. It has been sold in bookstores throughout Japan and, in a country where but 1 per cent of the population are Christian, the book has been a beacon of light that has guided many to Christ. Gunpei Yamamuro was the first Japanese person to become territorial commander of his native country, be promoted to the rank of commissioner and be admitted to the Order of the Founder. It is little wonder that Japanese Salvationists of today revere his name. Salvationist 6 June 2020
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