 Singapore
fell in 1942 and one of the many Australians who became Japanese
prisoners was Army Chaplain Lionel Marsden. He preached a simple
message to fellow slave labourers on the Thailand Railway: "We are
Christians, we rise above hatred”—until a guard’s kick sent him
tumbling down an embankment. The padre picked himself up, consumed with
an anger that gradually turned to hatred, and then to depression: he
had become a phoney, a preacher who hated! In desolate helplessness he
turned to prayer – and found himself promising Christ to begin a
mission of reconciliation in Japan (if he survived).
The war
ended. Encouraged by Lt.Col., “Black Jack” Galleghan and helped by
other ex-P.O.W.s like Stan Arneil, he went to Japan and pioneered the
Marist Fathers Mission. He began a hostel for poor students and set up
kindergartens and churches. Returning to Australia to spread the
message of reconciliation and peace, he died of cancer, touching his
many friends deeply by the way he met death.
Australian Marists
are still in Japan, continuing his work for understanding between
nations, work recognised by the Japanese and Australian governments –
for instance by a medal from the Emperor to John Hill and Tony Glynn,
and an OBE and AM to Tony. Marists from other lands have since joined
this Japanese mission.
Paul Glynn has worked on this Japanese
Marist Mission for more than 20 years. In 1988, assisted by his
Japanese friends, he wrote A Song for Nagasaki, the story of Dr Nagai.
The considerable profits from Glynn’s book have been sent to the
Philippines for the impoverished sick –he and his Japanese
collaborators hope this will heal some of the wounds left there by the
Pacific War.
Today all profits from the sale of Fr Glynn’s books go to the
impoverished people of the 3rd world.
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