Proclaim Peace

In the most recent general conference, Elder J. Kimo Esplin told a story of a Japanese woman from the island of Okinawa. Shortly after she was married, Japan entered WWII. Eventually the war approached her island, and in 1945 American forces had surrounded and attacked Okinawa. Elder Esplin recounted, “In a desperate attempt to escape the onslaught, this Okinawan woman, her husband, and their two small children sought refuge in a mountain cave. They endured unspeakable misery through the ensuing weeks and months.” The description reminds me of the book I Am the Clay by Chaim Potok, a novel recounting the fictional story of an old couple and young boy fleeing the Chinese army during the Korean War. They were forced to shelter in caves and suffered immensely from cold and hunger as they struggled to survive, experiencing hardships that we with our “first world problems” could hardly fathom. Elder Esplin continued his true account, “One desperate night amidst the battle, with her family near starvation and her husband unconscious, she contemplated ending their suffering with a hand grenade, which the authorities had supplied to her and others for that purpose. However, as she prepared to do so, a profoundly spiritual experience unfolded that gave her a tangible sense of the reality of God and His love for her, which gave her the strength to carry on. In the following days, she revived her husband and fed her family with weeds, honey from a wild beehive, and creatures caught in a nearby stream. Remarkably, they endured six months in the cave until local villagers informed them that the battle had ended.” This woman had been given strength from God to survive this terrible ordeal on that island, giving credence to the Lord’s declaration, “Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea?” (2 Nephi 29:7) He remembered that suffering Japanese family on an island of the sea, and He will remember all of us in our extremities.

               Elder Esplin continued the story of this woman and told how she eventually found faith in Jesus Christ. She was baptized a member of the Church after being introduced to the gospel by missionaries, but soon thereafter her husband died and she was left in another difficult situation. He recounted, “Some people in her family and neighborhood criticized her. They blamed her troubles on her decision to join a Christian church. Undeterred by profound tragedy and harsh criticism, she held on to her faith in Jesus Christ, determined to press forward, trusting that God knew her and that brighter days were ahead.” Eventually those brighter days came and she was able to join other members of the Church to charter a flight to Hawaii where they could attend the temple and receive their endowment: “She made the 10,000-mile (16,000-km) journey thanks to a generous gift from missionaries who had served in her branch and had eaten many meals at her table. While in the temple, she shed tears of joy as she acted as a proxy for her mother’s baptism and was sealed to her deceased husband.” The story was particularly relevant because of what was soon to happen when Elder Esplin gave this talk: “In November of this year, the 186th temple will be dedicated in Okinawa, Japan. It is located not far from the cave in central Okinawa where this woman and her family sheltered.” It was indeed dedicated in November of last year by Elder Stevenson. One former stake president commented on the astounding 240,000 people who lost their lives there in the war: “I believe and I feel that this land of Okinawa is purified or sanctified by the blood of these ancestors and military personnel. And now it is so great to have a house of the Lord in Okinawa, to have a symbol of peace. We want to be the Lord’s temple-loving people.” Temples are indeed a symbol and declaration of peace, and the Lord made an interesting connection between the two in this declaration: “Therefore, renounce war and proclaim peace, and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:16). We renounce war and declare peace, and that commitment to peace is connected to the work that we do for our dead, especially in temples. Ultimately peace will only come to the world as they embrace the work of salvation found in temples. Perhaps then the most important thing we can do to support peace on earth is to worship in the temple, bringing the covenants of the Lord to the children of God one person at a time.