The Japanese Missionary Journals of Elder Alma O. Taylor, 1901 10 Reid L. Neilson BYU Studies Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History Provo, Utah
Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History Produced by the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History and BYU Studies Also in the Series: A Study of the Origins of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania by Larry C. Porter A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri by Alexander L. Baugh A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri from 1836 to 1839 by Leland Homer Gentry To Make True Latter-day Saints : Mormon Recreation in the Progressive Era by Richard Ian Kimball The Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants by Robert J. Woodford Alexander Schreiner: Mormon Tabernacle Organist by Daniel Frederick Berghout 2001 Reid L. Neilson. All rights reserved. Contact the author at ReidNeilson@hotmail.com Cover: Portrait courtesy of Carla Christensen, design by Nichole Klein. This dissertation was approved in August 2001. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author. To contact the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, write to: 121 KMB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602. To contact BYU Studies, write to 403 CB, Brigham Young University, PO Box 24098, Provo, Utah 84602. ISBN 0-8425-2495-9 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 ii
Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History Over the years, graduate students have written many important dissertations on Latter-day Saint topics. Unfortunately, they have typically been unavailable or unknown to lay readers. All too often, good copies of dissertations reside only at the institution at which they were written or on a few researchers book shelves. BYU Studies and the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History hope to fill this gap by producing and distributing selected dissertations of interest to Latter-day Saints, making them available to a larger audience. The works in this series have been reformatted from the originals. Nevertheless, these dissertations have undergone only minimal editing. For example, some typographical errors have been corrected. Original page numbers are referenced in the text by superscripted italicized numerals in brackets (e.g., [3] ). Occasionally, the author has included additional information in the endnotes to update old material. Those additions have been placed in brackets and italicized to distinguish them from the original text. Otherwise, the text is identical to the work accepted by the dissertation committee. iii
To the Japanese Saints
Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments vi vii Chapters 1. Introduction 1 2. The Japan Mission: First Efforts, 1854 1900 5 3. Alma O. Taylor: Among the First in the Japan Mission 17 4. Journal Editorial Guidelines 27 5. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1901 31 6. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1902 97 7. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1903 155 8. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1904 193 9. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1905 235 10. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1906 263 11. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1907 307 12. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1908 355 13. Alma O. Taylor Journal, 1909 10 393 14. Epilogue 423 Biographical Register 429 Bibliography 465 Abstract 471 Index available free online at http://byustudies.byu.edu. Click on publications, then dissertations, and follow the links to The Japanese Missionary Journals of Elder Alma O. Taylor, 1901 10. v
Illustrations Alma O. Taylor viii The first four missionaries to Japan at a missionary benefit dinner in Salt Lake City in summer 1901 4 Louis A. Kelsch, Alma O. Taylor, and Heber J. Grant at the dedication site in Yokohama, 1901 4 Heber J. Grant, Mary Grant (daughter), and Augusta Grant (plural wife) in Japan, c. 1902 16 Horace S. Ensign at the mission home in Tokyo 16 Map of Japan 30 Alma O. Taylor mending his clothes 262 Horace S. Ensign sleeping on the floor of the Tokyo mission home 262 Four missionaries in Japan, c. early 1900s 306 Elders with Japanese Sunday School children in Tokyo 306 Alma O. Taylor, Heber J. Grant, and others enjoying a traditional Japanese dinner 354 Missionaries visit the Nikko Shrine, c. early 1900s 354 Japanese members and investigators standing outside an early church meeting house 392 Alma O. Taylor and Louis A. Kelsch, in kimonos, meet with a friend 392 vi