The Church in Asia, 1964
Missionaries were first sent to Asia in the 1850s, but the Church didn’t develop a lasting presence there for another hundred years. It wasn’t until the first two decades after WWII that the Church grew deep roots in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
As the Apostle responsible for the Church in Asia in the 1960s, Gordon B. Hinckley witnessed much of that early growth. He developed a great love for the people he met and felt a need to replace the images of war that dominated Western perceptions of Asia at the time with images of faith. “Man’s greatest folly, war, became the Lord’s opportunity to build a kingdom of peace,” he wrote in a detailed 1964 Improvement Era article about the Church in Asia. Illustrated with more than 70 photos, the piece showed Church members in action.
At the time, the article helped overcome prejudice and increase international unity in the Church. Today the images and written descriptions by Elder Hinckley remain valuable as a historical record—a glimpse into a pioneer era.
In 1964 there were just three missions in Asia: one headquartered in Hong Kong, one in Seoul, and one in Tokyo. Elder Hinckley anticipated much more. “It is apparent that the Spirit of the Lord is brooding in the hearts of men in this part of the earth,” he wrote, “and that doors now locked will some day open.”
Japan
On March 8, 1902, a former Shinto priest named Hajime Nakazawa became the first person to be baptized in Japan. More than 150 others joined the Church before international conflict brought the work to a halt. A few remaining members welcomed the mission’s reopening in 1948.
Finding a mission home in the wake of the war had been difficult. “The concrete shell” of a damaged mansion was purchased and converted. 
By the 1960s, Church members were working with construction missionaries to build meetinghouses. In this picture, Sister Machiko Sonoda volunteers. 
Building missionaries from Hawaii and Okinawa work on the steeple of the Tokyo West chapel.
Members of the Tokyo South and Central Branches combined to perform “Mitama no Dendo,” a play about the life of the Apostle Paul. “Branches of the Church, some twenty-nine of them, lie like beads on a string from Naha and Futenma on Okinawa to Asahigawa on the north Island of Japan—a distance of more than 1,500 miles. Exclusive of American servicemen, there are more than seven thousand members of the Church in Japan today.”
Branch members Tadao Tanaka, Ryoko Rurakami, and Hiroko Akasaka work the Tokyo West chapel interior.
The Young Men M Men group plays basketball in Tokyo. 
Tokyo district’s young men race through an obstacle course. 
Young women approach the finish line of a race.
“[Japan’s] people are ambitious, courteous, friendly. And as the gospel touches their lives, they are faithful with a great love for the Lord and his ways.”
Children from the Tokyo Central Branch work together in a garden. 
Haruyo and Harumi Endo of the Sapporo Branch, posing in ceremonial clothing.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong was once a small town on this harbor, but by 1964, it was home to 3.5 million people. Missionaries first preached in Hong Kong in 1853 without success. The first baptisms took place on December 31, 1950.
A chapel in the New Territories, on China’s mainland. The first branches in Hong Kong were organized in November 1955. The next decade saw rapid growth.
Members of the Sheung Shui Branch in the North Territories.
Primary children perform in a nativity pageant. “The Hong Kong membership now numbers more than 2,400, organized into ten branches. The names of these branches are an interesting mixture of English and Chinese, as is almost everything in Hong Kong. Among them are the following: Causeway Bay, North Point, Tsim Sha Tsui, Tsam Shui Po, Yuen Long.”
Kum Tong Hall was an important meeting place for early Saints in Hong Kong. 
Six young Church members gather for a planning meeting in Kum Tong Hall. 
A district conference is held in Hong Kong’s city hall.
17-year-old Helen See of the Aberdeen Branch shares a traditional Chinese dance. 
Aaronic priesthood holders fulfilled their duties and prepared for missions. 
A youth choir, dressed for performance. 
“We love the missionaries because they love us and treat us as equals,” one woman said. “Other foreigners treat us like dirt under their feet in our own land.”
Korea
Hong Me Sun would be one of the first generation of Korean members raised in the Church. Kim Ho Jik embraced the gospel while studying in the U.S. in 1951, just as others learned it in Korea from U.S. servicemen.
Church members prayed for missionaries. Finally, in 1956, the first pair arrived.
A worker, carrying his load on a chige, reads a missionary tract. 
Missionaries pass out tracts. “Koreans printed with moveable type more than two hundred years before Gutenberg,” Elder Hinckley reminded Improvement Era readers.
“Exclusive of Americans in the armed service, the membership of the Church now exceeds 1,800. Most of them are university students or university graduates. It is doubtful that a more educated membership can be found anywhere else in the world.”
Church members rehearse for a road show. Elder Hinckley was impressed with members’ talents in music as well. “How beautifully they sing,” he wrote. “To hear them blend rich and well-trained voices is an inspiration.”
The Hong family visits a historic palace. Having endured a difficult national history, Korean members brought their roots of resilience into the Church. 
American servicemen formed their own district in Korea and tried to help build up the Church. In this photo, their district presidency meets with the mission council. 
Brother Chung Tai Pan, Sister Choi Jang Soon, and Sister Choi Soon Hei work on translating manuals into Korean. 
Building missionaries work in Seoul.
Taiwan
Branch president Chang Kao Chun, first counselor Lie Kuie, and secretary Lian Shin An show off a sketch of the proposed chapel for the North Taipei Branch. The Church began to grow in Taiwan in 1957 with the baptisms of Ch'iu Hung-hsiang and Tseng I-Chang.
During a youth activity, members share lunch in the cool of a cave. 
“The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me” (D&C 25:12). On a branch activity, a sister plays a guitar. “We now have approximately 1,600 members in Taiwan, gathered into thirteen branches.”
Sisters Lin Hin Huan and Shen Yen take a taxi home from a Church meeting.
The Philippines
A few baptisms took place in the Philippines in the 1940s and 1950s through member efforts, but missionaries did not enter the country until 1961—just three years before Gordon B. Hinckley’s article. Despite its later missionary start, the country has the largest LDS presence in Asia today.
“The membership now totals 590 with 236 convert baptisms during 1963. Seventeen missionaries are laboring in the Philippines as of this writing.”
Twelve-year-old Lynda Grimm, whose mother was instrumental in getting the Church started in the Philippines, teaches a Pioneer Day lesson in Primary. 
Two girls take a trisikad to Primary. 
Some early Relief Society members in Manila were interested in Primary classes, too, and earned their Firelight class achievement badges.
Three sisters from the Reyes family—“Nita” (Nenita), Emilie, and Corazon—dance at a local activity. Nenita and Ruben Gapiz later became the first Latter-day Saint couple married in the Philippines. 
Carol Smithen and Mary Ellen Edmunds were the first sister missionaries in the Philippines. Edmunds later served as the director of training at the MTC. 
Relief Society sisters sew together.
Many early converts in the Philippines were baptized in this pool at Pete and Maxine Grimm’s home in Manila. 
Missionaries serving in the Cavite Branch make their way home through flooded streets after a storm. 
On April 28, 1961, Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Philippines for missionary work in front of this marble chapel at the American military cemetery. 
The Andrades were one of the first extended families to join the Church in the Philippines. Pictured are Bruno and Gadofreda Andrade (grandparents); Benito and Maria (parents); and Larry, Evangeline, Mirasol, and Cynthia (grandchildren).
