From California to the Rising Sun

This article draws upon Tadashi Ino’s biography of Teruhiko Okohira and Dennis Pettibone’s biography of Willian Grainger, published in the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (ESDA). It was prepared by Dragoslava Santrac, ESDA managing editor.—Editors.

In the late nineteenth century, as Japan began to open to the modern world and the Seventh-day Adventist Church was beginning to awaken to its global mission, two people from very different backgrounds were drawn together by a mutual sense of sacred vocation. Teruhiko Okohira was a Japanese student who grew up at the crossroads of a fading samurai culture and Western ideas. William Calhoun Grainger was an American educator affected by war and loss. Their story is about patient work and quiet faithfulness that together laid the foundations of Adventism in Japan.

From Samurai Roots to Spiritual Searching

Teruhiko Okohira was born on December 12, 1865, in Kagoshima, Japan, the fifth son of Gendazaemon Okohira. His family belonged to an influential class at a time when Japan was undergoing a change from an isolated, feudal shogunate into a Westernized and industrialized world power. The old samurai order, once the backbone of Japanese society, was rapidly losing its place in the new Meiji era (1868-1912). For young Okohira, this shift created both uncertainty and opportunity.

Realizing the old samurai way was no longer a successful path, Okohira enrolled at Keio Gijuku, a leading private school in Tokyo. He was introduced to Western ideas and education there, but illness forced him to pause his studies and return home. Once he recovered, he studied English in Kobe and Yokohama, believing that learning the language would give him more opportunities abroad.

His ambition motivated him to travel to the United States in 1886 or 1887, hoping to become a successful businessman. He enrolled at the California state commercial school. But the biggest change in his life would come, not from business, but faith.

Kindness That Opened the Heart

One kind invitation changed the course of Okohira’s life. While in California, he accepted an invitation from friends to share a meal with a Christian family. The household’s warm hospitality made a deep impression on him. Christianity, which until then had been little more than a distant Western religion, suddenly became personal and compelling.

This experience sparked a real interest in Christianity for Okohira, and he eventually joined the Methodist Church. His choice came with a price. When his family in Japan found out, they stopped financially supporting him. Still, Okohira was determined to keep studying and train for ministry at the Moody Bible Institute, so he worked at a hotel in Paso Robles, California, to support himself.

Quiet, humble, and hardworking, he dedicated his life to growing the church his mentor helped start.

Okohira’s faith was genuine, but his spiritual journey remained ongoing.

Discovering the Adventist Message

In the summer of 1892 Okohira went to Seventh-day Adventist camp meetings led by H. F. Courter, a professor at Healdsburg College, the predecessor of Pacific Union College. These meetings brought him to a group dedicated to Bible study and mission. Two students from Healdsburg, including Herbert H. Dexter, took a special interest in him. Dexter visited Okohira’s room each day to study the Bible and pray with him. Together with another Japanese seeker, Mr. Oyama, Okohira thought deeply about the teachings they discussed.

As the camp meetings drew to a close, Okohira met William C. Grainger, the president of Healdsburg College, who would become his mentor and colaborer in the mission field. Grainger saw Okohira’s spiritual perception and his gift to connect different cultures. He invited Okohira to study at Healdsburg and offered to help with finances.

Okohira happily accepted the offer. That autumn R. S. Owen baptized him, marking his devotion to the Adventist faith.

A Volunteer for Japan

As he neared the end of his studies in June 1894, Okohira spoke during a Friday evening vesper service. He shared his strong wish to return to Japan with the Adventist message, but said he needed someone to go with him. He asked if anyone would volunteer to join him.

Grainger was not there that evening, but his wife, Elizabeth, was present. She immediately responded to Okohira’s request, excited to do mission work in Japan. When she later told her husband about her desire, Grainger agreed they should accompany Okohira. Their decision set the direction for Adventist mission work in Japan.

Preparing the Way Among the Japanese Diaspora

Before leaving for Japan, Okohira was already involved in mission work with other Japanese people. In 1893, while studying at Healdsburg and with support from the California Conference, he helped start the Kinmon Waei Gakko (Golden Gate Japanese-English School) in San Francisco. The school soon became well known among Japanese immigrants. Students learned English and practical skills, and some also became Adventists. By 1894 Kinmon Waei Gakko was the largest Japanese school in San Francisco, bigger than similar schools run by other denominations. These early successes confirmed Okohira’s conviction that education and faith could work together successfully.

Grainger: From Campus to Mission Field

William Grainger had a very different background. He was born on January 21, 1844, in Warrensburg, Missouri, and grew up in a large family during the American Civil War. As a young man he joined the Union Army, fought in battles, and was even held as a prisoner of war.

After the war Grainger worked as a public school teacher and married Elizabeth Work in 1872. They had three children: Susana, Andrew, and Gertrude. Their family experienced both happiness and loss, including the early death of their son Andrew at the age of 20. When farming problems ended his teaching job in Missouri, Grainger moved to California in search of new work opportunities.

In California he and Elizabeth met their neighbor Abram LaRue, an Adventist missionary, who introduced them to the Adventist faith. They accepted it fully, and soon Grainger started leading evangelistic meetings. Church leaders appreciated his teaching skills and invited him to teach at the new Healdsburg College in Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of California. After four years, he became the college president.

Grainger’s leadership was personal and deeply pastoral. Under his administration, Healdsburg College flourished as a training ground for mission-minded workers. “By his example,” writes historian Walter Utt, “the students learned kindness, sympathy, and consideration for others.” He was always ready to help a student, whether by assisting with schoolwork or by bringing a seriously ill student to his home for convalescence. One incident illustrates the kind of person he was. When a load of peaches, which needed immediate attention, arrived after the cook had left for vacation, rather than calling her back, he “put on a big apron and canned them himself.”[1]

Even though Healdsburg was doing well, Grainger resigned as president in 1894. What looked like a professional setback turned out to be a new beginning. He was ordained as a minister that year and soon agreed to join Okohira in bringing the Adventist message to Japan.

On November 3, 1896, Okohira and the Graingers left for Japan, sent by the General Conference. Storms slowed their trip, but they reached Yokohama Harbor on November 19. For Okohira, it was a historic moment. “This day,” he wrote, “is the first monumental day when the missionary of our church came for the ministry in Japan.”[2]

Planting Adventism in Tokyo

After looking at their options, Okohira and Grainger chose Tokyo as their base. They rented a small house in Azabu-ku Nishi-machi and started their mission work. Okohira worked as a translator, teacher, evangelist, and editor, while Grainger led, taught, and provided pastoral care.

Together, they started Owari no Fukuin (The Gospel for the Last Days), the first Seventh-day Adventist magazine in Japanese. The publication quickly became well known and helped spread Adventist teachings widely. They also opened the Shiba Japanese-English Bible School, the first Adventist school in Japan.[3]

Some of their students made choices that would influence the future of the church in Japan. Military officer Hide Kuniya and doctor Mokutaro Kawasaki accepted Adventist beliefs and left their jobs to stay true to their faith. On April 24, 1899, Grainger baptized Kawasaki, Kuniya, and two other Japanese men, showing the impact of their lived Christian witness. By the end of that year, the first Seventh-day Adventist church in Japan was formed with 13 members.

Loss and Legacy

Tragically, just three years after it began, the young Adventist mission suffered a devastating loss. On October 31, 1899, William Grainger died after a short illness at the age of 55. His daughter Gertrude said he was calm, alert, and “trusting in the arms of God all the time.”[4] Okohira gave the funeral sermon, honoring his teacher, mentor, and coworker in mission. Grainger was buried in Tokyo’s Aoyama Cemetery, leaving his life’s work and remains in Japan. Elizabeth and their children went back to the United States.

After Grainger’s death, Okohira took on more responsibility, determined to carry the mission work forward. In 1907 W. W. Prescott ordained him to the gospel ministry, making him the first Japanese Adventist minister. That same year, on August 14, he married Aiko Ogata, and they had four sons and two daughters. For almost 40 years Okohira was a key Adventist church leader in Japan, working as a pastor, administrator, editor, educator, and school director. He also attended the General Conference sessions as a delegate in 1913 and 1936. Quiet, humble, and hardworking, he dedicated his life to growing the church his mentor helped start.

A Mission That Endures

Teruhiko Okohira died on December 8, 1939, and was buried in Tama Cemetery in Tokyo. He departed quietly, just as he had lived, with a legacy distinguished by humility and faithfulness. The institutions he led, the publications he edited, and the people he helped showed that his mission was built on sacrifice and grace.

Okohira and Grainger’s story reminds us that mission work is rarely dramatic or marked by sudden success. It grows through friendship, education, patient teaching, sacrifice, and steady trust in God. Their journey from California to Japan also reminds us that the gospel can cross cultures, generations, and distances until the mission is complete, if there are people willing to answer the call.

[1] Walter Utt, A Mountain, A Pickax, A College, 3rd ed. ([Angwin, Calif.:] Pacific Union College, 1996), pp. 11-14.

[2] Teruhiko Okohira, “Reminiscence,” quoted in Tsumoru Kajiyama, Shimeini Moete: Nihon Sebunsudeadobenchisuto Kyoukaishi (The History of Japanese Seventh-day Adventist Church) (Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan: Fukuinsha, 1982), p. 21.

[3] W. D. Burden, “Japan,” The Missionary Magazine, April 1900, p. 179.

[4] “Another Worker Fallen,” Australasian Union Conference Record, Feb. 1, 1900, p. 16.