William Axling (1873–1963)

I picked this up at the "lending library" at my favorite deli and found myself surprisingly fascinated with the biography of this pre-WW II Japanese spiritual leader. Born in Kobe in 1888 of a wealthy family and Harvard educated, Toyohiko Kagawa chose a life of poverty in the slums outside Toyoko in order to bring Christianity to the lowest of the low. Becoming aware of the cause of the poor living conditions around him, he also became adamantly involved in organizing labor unions, for which he wound up in prison. Ironically, the Japanese government later called on him help set up governmet programs. The similartiy to Ghandi (whom he admired) is striking. I am surprised that he is not more well known to the general public in the Western world (although the Christian ministry seems to know of him), but perhaps the anti-Japanese sentiment surrounding World War II caused him to disappear from general view.
While it is obvious that Mr. Axling's greatly admires Kagawa, his writing is very straight forward and easy to read.… (meer)