*** w81 5/15 p. 3 I Have Seen Lives Marvelously Changed ***
As told by Percy Iszlaub
BACK in 1949 a Japanese man named Kimihiro Nakata murdered two men. He was paid to do it. Those were violent times. Millions of lives had been wasted on the battlefields, and, for a while, the violence of those times spilled over into the postwar years.
My wife, Ilma, and I had just come to Japan as missionaries in the wake of World War II. Kimihiro was only 18 years of age then. The court sentenced him to death by hanging. If he had been only a few months younger, he could not have been given the death sentence. He was sent to Fukuoka prison and assigned to death row.
In Japan it is not the policy to tell a condemned man when he will be executed. A person may be on death row for a week, a month, a year, or for many years; one man was there for 30 years. In prison, Kimihiro became a disturbed and violent man. He would grab the bars of his cell and scream out: "Why don’t you kill me! Get it over with!" But the years passed and he was not executed.
In time, Kimihiro became interested in religion. He obtained a Bible and began to read it with enjoyment. However, he had questions for which he was unable to get answers. One day, in the mid-1950’s, he received a copy of the Watchtower magazine. An acquaintance, who was not interested in the magazine himself, had sent it to him. This was just what Kimihiro was looking for. He wrote the Watch Tower Society for more information, and one of Jehovah’s Witnesses was sent to call on him. The Witness arrived at the prison, and there, on death row, Kimihiro began to study the Bible.
Meanwhile, in September of 1957, our missionary assignment was changed to Fukuoka City. At the same time, the Witness who studied with Kimihiro moved away, so I took over the weekly studies on death row. Just prior to our arrival in Fukuoka, Kimihiro had been baptized in the prison bath.
So here I found a Christian brother whose personality had changed radically. Kimihiro became nearer and dearer to me as my weekly visits continued and the months passed. As we became acquainted, I could see similarities in our earlier lives. In fact, I often thought that if I had continued my former way of life I also may have ended up in prison.
*** yb73 pp. 244-245 Japan ***
A condemned murderer in the Fukuoka prison contacted the Society, and it was arranged for the missionaries to visit him. Brother Iszlaub conducted a study with him, and so great was the change in the prisoner’s behavior that the prison superintendent soon permitted the study to be held in a room next to his office, with no wire netting in between. In due course, this man was baptized in the prison. He learned braille so that he could prepare Japanese booklets for the blind, and also assisted in the Kingdom work by writing letters out to interested persons and publishers that needed encouragement. Brother Nakata studied hard and strengthened himself spiritually against the day when he would have to pay "life for life" for his crime.
That day came on June 10, 1959. At the condemned man’s request, the jail superintendent called Brother Iszlaub to the place of execution. Brother Nakata greeted him cheerfully and said: "Today I feel strongly confident in Jehovah, and in the ransom sacrifice and the resurrection hope. Never have I felt stronger in my life than I do today." In fact, the visiting brother felt he was very much the weaker of the two that day. They sang a Kingdom song together, read from the Bible and had a final prayer, all of which was a fine witness to the twelve officials present. After asking that his love be conveyed to Jehovah’s organization and the brothers throughout the earth, the condemned brother was led to the gallows, his face shining with appreciation of his hope of sharing in Jehovah’s new order through the resurrection.
*** w59 10/15 p. 637 Condemned Man Finds Hope in Paradise ***
NINETEEN hundred years ago, when Jesus was dying on the torture stake, he was flanked by two criminals, one on either side. They were robbers, and were suffering the penalty for their crimes. Could God’s mercy embrace such men? One joined with the crowd and the scribes in reproaching Jesus. However, the other expressed himself in this way: "We are receiving in full what we deserve for things we did; but this man did nothing out of the way." Then he said: "Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom." Jesus replied: "Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise." Jehovah God, who reads the hearts of men, and who provided a ransom from death through His Son, held out through that same Son, Jesus, the hope of a resurrection at the time Paradise is restored to this earth.—Matt. 27:44; Luke 23:39-43.
Now turn your attention to this twentieth century. It is postwar Japan. After the mass murder of World War II, in which millions of Japanese, as well as other nationals, had been slaughtered, Japan lay crushed in defeat. Violence and confusion were carried over, at least for a time, into the postwar years. It was in this atmosphere that a young man, barely eighteen years of age, was paid by another person to commit a double murder. He was apprehended, and the court sentenced him to death by hanging. That was ten years ago. For eight years he languished in his prison cell, awaiting the execution that might come any day...
....
"Brother Nakata then told me that he wanted his warm and heartfelt thanks conveyed to Jehovah’s wonderful organization for bringing him the truth, and also to those who had visited him and written to him, helping him to gain a further knowledge of Jehovah’s purposes. Appreciation was shining in his face. He asked me to keep on encouraging all of Jehovah’s witnesses to continue faithful and to maintain integrity to the end, and his Scriptural expression was magnificent. He spoke of his desire to meet all of Jehovah’s people in the paradise of the new world. His face reflected this wonderful hope that he held. As he was led away through the door to the gallows, he looked over his shoulder, and said, ‘For a little while I will sleep, and if it be Jehovah’s will I shall meet you all in paradise.’
"So it was that, with calm confidence in that hope, on the 10th day of June, 1959, he died."
