Late in 1947, the branch overseer in Hawaii, Donald Haslett, received a letter from the Watch Tower Society’s president, Brother Knorr, asking: “Who in Hawaii is willing to go to Japan​—after graduating from Gilead School?” When Shinichi and Masako Tohara (who had three small children), Jerry and Yoshi Toma and Elsie Tanigawa volunteered, Brother Haslett asked Brother Knorr, “And how about the Hasletts?” So Donald and Mabel Haslett joined the eight Japanese-Hawaiians on the long trip from tropical Hawaii to New York in midwinter, arriving at South Lansing in January 1948. In that eleventh class of Gilead, Brother Tohara taught Japanese to a group of twenty-two students, who were selected from more than seventy who volunteered to go to Japan. He was assisted by Elsie Tanigawa.

The Society provided Brother Haslett with a red jeep, and he and Mabel drove across the United States in the fall of 1948. Then they took ship to Hawaii, where Mabel had to stay behind for awhile as Don sailed on to Japan. He arrived in Tokyo in early January 1949. Hotel accommodations were not to be found, but the United States Army kindly permitted Brother Haslett to stay for a month at General MacArthur’s headquarters at the Dai-Ichi Hotel. He toured Tokyo daily in the jeep, searching among the ruins for a suitable branch property. Army men told him he would never find a place. However, after a month’s search, he was able to purchase a substantial Japanese-style home near Keio University, in Minato-Ku, Tokyo.

During the cold month of February, Brother Haslett camped out in the new home, with only a charcoal brazier for heating and cooking. There was strict food rationing. He would stand in line with the neighborhood people to receive his allotment of rice and a long carrot or some cabbage leaves. During this time he arranged to meet with some of Junzo Akashi’s followers. The first meeting was cordial, but the second meeting ended with this group showing angry, bitter opposition to the Society. In order to secure their release from prison, most of these had signed a paper renouncing Jehovah and his service. It was apparent that they had lost Jehovah’s spirit completely.

Now Mabel Haslett received her permit to enter Japan. She arrived by plane on March 7, 1949. In the big, empty house, Brother and Sister Haslett became adjusted to sleeping on futon mattresses, under a mosquito net, and they had the company of some rats. Later in March, Jerry and Yoshi Toma arrived by ship. The Tohara family and Elsie Tanigawa arrived in August.

From March onward, Kingdom witnessing was carried out in the immediate neighborhood of the Tokyo branch. However, there was practically no literature with which to work, and even the Hawaiians had to adjust to the type of Japanese spoken in Tokyo. A mimeographed paper, entitled “The Bible Clearly Teaches,” was distributed, with the simple verbal invitation, “Please read.” Sister Haslett clearly remembers her first return visit. An old lady had requested extra copies of the mimeographed paper. “Ah, she’s interested,” thought Sister Haslett. But, on calling again, she found the precious papers propped up over some plants in the yard. The lady had thought that these “holy papers” would help the plants grow!

One day, two Japanese men, schoolteachers, stopped at the branch and asked Brother Haslett if he would teach the Bible to the children at school. So every Saturday morning the Hasletts made the trip by jeep to the Toride Second High School. Here Don taught the older students and Mabel the younger ones. As textbooks, they had one copy each of the Japanese Harp of God, together with the English book.

Five of the October arrivals were assigned to open up a new missionary home in Kobe, some 250 miles southwest of Tokyo. The SCAP war properties custodian rented to the Society the spacious home of a former German Nazi, and the Society later bought this fine property. Here, at Tarumi, on the edge of Japan’s Inland Sea, the missionaries set to work to clean up the property, the Hasletts and Toharas contributing their vacation time to this. Quaint ships chugged their way along the coast below the home, and glorious sunsets were to be seen over Awaji Island. It was a lovely setting for a missionary home.

Soon after the arrival of the Kobe missionaries, the first theocratic assembly was arranged for Japan. The location? The Tarumi, Kobe, missionary home, with its spacious rooms and more than an acre of ground. Over forty persons stayed in the home on this occasion. The grounds and porch served for cooking and cafeteria, and the large living room as assembly hall. Three new publishers were baptized, Don Haslett doing the immersing at a nearby bathhouse. The Japanese take their baths piping hot, and when Brother Haslett entered the water it was so hot that he jumped straight out again, his legs as red as lobsters. Only after many buckets of cold water had been added was he able to enter the bath again to baptize the new brothers.