• Hawaii
    1991 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • “A Fire Burning in My Bones”

      Joseph Dos Santos, of Portuguese ancestry, was raised in Hawaii in a Roman Catholic home. By the tender age of 12, he had already lost faith in the church. After attending Berkeley Chiropractic College in California, in 1927 he moved to Inglewood, California. Sincerely searching for Bible truth, he spent his spare time listening to religious programs on the radio and visiting various churches but found these left him feeling empty, devoid of any satisfaction.

      This feeling vanished when, in 1929, his landlady lent him a copy of The Golden Age dealing with the Catholic Inquisition. He said: “What I read in that magazine started to change my whole view of life. It began to fill the emptiness. A local Bible Student heard of my interest and supplied me with more literature. Soon I had no doubt that I had found the truth.”

      During that year, he returned to Hawaii to practice chiropractic, and he continued to devour the Scriptural truths as explained in the Society’s literature. “As in the case of Jeremiah, Bible truth was like a fire burning in my bones,” he recalled. “And I could not keep quiet.” (Jer. 20:9) Although alone and without any contact with the other local Bible Students, he began of his own initiative to visit his neighbors at their homes in the Aiea district of Oahu. Eagerly, he organized a group study with a handful of immigrant workers from the Philippines, and by 1931 the attendance at the study had soared to 22. Since there was no literature in their dialect, Brother Dos Santos read scriptures from his English Bible and then had the students read them in their own Filipino Bibles.

      This vigorous witnessing did not go unnoticed by the clergy. It did not take long for the Catholic priest in Aiea to start circulating a rumor that Brother Dos Santos was pupule (pronounced poo pooʹ lay, meaning “crazy” in Hawaiian). This led to his becoming known in the area as Pupule Joe.

      One day, while visiting a friend, he was shocked at seeing the book Prophecy. He had honestly felt until this time that he was the only one in Hawaii possessing books from the Bible Students. He anxiously inquired of his friend how he had obtained the book. What a surprise and delight it was for him to learn of James Watson and the other five active Bible Students on the islands!

      A Weighty Decision Made

      “A time of decision in my life came,” related Brother Dos Santos. “I realized I had to make a definite decision, either to pursue my profession of chiropractic work, which could give temporary relief to physically ailing people, or to devote myself to the disciple-making work, which will result in man’s eternal benefit.” Confident in the words of Jesus about the kindly yoke of discipleship, he took the matter in prayer to Jehovah. (Matt. 11:29, 30) He could hardly wait to tell David Solomon (the Society’s depot overseer in Honolulu) that he had decided to devote himself to the preaching work and that he wanted to preach in the outer islands of Hawaii, thus leaving Honolulu for the other six Bible Students to cover. Even though no one had taken the good news outside of the island of Oahu, Brother Solomon was convinced of this young man’s determination and therefore built a house truck for his use in the colporteur work. So it was in 1929 that the full-time preaching career of Joseph Dos Santos began. He later remarked: “I went throughout the chain of islands of Hawaii in my 1927 Dodge truck for three and a half years, planting the seeds of truth without even one flat tire!”

      Since the territory was vast and he was the lone worker, he concentrated on spreading the message primarily by literature placements. Describing what it was like, he wrote: “Because of the pace of the Kingdom work at that time, the Bible Students used big book bags or valises to carry spiritual ammunition. People were kind, and there were no insults or slamming of doors. It was like eating candy! People were glad to see you and quickly contributed a dollar for four books, which was the usual offer. I was then young and vigorous and could walk for miles on mountain trails and climb mountains with two valises full of literature, and I enjoyed many wonderful experiences. In some places the roads were so rough and rugged that I could neither drive the car nor walk, especially in the Kohala district on the Big Island. Sometimes I literally crawled to reach the homes. I even left a sizable amount of spiritual victuals for the lepers in the leper settlement on Molokai.”

      He maintained a rigorous schedule, preaching six days a week and averaging 230 hours of service a month. In the three and a half years he spent working alone through the Hawaiian Island chain, he placed 46,000 pieces of literature.

      On returning to Honolulu in 1933, Brother Dos Santos advised Brother Solomon that his next move was to go around the world with the good news. As matters turned out, however, he traveled only as far as the Philippines, where he spent almost 17 years. During that period, he withstood intense opposition, including three years of cruel imprisonment meted out by Japanese occupation forces during the second world war.

      In 1949 Brother Dos Santos returned with his family to Hawaii, where he and his wife continued in the pioneer service until he finished his earthly course in 1983 at 88 years of age. His determination and fiery missionary zeal had considerable impact on the Kingdom work both in Hawaii and in the Philippines.