half the utmost love and longing to Mr. . . . . and similarly to Mr. . . . . . My hope is that these two souls may shine like unto two heavenly stars from the horizon of Japan and may be the cause of its enlightenment. That land has acquired material civilization and ephemeral advancement; we hope that it may acquire heavenly civilization.’ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá also wrote of the blind translator and the priest, ‘A blind soul is there, but is in the utmost enkindlement; likewise a priest lives there, endowed with great capacity.’
“For two years during 1920 and 1921, a Bahá’í monthly magazine was published in Japanese entitled, Higashi no Hoshi (Star of the East). The first year of its publication, the editor was a young Japanese girl.
“Through the co-operation of the newspapers, both English and Japanese, the Bahá’í teachings have been widely spread in Japan. Not only have they been published in the newspapers of Tokyo, but in the leading newspapers throughout that country. Many magazines also have pub- lished articles concerning these teachings, especially the Esperanto magazines. In the Japanese architectural monthly appeared the Chicago Bahá’í Temple plans together with the Bahá’í principles which were reproduced by the head of the Department of Architecture in the Imperial University, Tokyo, who recognized in these plans a new form of architecture.
“From Japan the Bahá’í Message was taken to Korea in 1921. There at the capital, Seoul, it received the official sanction of the Japanese government to be spread in Korea. During a month in Seoul, the writer addressed Japanese and Koreans both Buddhist and Christian, and the newspapers, Japanese, Korean and English, published articles and translations of the teachings together with pictures of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Chicago Bahá’í Temple plan . A group of young men who heard the Message for the first time sent ‘Abdu’l-Bahá their expressions of faith in the Korean language of which the following are translations: ‘The Message of Truth which shines all around the universe’; ‘Various streams running into the same ocean’; ‘Found a fountain in the mountain’; ‘The same origin from the first’; ‘Just now I found the brilliant light of Bahá’; ‘The newest voice of Truth’; ‘The universal supreme mountain of Truth’; ‘Long life to the Bahá’í, the fair and impartial’; ‘O freedom! O Bahá’í!’
“Between the years 1916 and His passing in 1921, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed nineteen Tablets to residents of Japan, including one to the new friends in Korea which was dated November 5, 1921. Seven of these Tablets were addressed to girl students of Tokyo, the only women of the Far East to receive messages from Him. The other Tablets, with two exceptions, were addressed to young men, and five of these were to blind young men. The following are extracts from these Tablets: ‘At present the Sun of Truth has dawned upon the land of Japan and the hope is that it may be illumined by heavenly teachings’ (December 27, 1918). ‘The teachings of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh, like unto the rays of the sun, illumine the East as well as the West, vivify the dead and unite the various religions. They prove the Oneness of God, for they gather all communities of the world under the pavilion of the Oneness of the world of mankind’ (December 17, 1919). To a group of young Japanese men, who had sent greetings to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, He replied: ‘I was very much gratified at your feelings and at the fact that such a tie exists now between East and West; such friendship between different nations’ (August 19, 1920).”
The complete text of the Tablets written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Japanese and to Americans resident in Japan, with a foreword by Miss Alexander, was published by the Bahá’í Publishing Committee of New York in April, 1928.
No organized Bahá’í communities have as yet been established in China but largely due to the efforts of Miss Martha Root who spent several months in China during 1924, the Bahá’í teachings have
