The Buchman Adventure – PreparationsIn September 2014, Imad Karam, John Parker-Rees and Kelly Burks went to India, Japan and South Korea to film for a documentary about the life and legacy of Dr. Frank Buchman, the Founder of Initiatives of Change. This was a follow-up to filming in the United Kingdom, Europe, South America and the United States.

In the first of four features about their journey, Kelly Burks describes the preparation phase.

Imad, John and Kelly interviewing RD Mathur in Delhi, India

In December 2013, the phone rang, or rather, hooted and vibrated, on my desk. I watched it with a jaded eye for a moment and then decided to pick it up. ‘Hello.’

‘Hi Kelly, this is Imad, I just heard from the Initiatives of Change Board and they have agreed to give us a grant towards making the rest of the film!’

‘Hooray, Imad! That’s great!’

I felt the warmth of memories from our filming trip to the States in 2012 and simultaneously the enormity of the challenge of organising a shoot spanning three

countries in the Far East. Imad would be extraordinarily busy in the coming months and John, our Director of Photography, was in Falmouth. So, the onus was upon me to start building… from the spiritual ground up.

It made sense to film in India first and then go to Japan and Korea – that way we would have a staged time difference. So the first thing I did was get onto the web and look at the weather in Delhi. May and June are the hottest months of the year, peaking at 40 degrees, and the monsoons follow in July and August. Imad was free in March, and then not until late May or early

June. John, our DP, had to be in the UK to teach in mid-September. If we couldn’t go in March then it looked like the first two weeks of September would be the first window available.

I had met a number of people from IofC in India in Caux in 2013 and, following their suggestion, Imad and I decided that RD Mathur would be our main interview in India. RD met MRA in 1952 when he saw the MRA play, Jotham Valley, in Delhi. As a result he had become reconciled with his father after years of friction. He met Buchman at this time, and was also invited to speak at the Delhi

Assembly for Moral Re-Armament in December 1952.

Although RD had his sights on a political career, God had other plans, and in 1953 he accepted an invitation from Frank Buchman to go to Caux and then to Germany, where MRA was involved in the post-war reconstruction. He went on to work with MRA in the States and in Africa. Buchman sent him to help facilitate the Japanese apology to the Philippines. Back in India he worked with Rajmohan Gandhi. RD’s knowledge is immense, as is his spirit, and our expectations grew daily.

RD responded to my enquiry about interviewing him with a resounding ‘Yes!’ and began to suggest relevant locations and organise support for us. RD is 88 but he sounded and acted like someone in their twenties! He said he would be available in March and it was now January so the pressure suddenly increased.

Next came the Japanese. Where to start? Masahide Shibusawa had been suggested as a key contemporary of Buchman. His great grandfather, Eitchi

Shibusawa, who brought modern industry and banking to Japan, had invited a young Buchman to speak at the Concordia Society in 1917 about ‘Human Engineering’. His father, Keizo Shibusawa, had been both the Governor of the Bank of Japan and Minister of Finance, and had gone to the MRA World Assembly at Mackinac, USA, in 1952. Masa had also gone to the

States in the 1950s and had written a play, Shaft of Light, which was a sensation when it was performed in Japan. With his father’s support, Masa had decided to commit his life to MRA.

Other Japanese contemporaries of Buchman, Yukika Sohma and Hideo Nakajima, had sadly passed away. But Yukika’s daughter and grandson were in Tokyo.

Imad suggested that Geoffrey Craig, who had spent a number of years in Japan, might be able to help. Geoffrey was a great support and put me in touch with Kiyoshi Nagano at IofC Japan who said he would look into possibilities.

Our other options while in the Far East were the Philippines and South Korea. I wrote to Yeon-yuk Jeong at IofC in Seoul asking him if Rev Boo-ki Min, who had spent time with Buchman at Mackinac Island in the 1950s was still around, and found that he was. Yeon-yuk told me that they were in the process of

Indian Parliamentarians and businessmen with Frank Buchman in Caux 1954 (RD Mathur 2nd from right)

Shidzue Kato (right) from the Japanese Diet in Washington DC in 1957 with Prime Minister Kishi (2nd from right) and Mr Hoshijima, speaker of the Japanese Diet, who led the Japanese apology to the Philippines

interviewing other IofC old timers and that it might be possible for us to meet some of them if we came to Seoul.

Prospects in the Philippines were less encouraging, as sadly, most those who had had contact with Buchman had died. This strengthened our resolve to reach the remaining contemporaries of Buchman in Asia while they were still with us. In the end we had to let the Philippines go as a possible destination.

In February Imad rang to say that he could not go in March. This felt like racing down a steep hill in a car with the accelerator pressed to the floor and suddenly hitting the brakes. When we looked at our commitments for the coming months, and the weather in India, we decided we could only go in the first two weeks of September.

I had been told that the Japanese do not like changes in arranged plans (much like myself!). RD said he hoped he would still be fit enough to do an interview in September. Yeon-yuk told me that we would have to work around Korea’s Festival of the Full Moon in early September. It was a bit like starting

over, but in retrospect there was a Higher Power at work as it was a great benefit to have the additional time for planning and research.

I had been recommended some books which would help me to understand what was happening in these countries in the critical years after World War II, and MRA’s involvement. Ice in Every Carriage by Michael Henderson told the story of the heroic MRA theatrical tour of India in 1952/53 with a travelling team of 200, and Japan’s Decisive Decade by Basil Entwistle described MRA’s crucial work in Japan in the 1950s. David Locke came up to me at the IofC national gathering in Swanwick and handed me a copy of The Worldwide Legacy of Frank Buchman by Archie MacKenzie and David Young –what a treasure this little book turned out to be. I already had Frank Buchman – A Life by Garth Lean.

I began researching the characters and the times. I was fascinated by the 1952 tour of India, which crisscrossed the country, performing the MRA plays and carrying bulky sets and heavy theatre lighting which had never been seen in India. They met the

president of India, Rajendra Prasad, and Buchman addressed both houses of the Indian Parliament but they also touched the hearts of many ordinary people. While they were in India they were under attack on the airwaves by Communists who claimed they represented American imperialism.

Visits by Japanese delegations to Caux and Mackinac in the 1950s led to the Japanese setting up MRA House in Tokyo. This became a centre where people met and talked who never did so elsewhere: union leaders and industrialists, parliamentarians and Senators, the President of the National Railways and the Governor of the Bank of Japan met over dinners, talked of change in their own lives, debated the struggles facing Japan and planned for the future. It was in MRA House that the first Koreans came to talk with Japanese about the bitterness of their shared history. ‘It’s not who is right, but, what is right,’ became their anthem.

I began to see how MRA’s work had preceded Japan’s ‘Economic Miracle’, and that MRA had played a role in averting the strong probability of Japan becoming a Communist country. For instance, when Buchman heard that the Russians had invited young Japanese from the Seinendan organisation to Moscow, he raised the money to bring 100 young Japanese to Mackinac. Many of them returned home with changed lives and perceptions.

I read of Rev Min’s powerful experience in Mackinac in 1957 and how he determined to return to Korea and build MRA and of Yeon-yuk’s conviction that Korea can become one country again. I met Omnia Marzouk at Swanwick and she kindly offered to look out

Rev. Boo-ki Min in 2014

for people for our interviews on her tour of Japan and Korea. Her interest was a great encouragement to our efforts.

It became clear that we needed someone on the ground in India, who could help us with logistics and permissions and in renting lighting equipment. One of my film-making colleagues directed me to a young film-maker in Delhi, named Urmila, who turned out to be a tremendous help.

RD organised accommodation for us in Delhi, and another IofC friend, Viral Mazumdar, offered to arrange transport. As names trickled in from Ravi Rao, we realised that we would also need to travel to Mumbai during our six days in the country. Urmila came to the fore and found the equipment we would need; Sarosh Gandhy agreed to come to Mumbai to be interviewed; and RK and Asha Anand invited us to stay in the IofC centre there. Ravi began two different emails to me with ‘RELAX!’ I restrained myself from

saying that I am not paid to relax but quite the opposite!

Kiyoshi Nagano booked a beautiful hotel for us in Tokyo and confirmed our interview with Masa Shibusawa. He introduced me to Megumi Kanematsu and Keisuke Nakayama, who turned out to be extraordinarily steadfast

friends during our time in Japan. They began sending new names: Dr Toyotane and Tokiko Sohma, who lived and worked in MRA House from the day it opened in Tokyo; Senator Yasu Kano, who served in the Upper House of the Diet for 14 years; Adrienne Wada, who listened to Frank Buchman’s speeches on the radio as a young nurse in Indonesia before the war; and Hideo Nakajima’s wife, Yuriko.

Yeon-yuk contacted me to confirm interviews with Rev Boo-ki Min and with Peter Pyen, whose father brought MRA to Korea after World War II, and offered us accommodation in the IofC centre in Seoul. Yeon-yuk also asked Imad if he could screen Beyond Forgiving in Seoul with Korean subtitles. Imad worked with Yeon-yuk and others to prepare the Korean subtitles up until the day we left.

Caux 2014 gave me the chance to consult more with the Indians, and obtain official invitation letters for the three of us. I also met Hiroshi Ishida, Executive Director of Caux

100 young Japanese Seinendan members with Frank Buchman at Mackinac Island, USA in 1957

Frank Buchman hosting a dinner at Caux honouring an Indian and Pakistani delegation in 1953

Round Table Japan. He was there with a group of young Japanese in whom I experienced the spirit of Oxford Group House Parties in their openness about their struggles and shortcomings. On returning to London, I wrote to Hiroshi to ask if we could interview him while we were in Tokyo.

In the run up to our departure, John arrived in London and organised our lighting equipment for Tokyo. When he couldn’t raise the equipment house in Seoul, Yeon-yuk came to the rescue and went round to their premises in person.

Private donations came in from individuals in the UK, and several important donations from Harry Lucas Jr in the States. I had been keeping the visionary entrepreneur, Bela Hatvany, updated with our plans for the trip to the Far East and gave him a call to say we were near to departure. He asked where our funding had come from and when I explained the contributions so far he promptly said he would give a considerable donation. What fantastic news on the eve of our departure!

All was set! I prepared the questions in liaison with Imad for

our 16 interviews and literally ran out the door at the last moment to jump in a cab to Heathrow with my bags and papers. As I strode into Terminal 5 John’s welcoming hug and smiles from both him and Imad fired my enthusiasm. What a relief it was to be in the airport on the verge of boarding the flight which would take us into our new adventure!

Yeon-yuk Jeong in Seoul, 2014

Photographs by Kelly Burks and Imad Karam