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 Mary Parke Thompson and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In the last installment of this continuing series, Mary recorded all of the pressures that had been building on their lives for months including disagreements among missionaries and an increase in government monitoring of Japanese Christians. In January 1875, David had begun his services as interpreter to the U.S. legation in...

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this installment from her diary, Mary writes about civil court actions against Okuno, Ogawa, and Kitahara, three Japanese converts who worked closely with the Thompsons and were leaders in the native church.

In August and October 1874, David Thompson presided over the burials of two Japanese Christians “after the Christian manner.” Christian burial is this context probably meant burial of the body without cremation. Such burials were not unknown in Japan, but...