[An account of the martyrdom of American missionaries in the Philippines in World War II.]
In the spring of 1939 the American Baptist Foreign Mission Board reassigned James and Charma Covell and their family from their ministry in a Japanese university to ministry in the Philippines. Their daughter Margaret (Peggy) completed high school in Manila in 1940 and returned to the U.S. to attend college. Due to the deteriorating political situation they sent their remaining children, David and Alice, back to the States to attend school, planning to reunite with them on their furlough in 1942.
The Covells became two of 18 American Baptist missionaries serving on the central island of Panay about 350 miles south of Manila in the Philippines. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 the missionaries on Panay held a meeting in Iloilo City to consider what they should do. They decided to return to their respective locations and carry on as long as possible. Missionary Fred Chambers, president of Central Philippine College, had, by order of the government, closed the college and directed the students to go home. Dr. Fred and Mrs. Ruth Meyer and missionary nurse Jennie Adams transferred patients and equipment from their hospital to an inland town. There they continued to minister to the sick and wounded in spite of the war. Other missionaries continued to serve wherever they were needed. During this time many Filipino families also evacuated to inland villages.
Manila fell to Japanese troops on Jan. 2, 1942, and Bataan fell three months later. Seven American Baptist missionaries and five children were captured by invading Japanese forces on the island of Panay on April 17 and imprisoned in Iloilo City. They were later transferred to Santo Tomas internment camp in Manila where they survived the war despite harsh adversity, sickness and appalling malnutrition.
FELLOWSHIP IN HOPEVALE
The Covells, along with nine other missionaries and one child, fled to a mountain hideout when the Japanese invaded Panay. It was a secluded area in a narrow ravine, deep within the dense forest and tall cogon grass, reachable only by a winding, rough trail crisscrossed by many misleading side paths. Impressed by the beauty of the place, Dr. Francis Rose named it Hopevale. In the ensuing twenty months the number at Hopevale varied as some American mining families stayed awhile and then moved on. None of them would have survived long without the help of their Filipino friends and colleagues who brought them food and news at the risk of their lives.
The missionaries and their Filipino friends gathered for prayer and worship in a deep ravine they called The Cathedral in the Glen. Sometimes as many as 100 people joined in the services, singing hymns and sharing their faith in God’s goodness. In July 1942 the missionaries received a note from their imprisoned colleagues in Iloilo. It contained an impassioned plea to surrender, since the Japanese had threatened to kill all foreigners who were captured. After a long discussion, the missionaries at Hopevale decided to stay where they were.
Word arrived in early December 1943 that the Japanese intended to make a push to find every American between Dec. 15 and 20. The Rev. Dianala and Mr. Rio, two local Christian leaders, advised the missionaries to scatter, but they were not physically able to do so. They chose to stay together and face whatever might come, including the risk of being captured.
Early on Sunday morning, Dec. 19,1943, Japanese soldiers were sighted approaching Hopevale from several directions. The miners’ families fled quickly, the last of them leaving less than an hour before the Japanese arrived. These families were eventually rescued by an American submarine on the western shore of Panay in March 1944.
The eleven missionaries and one child that remained, along with three miners and two children, scattered when the Japanese soldiers arrived. The women and children were overtaken, though, and all surrendered.
They were told that they would be put to death the next day. Jimmy Covell pleaded with the soldiers in Japanese. The leader of the battalion, Tai Watanabe, seeming to be influenced by the appeal, radioed his headquarters for orders.
The answer came about noon the next day, December 20, insisting that the mandate be carried out. The Covells insisted that they had nothing to do with the war, but the soldiers would not listen. Finally, the missionaries asked for time to pray. This request was granted. The little group formed a circle and prayed together. After about an hour the missionaries came forward, singing a hymn and saying they were ready. One by one, each adult was led to the mountain top and beheaded. The children were stabbed to death.
The bodies were put into a cogon thatched bamboo house that was then burned. There was evidence that although Mr. and Mrs. Covell had been murdered with the others, they seemed to have been treated somewhat differently. Mrs. Covell’s body was wrapped, as if some soldiers had felt remorse and attempted to show special regard for her knowledge, and no doubt her respect, of their language and homeland.
LOVE LIVED OUT
When the news of the massacre reached America, the Covell children were shocked and saddened. Peggy, the older daughter, probably wondered what her father had prayed about during his last hour. Knowing of her father’s love for the Japanese and disdain for war, she might have imagined that the foremost prayer on his lips was that peace would come to the world.
Peggy, a sociology major at Keuka College, was uniquely prepared to fill the role of Japanese speaking social worker in a Japanese relocation center in Colorado. Relocation centers housed Japanese Americans who had been interned at the outbreak of the war. Like her father, she loved the Japanese as sisters, brothers and friends.
FROM SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE COMES JOY
Even though the Covell children did not blame the Japanese people for the death of their parents, the fact that Peggy would serve at a Japanese relocation center made a big impression on many Japanese who heard the story.
One Japanese prisoner of war heard about Peggy’s work and was deeply moved by her great spirit of love in spite of what had happened to her parents. When he returned to Japan after the war, he spoke to an old friend, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, about what he had heard. Captain Fuchida was the Japanese Naval pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was wrestling with his memories of the war now that it was over, and this forced him to contemplate the meaning of his life. The returned soldier [actually a sailor, Lt. Kazuo Kanegasaki] told Capt. Fuchida the story of the Covell family and about Peggy’s work in the Japanese relocation center. In his mind her work was a symbol of great love and forgiveness.
Captain Fuchida couldn’t comprehend the meaning of what he had just heard and thought about it often. Soon thereafter, he bought a Bible and began reading it for himself. On those pages he soon found the same kind of forgiveness his friend had heard about in the life of the Covells. He gave his life to the Lord and declared it publicly on the streets of Osaka.
Many Filipinos who protected their American sisters and brothers went on to become strong leaders in the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches. They became pastors, teachers and engineers; one became the general secretary of the Convention. For each of them the suffering and sacrifice of their American friends became a deep inspiration for their service to God.
A passage from CHRIST AND THE FILIPINO SOUL by the Rev. Henry W. Munger describes well the effect the martyrdom of the American Baptist missionaries at Hopevale continues to have on generations of Filipino and American Christians. He writes, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. The devoted band of missionaries who crowned their years of sacrificial service with the gift of their lives have not died in vain. They challenge us to match their sacrifices with ours, to carry on the work they were doing, to take up the torch they threw down, and to hold it high.”
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References:
“Covell NHK Broadcast/ Story,” by Hisayoshi Saito: James Covell
“I Led the Attack on Pearl Harbor,” Decision, December, 1991,
Mitsuo Fuchida/John A. Barbour
“Hopevale – From Life To LIFE” and “Hopevale Revisited” by
Laura Lee Marques, 1990
Information from David Covell and Alice Covell Bender, 1997
Roberta Stephens is an American Baptist missionary in Japan and Ann Borquist is a former American Baptist missionary to the Philippines.
[ Dan O. Yoshii , a Baptist Christian who was born in a Japanese Relocation Camp during the war, has done extensive research on this story to find how Fuchida became connected with Peggy Covell – it was not as direct as many accounts suggest. Professor Katherine Scott Sturdevant of Pikes Peak Community College is also researching it. If anyone has personal knowledge of the Covell/Kanegasaki/Fuchida connection, please contact Prof. Sturdevant at Katherine.Sturdevant@ppcc.edu]