I was bought up on a diet of amazing mission stories, told earnestly, but mostly not well written. I am delighted to discover “In Japan the Crickets Cry” which is a really well written, engrossing missionary story. What makes it all work so well? Certainly Steve Metcalf’s story is quite remarkable: raised in Taku (south-west China) by missionary parents, sent to Chefoo school, there when the area was taken over by Japan. He lived in a concentration camp for a while, but was eventually re-united with his family in Australia. His God-given passion then became the people of Japan: an extraordinary move in the post war atmosphere of recrimination, not reconciliation, as more and more became known about the horrors of torture, forced prostitution and concentration camps. He devoted his life to preaching and serving in Japan, a country to this day notoriously unreceptive to the Christian message.
I have to declare my initial interest was simply my own personal fascination with Japan, but Steve Metcalf’s story touched me on many levels. He does not spare himself as he tells the story of his early heartbreak when a young women who he was deeply in love with turned her back on him as she could not face the idea of being a missionary wife. I am always moved to read about the dilemmas facing missionaries when it comes to their own children, and Steve not only lived these difficulties himself, but later on had to make the same agonizing decision about his own children.
I appreciated the fine balance kept between large picture analyses of the missionary work in Japan and the illuminating minutiae of daily life… and found especially helpful the sections where he reflects on the psychology and sociology of the Japanese people as they struggled to deal with the aftermath of war. The book is not overloaded with detail about language and custom but again the balance is stuck quite well for those who are interested in Japan for its own sake.
Steve Metcalf “retired” in 1990 but has continued to work with Japanese people in the UK and Europe, and the closing chapters detail some of these stories.
Suitable for any age; parents could read snippets to younger children. The book is a rich source of discussion points for the thoughtful teenager (or adult).
Andrew Lack
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