In Japan the Crickets Cry: How could Steve Metcalf forgive the Japanese?

by Ronald E. Clements, Steve Metcalf

Steve had suffered under the brutal regime of his Japanese guards. He and his classmates at Chefoo school in China - for the most part the children of missionaries - had been interned in 1942. Resentment of the Japanese was a way of life. Could he possibly pray for them? Painfully, reluctantly, he found that he could, and his prayers sank deep. At the end of the war the China Inland Mission was seeking young men willing to go to Japan . Steve trained, packed and went. Thus began Steve's lifelong love of Japan. Over the years he would tussle with a culture where courtesy wins over truth; where suicide is an honourable choice; where to be foreign is to be forever alien. Time after time he would encounter miracles of healing, provision, and protection as God looked after him, his wife Evelyn and their growing family. In a resistant culture he would see many come to Christ. This is the story of how a boy's grudging prayers were remarkably answered.

Genres: Biography, Christian, Nonfiction, Japan

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2010

About the author

Ronald E. Clements is the best known Baptist scholar of the Old Testament in Europe at the present time. Currently the Davidson Professor of Old Testament at King's College in the University of London, he earned his degrees at Spurgeon's College in London; Christ's College, Cambridge; and the University of Sheffield, where he received his Ph.D. in 1961. After lecturing seven years at the University of Edinburgh, he spent 1967-83 as a lecturer at Cambridge University. An ordained Baptist minister in England since 1956, he has written more than a dozen significant books on the Old Testament.
For more, see Andy Goodliff's information page on RE Clements.

Reviews

[Nathanael Ayling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story of a man I've heard much about, who, I have interviewed but felt like I didn't know the whole story...
His experience as a teenager in a Japanese concentration camp in China, the witness of Eric Liddell who challenged him to pray for China, and eventually his mission to reach the Japanese.

It was clear that Japan and China have changed a great deal even within his lifetime. The conditions that missionaries had to work in back then are a far cry from the comfortable ease in which we live in Japan now.

It was a great encouragement to see fruit from his labours which showed years sometimes decades later.
May God show more fruit in Japan in the years to come!

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read.
Really challenged to think through the role of forgiveness and considering what it looks like to love even those who have caused hurt and pain.
Thought-provoking and helpful in considering what it looks like to take up your cross and depend fully upon God and trust his work in all circumstances.

[Yrag Notsew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Encouraging. Real. Biographical/testimonial. Vulnerable: shares from his weakness. Well worth reading.

[Miranda López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Metcalf grew up as a missionary kid in China, at a particularly bad time for China: during the Japanese invasions of WWII. He and his fellow boarding school students ended up in a Japanese internment camp. The subtitle of the book reads “How could Stephen Metcalf forgive the Japanese?” One might expect a dramatic account of atrocities and the emotional wrestling with forgiveness, similar to Darlene Deibler Rose’s “Evidence Not Seen.”

Not so. Instead we walk through nearly eighty years of a faithful servant’s life. His sensational beginnings transition to years of slowly perseverant missionary work in post-war Japan. Never are there great revivals or explosive growth; the Japanese in Stephen’s story come to Christ one soul at a time.

It is remarkable to me to hear, from the author himself, over 80 years of his life story, giving fairly equal weight to the various time periods. That, my friends, is an amazing testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness, not for one dramatic event, or a few years of turbulence, but for the full course of a life. (Two lives, if you include his father’s work in China.)

I loved the thoughtful chapter headings, printed in Japanese and English. The ending of Stephen’s book is particularly sweet and appropriate. He passed away in 2014, four years after this book’s publication. His story is well worth reading.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true account of Steve Metcalf’s life as a young child in the remote region in China of the Lisu people where his parents were missionaries.
We follow his journey to Chefoo boarding school in Shandong Province where he and all other foreigners became POWs of the Japanese during WW2.
The message of Steve’s book is forgiveness and love. As an adult after the war Steve’s life drew him back to the Japanese people when he became a missionary with OMF.
THIS story gives a wonderful description of the post war Japanese and the spiritual vacuum left after their Emperor confessed defeat and that he was no longer divinely imbued.

Steve Metcalf’s aim was to bring reconciliation to the people of Japan with the creator of the universe who sacrificed his Son Jesus Christ for them. He also believed reconciliation and truth was essential for Japanese to face the past and not be indifferent to their war history which was hidden from post war generations.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this account. It was very respectful of the hardships suffered by all sides during the war in China, Japan and of allied POW,S.

[Benjamin Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wept during the final chapter. Eric Liddell is one of my heroes of the faith. To read the autobiography a man who carried his torch or forgiveness is truly amazing. This will be a big piece of sermon for the Advent Sunday on Peace.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and encouraging read that flows well. In Japan The Crickets Cry is about the life of Steve Metcalf who was brought up in China then interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, for 6 years. Later, he returned to Japan to bring the gospel to a culture so different to ours that he describes so well. Written near the end of his life and authored by Ronald Clements, Steve's story opens our eyes to the Chinese culture of the pre-war years and that of Japan with some gripping chapters, each a tale in itself. The book would be worth reading just for the insights into the influence of the runner Eric Liddell and the amazing way that God intervened in Steve's courtship, but there is so much more within its 224 pages.
I notice that some didn't enjoy the book. Maybe I came to it with no preconceptions.
Read it for encouragement and for sheer enjoyment.

[Mike Pearson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unbelievably dull and disappointing. I don't know how these two took such an interesting time and series of events and turn it into something so flat and unfulfilling, but they managed it spectacularly.

I was almost completely unable to empathise with the majority of the people or events due to how flatly and matter-of-fact the telling was. This was not helped by a lot of awkward, heavy-handed phrasing. There was nothing near enough of what I was expecting thanks to the back cover; the value of Steve's relationship to Eric Liddell and Steve's struggle to overcome his feelings about the Japanese; this is a blatant case of false advertising. A tragically wasted opportunity. This book will leave a bitter taste in my mouth for some time.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Steve Metcalf was boarding at Chefoo School in northeast China, he (and the other missionary children) were interned by the Japanese during WW2. During his four years as a POW, he grew from boy to man. More importantly, fellow POW Eric Liddell taught him the importance of forgiveness, a lesson the Lord used to call Steve as a missionary to Japan after the war.

The book is well-written and includes such themes as TCKs (and their loss & grief issues), the perseverance needed in missions in Japan, miscommunication & misunderstanding among missionaries, loneliness, singleness, and the power of the cross to lead to forgiveness and reconciliation.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a narrative about Steve Metcalf's life. There are some interesting plots and carefully chosen stories/ testimonials. I enjoyed reading about the experiences of the civilians, prisoners of war. The heroism and courage of these ordinary people in extraordinary times is truly admirable. I expected more about how he overcome his anger towards his captors and in return served and lived amongst them.

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the books was engaging and interesting - the life of a child of a missionary family who turns out to be a missionary themselves. The struggles, the hardship, the triumps...

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good see what is happening with the church in another part of the world.