What is KEEP? a reader asks. Friends in the United States want to know about its activities before making a donation.
KEEP stands for Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project, a postwar achievement that began in 1925 when Paul Rusch postponed his plans for a career in hotel management to spend a year in Japan. He had been asked to help the YMCA rebuild its Tokyo headquarters after the devastating 1923 earthquake. After a year, he was urged to stay on for another. His business experience would be valuable to the Episcopal church organization with which he was then affiliated, and church-founded St. Paul's University, or Rikkyo, needed an economics teacher. He protested, but he liked Japan and finally agreed to another year -- and another and another.
It was not an easy transition for this so-called reluctant missionary, but his willingness to help where the need was greatest marked his life. He made friends easily and proved to be a great fundraiser, particularly benefiting St. Luke's Hospital, also established by the Episcopal mission. Early on he learned a valuable lesson: If you are going to do something in Japan, make it first class, a lesson many must still learn today.