When more missionaries, including Adeline Nako and her partner Lillian Samson, arrived in Japan from Hawaii in 1953, they were assigned to the cold northern city of Sendai.

Adeline has not yet forgotten the day when, because of her inability to read Japanese, she pushed an emergency fire alarm, thinking it was a red doorbell. People came pouring out of their apartments to see what had happened. She got a good scolding for that one.