Okinawa was assigned to the Japan branch, and Lloyd Barry, by then branch overseer in Tokyo, paid his first visit there in 1953. He was met by four brothers, all reconstruction workers from the Philippines, who immediately drove him to the U.S. Army’s correction center, where three soldiers were being detained. These young men had taken their stand for Bible truth but were rather tactless. They went to extremes. For example, they kept the entire facility awake by loudly singing Kingdom songs late into the night. They were helped to be more balanced. Incidentally, the prison chaplain remarked that, as he viewed matters, Christ’s Kingdom was a thousand years away. One of these young men later served as a member of the Brooklyn Bethel family; all three became responsible servants in the Christian congregation. During that visit a meeting was held with more than 100 islanders assembled in a Quonset hut.

Soon it was possible to arrange a circuit assembly for some 12 new local publishers, the program parts being handled in Japanese, alternately by Adrian Thompson and by Lloyd Barry. The work expanded quickly, the numbers of publishers and pioneers increasing by leaps and bounds.