Olive I. Hodges – Missionary to Japan

Born in Upshur County on January 21, 1877, Olive began a life of teaching, travel and service to the Lord. She attended Grantsville Teachers’ Institute in 1892, graduated from Huntington State Teachers’ College and taught school in Wirt county, WV in 1893. The Lord came into her life when she was baptized into the Harrisville Methodist Protestant Church. For 3 years she taught school in Ritchie County and then entered Peabody College in Nashville and graduated in 1899. Her next stop was Morgantown, W V where her family had moved.

She taught mathematics at Morgantown High School. She worshipped at the Morgantown Methodist Protestant Church. Olive was approached by the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the MP Church to consider becoming a missionary. After much thought, consultation and prayer, she dared to think God could use even her. Her principal knew that the best was not too good for being God’s messenger to foreign lands.

Olive arrived in Yokohama, Japan in 1902 and began studying Japanese for the next 6 months. She began as a teacher at Yokohama Eiwa Jo Gakko, a school of 80 female students in 13 classes in 1903. She taught Algebra, Geometry, Physics, and Calisthenics. One year later she began her career as principal of the school for the next 34 years.

In 1908 she returned on furlough to Morgantown to earn a B. A. degree at West Virginia University in 1910. She then returned to Japan after visits to Scotland and the Holy Land. For the next 6 years newbuildings were built at the school.

Another furlough was taken in 1917 so that Olive could attend Northwestern University in Illinois and visit North China on mission business.

In 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake hit Yokohama damaging or destroying many buildings and causing a fire that savaged the city but most of the teachers and students survived and the school was able to reopen one month later. A nursey school was added in 1928 and in 1930 the school celebrated their 50thanniversary.

Olive was furloughed to the United States in 1931 where she studied at Columbia University in New York City. In 1938 she resigned as principal but continued to teach. The school’s name was changed to Seibi Gakuen.

In early 1941 Olive was advised to leave Japan due to the political situation but she stayed. She taught until five days after Jimmy Doolittle’s raid over Tokyo during the war and was interred in a concentration camp in September 1942. The guards told her that they were not afraid they would escape but they were there to protect the teachers and the 13 Roman Catholic nuns held with them. She was with a group that were exchanged in August 1943 and was sent home in September

For 2 years she was in charge of a hostel in Washington, DC for Japanese and Japanese-Americans released from relocation centers. She then retired from mission work and went to Washington, DC where she worked for the Methodist Committee for Overseas Relief. She spent her last years in Seibo Ryo and was buried there on January 27, 1964, a life well lived in service of her Lord.