In the new booklet Face the Facts, Akashi dwelt on one point that would adversely influence the Korean brothers. The booklet encouraged young couples to wait a “few years,” until after Armageddon, before marrying. He interpreted this to mean just two or three years, instead of an indefinite time period. Thus, the Korean brothers believed that they had just a few months left to preach, then they would suffer arrest, and while imprisoned, Armageddon would strike.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 149
The brothers were interrogated time and again as the authorities sought ways to prosecute them. They were asked: “Is it true that all nations are under the influence of the Devil? Is our great Imperial Japan included? Are you an American spy? When will Armageddon come?” The brothers answered the last question by saying: “After the preaching work is done.” Next the authorities would charge: “By your preaching you are actually urging Armageddon’s coming, which means you are urging our Imperial Japan’s destruction.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 153, 154
The Korean brothers were disturbed, though, because they had believed his inaccurate explanation of the “few years” left before Armageddon.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 154
How did the door to true worship swing open again? Sister Park Ock-hi explains:
“After liberation from the Japanese in 1945, although several sisters insisted it was time to wait for Armageddon in a ‘secret place,’ we did continue to hold some meetings in my house.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 155
“To our amazement, forty brethren and people of good will attended. We conveyed the greetings of the brethren in the United States, talked of God’s organization at this time and then answered many of their questions. The brethren in many respects have a deep understanding and are certainly anxious to do what is to be done. Only two or three have wrong ideas, being bitter because the ‘few years’ till Armageddon mentioned in the Face the Facts booklet has stretched out this long.”
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 157
He was asked why he was avoiding the People’s Volunteer Army. “I can serve only God’s Kingdom,” he replied. “At Armageddon both sides in this political struggle will be destroyed by God, and I do not wish to be on either side. I cannot violate God’s law for any man-made law contrary to his. I am not afraid to die because I believe in the resurrection.”
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 164
Publication title: Around 1944 when the branch office was being established in San José, a follower of the Roman Catholic faith in San Carlos received through the mail the booklet Armageddon and passed it on to Naftalí Salazar, an Evangelical.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 219, 220
Joshua Steelman, visiting as a special representative of the Society, asked Silbert: “When do you plan to go pioneering, when Armageddon is knocking at the door?” Silbert saw the urgency of the times. He and Valmina started pioneering November 1948.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 225
For many years the people of Cartago had adopted a similar attitude toward the warning about the approaching war of Armageddon.
1988 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 1987. p. 236