Dr. Paul Tashiro was born in 1933 to Zen-Buddhist parents running a geisha-girl house in Tokyo, Japan. At the young age of 12, two years younger than the minimum required age of 14, Tashiro volunteered to die for the Emperor as a kamikaze pilot during World War II. The barbaric “training” began with throwing recruits ten miles out into the Pacific Ocean to let them swim back to shore in the dark. Many never made it back. They were taught to fly and strategically crash, not to land, a plane. The grisly agenda continued until it was obvious that these young men were unreservedly willing to die.

Brainwashed and ready for his suicide mission, Tashiro learned that Japan had surrendered on August 15, 1945. Disenchanted rather than relieved, “I questioned,” he recalls, “the very foundations of my life—my nation, my temple religion, the eastern philosophy I had been taught to believe, my emperor.” He joined the Japanese equivalent of the Mafia, drug pushing and pimping to earn a living.

On October 21, 1949, he came across an evangelistic tent meeting being held by the OMS Japan Holiness Church. He left that meeting with Christ in his heart. Accepting a call to full-time ministry in April 1950, Tashiro joined the OMS Every Creature Crusade as an interpreter and evangelist. The kamikaze pilot once willing to die for the Emperor was now willing to give his all to the Lord.

After several more chapters of adventure, including a divine healing from severe tuberculosis in both lungs, Paul Tashiro’s pilgrimage brought him to the United States. He preached and taught for 16 years in Kentucky before serving as an Old Testament and ancient languages professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary (WBS) from 1991–2013. He has a wealth of publications and professional memberships to his name and generously donated his vast library to the seminary.

He and his wife, Eiko, even had an audience with His Majesty the Emperor of Japan when they traveled to Japan in 2007. On this trip, Dr. Tashiro accepted the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, a prestigious achievement award given by the Emperor through the foreign affairs ministry of the Japanese government. He was recognized for his work in strengthening Japan-America relations through accomplishments such as serving as president of the Japan America Society of Mississippi and Academic Dean of the Japanese Supplementary School in Jackson. He was also the senior minister of the Jackson Japanese-Speaking Church in Christ United Methodist Church.

Now a Professor Emeritus, Dr. Tashiro maintains close ties to WBS from his home in Nicholasville, Kentucky. He is working with Wesley Biblical Seminary graduates in the translation of the FAS holiness books, hoping to present two or three books a year to Christians in Japan. He has served on the Francis Asbury Staff as director for Asian ministries since 2011. Dr. Tashiro’s passion is reaching today’s generation with the message of holiness and complete sanctification, not only here in the United States, but internationally in Japan, Korea, China, and Brazil.