` Abdu ' l-Bahá wrote a series of letters , or tablets , to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916-1917 suggesting Bahá ' ís take the religion to many places ; these letters were compiled together in the book titled Tablets of the Divine Plan but were delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 &mdash; after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu . These tablets were translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4 , 1919 , and published in '' Star of the West '' magazine on December 12 , 1919 . One tablet says in part : O that I could travel , even though on foot and in the utmost poverty , to these regions , and , raising the call of “ Yá Bahá ’ u ’ l-Abhá ” in cities , villages , mountains , deserts and oceans , promote the divine teachings ! This , alas , I can not do . How intensely I deplore it ! Please God , ye may achieve it . … … if some teachers go to other islands and other parts , such as the continent of Australia , New Zealand , Tasmania , also to Japan , Asiatic Russia , Korea , French Indochina , Siam , Straits Settlements , India , Ceylon and Afghanistan , most great results will be forthcoming . The Bahá ' ís in Japan were witness to , and participated in the relief effort of , the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake . Moneys and letters of concern arrived from Bahá ' ís in New York , Haifa , Kenosha , Wi. , Brooklyn , Chicago , Somerville , Mass. , Montreal , Canada among other places spreading encouragement and reporting on or actually sending funds Bahá ' ís and others had marshaled for the relief effort . In 1927 Siegfried Schopflocher visited Japan and reported the religion was firmly established and progressing . In 1932 the first Bahá ' í Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in Tokyo . There was a preliminary election that corrected when Shoghi Effendi , then head of the religion , specified rules that needed to be followed for the election . The members of the community of Tokyo were ( former Rev. ) Sempo Ito ; Yuri Mochizuki Furukawa ; Otoe Murakami ; Kanae Takeshita ; Mr. Y. Kataoka ( first name unknown ) ; Keiji Sawada ; Agnes Alexander ; Antoinette Naganuma ; Mr. Nakanishi ( first name unknown ) ; Hidehiko Matsuda ; and Keiko Eito . The first nine names were elected to the provisional Local Spiritual Assembly but the later official election changed adding Mr. Matsuda , who took the place of Mr. Y. Kataoka , who asked to be relieved . The members included five women and two who were blind . The assembly was reelected in 1933 . In all of Japan there were 19 Bahá ' ís . In 1916 Daiun Inouye was a young Buddhist priest when he first heard of the religion . In 1932 he translated Bahá ' u ' lláh and the New Era and it was printed the following year . In 1937 he resigned from the priesthood and wrote that he would be free to spend his time propagating the Bahá ' í Faith
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Bahá'í Faith in Japan