As promised, a few more bits and pieces of information gleaned over the past few weeks regarding the Brothers of Christian Instruction (the Brothers) at St. Mary’s International School (SMIS) in Tokyo. Here they are:
(1) Brother Alan
There is a Brother Alan mentioned in “Haunted since January 1966.”
On the next Brother Allan my teacher made me wait after the others had gone outside the classroom. He showed me about 20 nude foolscap size black and white photos of me in Brother John’s office and told me never to look at Playboy magazines again or he would show them to my friends and parents. He didn’t touch me.
Brother Alan taught Grade Four and later Grade 7 (Alan is the correct spelling). His last name was something like Poirier. Does anyone recall exactly what it was? I have heard that Brother Alan probably left St. Mary’s in the late 60s.
(2) Gone
The Brothers would disappear from time to time. Sometimes at the start of a new school year the boys were told the Brother had gone back to Canada, or that there was illness or that Brother was away studying. One former student recalls that Brother John was gone for a few years sometime in the 60s. Brother John was apparently Principal of the school prior to his departure – when he returned it was not as Principal.
I have no problem with the Brothers visiting home from time to time and so on, but, when a Brother is a molester experience with both clergy and religious says that the departure may well have come on the heels of the Brother being “caught” and shipped out either for ‘treatment’ or just away until the coast is clear, or gone for good.
(3) Brother Marcel
Brother Marcel was very tall, perhaps 6ft.4ins or maybe even more. It is small wonder he was nick-named Brother Tokyo Tower. He has also been described to me as soft-spoken.
(4) Retreats
Retreats of one to two days conducted away from the school were not uncommon Sometimes retreats were held at a Franciscan chapel in the Roppongi area of Tokyo.
(5) Brother Lawrence
Some time ago I received a picture of a Brother directing a choir.at St. Mary’s; he has his back to the camera. I was told it was Brother Lawrence. I decided not to post the picture because I had neither read not heard anywhere that Brother Lawrence is musically gifted. Well, I must dig out that picture because without a doubt it is Brother Lawrence? I have learned recently that Brother Lawrence Lambert taught and conducted the choir. There is also a belief that it was Brother Lawrence who wrote the St. Mary’s school song. Does anyone know if this is fact? Did Brother Lawrence write or compose the school song?
(6) Mr. Aseline
A number of former students recall Brother Lessard a kind-hearted man. This comes even from those who know that he was a molester, not by way of excusing him, but as to how he was viewed by some students and fooled by many. This view was also held when Lessard was seen as the alternate to another Grade 6 teacher, a Mr. Aseline. I have been told that Mr. Aseline was very physically abusive to the boys amnd was feared by the students. In fact, the word is that such was Aseline’s reputation at the school that some parents actually fought to have their sons put in Brother Lessard’s class to avoid Aseline!
Mr. Aseline was eventually fired. When, at the end of the year during assembly it was announced that Mr. Aseltine would be leaving, the student body erupted into a deafening roar of cheers and applause.
(7) The move
In 1972 St. Mary’s International School moved from the Isargo campus to Setagaya. Those who attended SMIS after 1972 would not be familiar with Brother Lessard’s office in the landing: that was in the old school.
(8) Camp KEEP
The sex ed sessions conducted at Camp KEEP by Brother Lessard were once a year. I am told that after return to the school Lessard conducted follow-ups sessions. I know little about those.
(8) The Property
The Brothers own or did own a property at Lake Iwanashiro in northern Honshu (the main island in Japan). Does anyone know if Camp Chimekepp was in that area?
If any of you have school yearbooks would you please pull them out and see if there are pictures which you could scan which would fill in the many gaps in timelines, eg, which years was Brother John NOT at SMIS.
*****
I had cause today to check the Father Bruno Primavera page only to discover that an external link to information regarding a lawsuit in the States was dead. I did a search and have replaced that link with the following:
Record $2M Deal Reached in Priest Sex Case
(When I first started the site I did not see the need to avoid external links where possible and instead capture a screen shot or save a page as a pdf file. I have since learned those tricks and now try to ensure where possible that all information on the page of an Accused is there as a permanent part of the record . I must add however that that doesn’t happen with pictures in media articles – when a media outlet takes an article down from its website the picture disappears from my files, and that is because those pictures – not the text – are linked externally from Sylvia’s Site to the media webpage. So, when you come across an article which is missing a picture , that is why. I could save each picture and repost with the text, but that is a huge amount of work . I do however save and post those pictures which have particular relevance to the Canadian scene. Anyway, all this to explain that I now save and post all webpages which have relevant information regarding someone on the Accused list 🙂
Enough for now,
Sylvia