Missionaries in Japan in my era (1969-70) passed along the story that when Joseph Fielding Smith visited Japan and Korea in the 1960s, he suggested that such a relationship was possible, citing the following passage in Jacob Chapter 5:

19 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Come, let us go to the nethermost part of the vineyard, and behold if the natural branches of the tree have not brought forth much fruit also, that I may lay up of the fruit thereof against the season, unto mine own self.
20 And it came to pass that they went forth whither the master had hid the natural branches of the tree, and he said unto the servant: Behold these; and he beheld the afirst that it had bbrought forth much fruit; and he beheld also that it was good. And he said unto the servant: Take of the fruit thereof, and lay it up against the season, that I may preserve it unto mine own self; for behold, said he, this long time have I nourished it, and it hath brought forth much fruit.
21 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard.
22 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.
23 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: Look hither; behold I have planted another branch of the tree also; and thou knowest that this spot of ground was poorer than the first. But, behold the tree. I have nourished it this long time, and it hath brought forth much fruit; therefore, gather it, and lay it up against the season, that I may preserve it unto mine own self.

Japan is certainly a land that lacks natural resources to a great extent. Lack of flat land led to rice paddy terraces being cut out of mountainsides. Japan is on the fringe of the Old World. It is not of course something that we used in our discussions with investigators, and it is valid enough simply as a parallel in teaching the concern God has for those on the fringes. But there is also nothing specifically disproving the hypothesis that some remnant of Israel was part of the colonization of Japan, which seems to have had elements from both mainland Asia and the islands of Southeast Asia or even Polynesia. There are no written records prior to about 600 AD when Buddhist misisonaries brought Chinese culture through Korea to Japan. And of course the Savior specifically affirmed that, at the time he visited the Nephites circa 34 AD, there was also a gathering of descendants of the Ten Tribes that he would visit, who likely experienced an apostasy like that of the Nephites.

The whole notion of such a connection might sound fantastic at first encounter, but we know now through DNA that a colony of Jewish priestly families carrying the Cohen “Y” chromosome ended up in southeast Africa and intermarried with the local people, leaving a tradition about this contribution to their ancestry. They apparently had traveled from Judea through Arabia to the coast of Yemen, much like Lehi’s group. At some point some of them set sail on the monsoon winds, like Lehi, which alternate between blowing south along the African coast and blowing north and east toward India.

And of course, there was a definite belief among the initial members of the LDS Church that the blood of Israel flowed in the veins of their European ancestors. Jewish colonies were all over the Roman Empire in the First Century, even in Gaul. Certainly, within historical times, Jews converted to Christianity either voluntarily or under threat of expulsion or other persecution (e.g. the conversos of Spain). I have such an ancestor who lived in Sweden circa 1650, who was likely an immigrant from Eastern Europe since that is the largest cluster of his family name presently, and there is no record in Sweden of his ancestors. Given the movements across all of Europe by the Celts/Gauls, from Scotland and Ireland to Asia Minor, and of Turks and Huns from central Asia, there is no geographical reason to rule out some of the Ten Tribes merging into European populations circa 700 BC.

Like the whole business of finding a photographic image of Joseph Smith, we must be careful to distinguish between the gee-whiz quality of these speculations, and the assertion that they are real, especially when it comes to mixing these ideas with the teachings of the Restored Gospel, which have plenty of remarkable and miraculous elements that are soberly attested to. We don’t want members of the Church confusing the two, and thus losing faith in the real when the speculative crumbles.

On the other hand, so long as we have a robust mental distinction between what we believe to be real and what would just be fun if it were real, the only way we will conduct any kind of investigation to discover the facts is if we look into these oddities and historical anomalies. If science only devoted investigation to what was already rock solid established truth, we would never have found Troy or quantum physics.

So does the partriarchal blessing that identified my Japanese mother as of the tribe of Ephraim mean she is adopted or an actual descendant? It is indefinite.

#8 (Ardis): While a missionary’s experience of a nation can be relatively superficial, compared to, say, two years of study toward a PhD in that nation’s language and culture, it is a gateway for many of them into a mature appreciation over time, as they pursue studies in college and even graduate school and return to that nation in their careers and continue their association with natives. This is a major element in the high reputation of the BYU Business School. John Groberg is something of a legend in Tonga, about as honored as a non-native can be. Mike Young returned to Japan for a two year fellowship studying at the University of Tokyo and established the Japanese Law program at Columbia. At the very least, those who, like Joseph F, Smith, had intense experiences with people in foreign cultures in their youth have broken down barriers of prejudice. And in a certain number of cases, those experiences come to fruition as international marriages and families, about as intense a cross-cultural education as you can get.

And these links are not just one way. The church sends some missionaries from places like Japan, Mongolia, Brazil and Kenya to places like Idaho Falls. Just think of the difference between the Church if it lacked these cross-fertilizing experiences among its members, and the reality of what it is, leavened by such experiences among its members around the world.

I really do wonder what the global church will look like in 10 or 20 years.

Unfortunately I, the recent RM, had imbued far too much Nibley that semester. So for my paper on China I decided to do a paper on how Chinese temples related to Mormon temples. There are some interesting parallels but the naive Freshman that I was I didn’t understand why context and differences were at least as important if not more important. The visiting scholar was not impressed.

I think one of the challenges is that sometimes local members adopt a mindset of “well, what do they do in Utah?” and the Utah transplants are all too happy to tell them, whereas I think that local Mormon “culture” should be organic and develop on its own. But we’re all too happy when we’re transplants to try to impose our own sense of propriety.

Art is an area where we try to bludgeon local flavor in favor of an approved Central Committee look.

I noticed in South America that a lot of members still had the fancy painting of La Virgen with the Sagrada Corazon next to their picture of Joseph Smith. I remember a lot of missionaries being really offended by this — “Hermana, don’t you know that you’re supposed to stop idol worship when you join the Church?” I think I remember a member of the 70 trying to explain to a zone conf that we needed to be careful about recognizing the injunction — that the artistic representation of Mary in and of itself wasn’t a problem, it was the worship. I’ve been in Russia and seen some really great Orthodox representations of saints (St. George comes to mind) — to me, it’s art, not idolatry. DW collects creches, and has dozens of small holy family statuettes, and some of her VTs have expressed concern (although, they have no problem accepting them for the Christmas Creche collection).

Among all the media misinformation out there about Mormons, I think a failure to explore the vibrant culture and surprising diversity in our church is but one of the many sad missteps.