alexander was able to return to japan in 1950 after being sponsored by lt. j.c. davenport (usaf) and in 1951 four american pioneers were elected to the tokyo local spiritual assembly. the japanese membership then was miss ichige, mr. kadota, mr. horioka, miss nakanishi, and mr. yoshino. the americans were alexander, lane skelton, barbara davenport, and imagire. the assembly designated goal areas to take the religion — yokohama, sendai, osaka, hiroshima, and kofu — and established eight committees with attention ranging from re-translating "baháʼu'lláh and the new era" to coordinating membership record keeping and the arrival of persian pioneers. the moghbel and katirai persian families arrived in 1953. in 1954 the community was 52 adults — 10 were americans and 13 were persians. barbara sims, one of the american pioneers, was elected to the local spiritual assembly of tokyo in 1954 and served for many years on that body and authored several books on the history of the baháʼí faith in japan.