The church was started in 1896 by SBC missionary E. N. Walne and Japanese Pastor Hanji Sugano. It continues on to this day. The church building in this photo was used between 1926 to 1953. It survived the atomic blast because it was sheltered by a hill. The pastor of the church when this photo was taken would have been Pastor Genroku Ozaki, who served here from 1918 until 1934