Experiences of Christianity in the Camps

Incarcerated Christians frequently thanked God for giving them the strength to endure the incarceration and developed a variety of faith communities to provide additional support. The focus of Chapter Four turns away from church leaders to examine how lay (non-ordained) Christians experienced camp life. Buddhists joined Protestants and Catholics to organize interfaith memorial services for Nikkei soldiers killed in action, while pacifists and others resisted the military draft. This chapter expands the book’s focus to highlight Christian youth culture at a camp in Arizona and the hardships at Tule Lake, where incarcerees attacked Japanese Christians for cooperating with camp officials. The roots of Asian American theologies began growing in the camps in response to this rejection and suffering.

Building Churches behind Barbed Wire

Chapter Three focuses on Seattle’s Japanese American and white pastors who worked at Minidoka incarceration center. They fashioned sacred space in bare, overcrowded barracks, helped Nikkei resettle outside of the camp, and tried to raise the camp’s morale in addition to their usual pastoral duties. Catholic priests protested the limits of religious liberty in the camps, while Protestants attempted to form ecumenical churches. Some men and women in the camps revelled in what they believed was a spiritually superior united church, while others refused to redefine denominational boundaries as dictated by white authorities. Generational barriers, a constantly shifting population, and material limitations challenged pastors to develop innovative strategies.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor and Executive Order 9066

Chapter One explores the initial reactions of Japanese and white Christians to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and incarceration of coastal Japanese Americans. Progressive Christians leapt to the defense of Japanese in the United States, but the East Coast leaders of mainline Protestant and Catholic organizations instructed their constituents to cease protests when the military announced its decision to incarcerate all West Coast Nikkei. Many leaders on the West Coast agreed that dissent might limit their ability to provide aid or deemed protest during a time of national crisis inappropriate. While diversity existed within each religious group, this chapter compares the bold, decisive actions of individual Quakers and the American Friends Service Committee, the cooperative inclinations of well-intentioned but cautious Protestant leaders, the independent solutions of Catholics, and the determined perseverance of Japanese Christians. Most Catholics working with Japanese in the United States were affiliated with the Maryknoll mission society, while most Protestant workers were affiliated with Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Episcopalian organizations. The chapter’s narrative focuses on the Christian communities of Seattle, Washington. Gordon Hirabayashi, a local college student, defied the incarceration on Christian grounds, and white Christian leaders helped the Japanese community settle their affairs before the military removed them to temporary assembly centers.

The End of Japanese Ethnic Churches?

As Japanese Christians left the camps, white church leaders instructed them to join established churches and prevented them from re-forming their prewar ethnic congregations. This final chapter analyzes attempts to mend the nation’s racial divisions by ending the segregation of white and Japanese Protestant worship. Efforts to drastically restructure the racial divisions within American Protestantism incited extensive debate about the role of racial minorities within the church. Like the decision to form ecumenical churches, leaders thought the long term benefits of fewer divisions in the church outweighed the temporary challenges to the subjects of their experiment. Most Japanese Americans formed ethnic fellowship groups or left the church rather than join predominantly white churches. The results of this experiment revealed the limited extent to which American Christians were interested in, capable of, and willing to reform definitions of race in order to unite the Christian church.

The Organization of Christian Aid

Chapter Two surveys the actions of concerned Christians outside of the camps. Once Japanese Americans were confined, a proliferation of Christian organizations formed to aid incarcerees. Their greatest efforts went toward supporting worship in the camps and resettling Japanese Americans outside of the camps during the war. The latter required the transformation of public opinion in addition to finding employment and housing for former incarcerees. Publications and speakers encouraged Americans to welcome Japanese Americans as they left the camps. Seeking to decrease racism nationally, activists faced resistance from fearful and racist congregants and pastors. The Federal Council of Churches, the Home Mission Council of North America, the American Friends Service Committee, regional church groups, Christian missionaries, and churches around the country contributed organizational support, pastoral guidance, and material aid.

Introduction

The forced mass evacuation … creates a special responsibility for us to help preserve the ideal of brotherhood and of political and religious freedom in our country. —“A Message to the Society of Friends and Our Fellow Christians” While purportedly fighting a war against ideas of racial supremacy propagated by fascist regimes, the U.S. government incarcerated nearly 120,000 legal residents and American citizens of Japanese descent on the sole basis of their ancestry....

Epilogue

The Japanese problem compel[led] the church to face other minority problems. —Executive Secretary Mark Dawber, Home Missions Council of North America Christian efforts to confront the incarceration of Japanese Americans revealed shifting attitudes about diversity within American Christianity, the role of race in America, and the limits to which religious institutions will comply with unjust government policy. Progressive Christian leaders addressed systematic and personal discrimination that rent the United States. Only Quakers and a few individuals actively opposed the incarceration from its inception. Joined by Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants, who eventually lobbied for its end, they organized campaigns to alleviate the crisis, educate white parishioners, and minister to incarcerated Christians. Japanese Americans responded to the incarceration and the mixed responses of churches by forming new theologies and negotiating compliance with directives made on their behalf....