In April 1921, Rev. Kengo Tajima (1884-1961) was sent to continue the work of the Japanese Church of Christ in Salt Lake City begun by Rev. Hidenobu Toyotome. Tajima’s ministry covered the region of Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming.[1] He then pastored the Issei congregation of the Pasadena Japanese Union Church from 1928 to 1942 before the internment.
On the Sunday before evacuation, Tajima preached on the future new pilgrimage of the Japanese Americans by calling on the example of Abraham in Hebrews 11:9-10, “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” He recounted God’s promises to Abraham, the prophets’ struggle with a rebellious people, and the final victory accomplished in Jesus Christ:
God’s plan for the redemption of the world and man, made progress until it was accomplished in Jesus Christ. Then, when the Church assumed a visible form with the fellowship of believers, it was Paul who saw clearly and boldly proclaimed that the Church and the brotherhood of believers in Christ was the nation which God had in His purpose promised to Abraham. . . . May we learn God’s lesson sooner than they did, so that, in our case, God does not have to give us the Babylonian Exile or the Jerusalem of A.D. 70.[2]
Tajima recognized that God often disciplined his own people throughout history: Judah through the Babylonian exile (7th century B.C.) and Jerusalem during the Roman occupation (1st century A.D.). The covenant with Abraham, however, was an everlasting covenant which God promised to keep.
God’s promise is spiritual and His plan is redemptive. God intends to redeem us and use us to carry out His plan of redemption which includes the whole of mankind. On Dec. 7th last [the day Pearl Harbor was bombed], I lost all of my worldly interests. I was dead to the world. My whole concern is the new world which is God’s promise to be realized after this war. It is God’s gift, but and therefore I must work for it and I must live for it and live in it. This is the nature of God’s gift, that we cannot produce it, we cannot take it of our own power. It is absolutely God’s gift, but we must work for it with all our power, we must give all we have for it.
Abraham of old amassed a fortune. There in the land of Canaan, he could have become a settled citizen and [built] a walled city for his and his clan’s permanent residence, there to enjoy the rest of his life in abundance and supposed security. But he did not do that. He did not become domiciled in the heathen Canaan. He, with Isaac and Jacob and their families, passed their days in Canaan as pilgrims passing through the city of Vanity Fair, but the goal and end of their journey was the City with foundations, whose builder and maker was God.
The pilgrims must leave many worldly possessions behind. Men and nations of the present world are being forced to leave them. We, the Japanese people in California, are made to leave them behind, in one decisive act of the government. Happy are we if we understand the final meaning of what is happening to us. We, too, have understood God’s promise and gift in a mundane sense. We, too, have had to receive God’s hard lesson. Let us joyfully accept God’s plan for us. It is good, because it is God’s plan. Let us learn of Abraham in his faith and walk like him.[3]
Tajima characterized Abraham as a man of faith, hope, and love who was not accumulating earthly wealth, but looking forward to a heavenly dwelling. Tajima reminded his people that they too were pilgrims following in Abraham’s footsteps. He then implored his people through the poetry of King David to trust in God as their Good Shepherd:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever (Psalm 23:1-6).
As new pilgrims in a foreign land, God would lead them, protect them, and give them nourishment when needed. He would restore their soul in times of desperation and comfort them in times of fear. He would provide for them each day as they dwelt in his presence. Tajima also reminded his church that God’s love might manifest itself in a variety of ways:
Let us not forget that God’s care for us often comes to us in deeds of love of brother men, and not fail to give thanks to brother men after we have thanked God. Let us trust the morrow to God and be thankful for each day that we live. Everything we called our possessions are as good as lost. If they remain in our hands, or if any comes back to us later, they are God’s new gift.[4]
Second, Tajima exhorted his people to keep their hope in the Almighty God who never needs to rest. The Lord continues to work in his people until he brings them to Christ-likeness. As Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The Lord would work through the evacuation, through the internment, through the period of resettlement, and even into eternity until the Nikkei church was made complete in Christ.
He will not be frustrated in His redemptive work. Our hope of the new world will not fail, though rebuffs and trials are in store before us. And remember that God never meant to exhaust His promise in the things that are realized in this world. We must have a tenure of life which is beyond our grave for His promise to us to be fully realized. We are made to live in eternal life.[5]
Finally, Tajima called his church to persevere in love. This was not a love that depended on being treated rightly, but a Christ-like love that served even their enemies (Matthew 5:43-48).
Love never faileth [1 Corinthians 13:8a]. When all things are taken from us, we shall have yet people whom we can love. When we can do nothing, we shall have occasions and opportunities to exercise love. Love is always constructive. Mere patience and absence of resentment is not enough. . . . Surely America is big enough for us to give her the rest of our lives. Love her with the love that looks for no reward. She had given us much. We can give her our all. . . . The only effectual fight we can put up against war now, is love.[6]
According to his friends, “Rev. Kengo Tajima, for many years pastor of the Japanese Union Church in Pasadena, left for Tulare with the first group of evacuees on May 12. On Sunday afternoon, May 10, he and his wife kept open house for their Caucasian friends and fellow-workers.”[7] He would then shepherd the church in Tulare as well as the church at Gila River. Tajima later expressed his constant appreciation for America, despite his time in the camps: “There is a fact among facts which we must admit and remember. It is that Christianity came to Japan and to the Japanese through America. America gave us the gift. It is incumbent on us to give it back to her. . . . My life is intertwined with the labors of many missionaries.”[8] Like Paul, who was beaten, imprisoned, and even stoned to death by those to whom he preached, Rev. Tajima recognized that he was called to be a missionary to the very people who had put him and his fellow Nikkei behind barbed wire.
[1] Kengo Tajima, “A Christian Witness,” in Sumio Koga, ed., A Centennial Legacy: History of the Japanese Christian Missions in North America, 1877-1977 (Chicago: Nobart, Inc., 1977), 30.
[2] Hunter and Binford, The Sunday Before, 40.
[3] Ibid., 40-41.
[4] Ibid., 41.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid., 42.
[7] Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 5 (18 May 1942).
[8] Hunter and Binford, The Sunday Before, 39.
