Resettlement: The Return from Exile

Almost immediately after opening the camps, the WRA considered plans for Nikkei resettlement. They knew it would be cheaper to pay them to leave than to continue providing them food, shelter, and an education. The trickle of pilgrims soon became a flood until the camps were closed in 1945. So as Japanese Americans returned to life outside the camps, Dr. E. Stanley Jones challenged the church to take action: “The Christian Church had shown it really cares for the Japanese Americans in the relocation centers. Will it be Christian enough and big enough to undertake the task of aiding in their [resettlement].”[1] Dr. John W. Thomas, Secretary, Department of Cities for the ABHMS also affirmed, “The Church of Christ . . . stands for justice to all people regardless of ancestry. Now, in this time of crisis, the future of the church’s missionary program to all races will be deeply affected by the church’s response to the challenge which this situation presents.”[2]

The Nikkei had the most of their material possessions taken from them during evacuation: homes, businesses, farms, financial savings, and even furniture. As they departed from the camps into an uncertain future, most were only given a one-way bus ticket and $25 for travel. In addition, resettlement to the West Coast was not allowed until 1945, so many of the Japanese Americans had to rebuild their lives with new communities in unfamiliar cities.

Resettlement Becomes a Reality

The need for help became urgent when on September 14, 1943, President Roosevelt declared before Congress,

With the segregation of the disloyal evacuees in a separate center, the War Relocation Authority proposes now to redouble its efforts to accomplish the relocation into normal homes and jobs in communities throughout the United States, but outside the evacuated area, of those Americans of Japanese ancestry whose loyalty to this country has remained unshaken through the hardships of the evacuation which military necessity made unavoidable. We shall restore to the loyal evacuees the right to return to the evacuated area as soon as the military situation will make such restoration feasible. Americans of Japanese ancestry, like those of many other ancestries, have shown that they can, and want to, accept our institutions and work loyally with the rest of us, making their own valuable contribution to the national wealth and well-being. In vindication of the very ideals for which we are fighting this war, it is important to us to maintain a high standard of fair, considerate, and equal treatment for the people of this minority, as of all other minorities.[3]

As they left for resettlement, internees received the admonition, “Make yourself inconspicuous,” if they were “assured employment in some hopefully nonhostile community, and if the excruciatingly slow security clearance came through in time.”[4] Many Nikkei harbored fears, both justified and unjustified, which hampered the resettlement process. So in the summer of 1945, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) listed five primary hurdles which delayed Japanese Americans from leaving the relocation centers, all of which were factual to some extent:[5]

Supportive churches and organizations would try to address these challenges on behalf of the Nikkei. Some presented speeches and printed publications to sway public opinion, while others contributed financially to give Japanese Americans a fresh start. Resettlement was often terrifying for those who had made new homes in the isolated camps and were once again being forced to move. The government denied any petitions to remain until they could find adequate housing and employment. Japanese American refugees also had to compete for jobs with returning soldiers and war industry workers.[6] As a result, “many southern California returnees—forced to leave the camps before securing housing on the Pacific Coast—were housed in barracks and trailers at former army camps in Burbank. As late as May 1946, some still lived in the run-down trailer camps of Burbank’s Winona Housing Project and ate at outdoor kitchens.”[7] Archie Miyata remembered, “People lived in churches with walls made of blankets. Some lived in trailer parks in the far reaches of the San Fernando Valley. My parents opened their house to friends needing a place to stay. At one point, we had thirty people living with us because they were unable to find a place to rent.”[8]

The Call to Welcome

Many Christian organizations, including some who remained silent during the evacuation and relocation, actively promoted Nikkei resettlement across the country. The Protestant Church Commission (PCC) for Japanese Services, the Congregational Committee, the AFSC, the World Student Christian Federation, and many other groups flooded churches, schools, and communities with pro-Nikkei publications, pamphlets, and magazine articles to smooth the resettlement process.[9] The Colorado Council of Churches distributed pamphlets promoting resettlement in their fine state: “Historically, all religions have taught that behind the mask which we place upon people is the universal brotherhood of man. The churches have a duty to Japanese Americans, and the various churches on the coast have done much to be of help. . . . We must start practicing the gospel we have preached.”[10] Christians also financially supported Japanese Americans such as Setsuko Matsunaga, Jobu Yasumura, Daisuke Kitagawa, and Perry Saito to speak in churches around the country.[11] Many Christian denominations and organizations were stalwartly in favor of resettlement.

The Presbyterian General Assembly stated their “strong conviction that loyal evacuees be given the right to return to their former homes and be protected against any discrimination or persecution.” The Southern California-Arizona Conference of the Methodist Church also declared, “Democratic justice will best be served by granting freedom of movement to loyal Japanese anywhere in the United States on the same basis as other Americans and aliens of other countries. . . We urge the people to exemplify the way of Christ by welcoming to our communities, our schools, our churches, and our homes these victims of organized discrimination and wartime hysteria.”[12]

The ABHMS became actively involved in resettlement as well:

Now that our government has accepted as its policy the relocation of evacuees in normal life, it has become necessary to build up a program of relocation. The churches have been able to assist in three ways: (1) in the preparation of public opinion for the coming of the evacuees; (2) in securing jobs for men and women who have been given freedom to leave the camps; (3) in finding housing facilities for the evacuees as they return to normal life. It is the hope of those responsible for this program that our churches will be able to do more than their share in this work.[13]

The Episcopal Church was not to be left out:

During 1944, the last full year of the war, many church leaders and relief agencies of all denominations were busy helping relocate interned Japanese who chose to leave the camps. This required countless letters to employers, schools, priests, congregations, and bishops. . . . At the national level, the 1944 Annual Report of the Domestic and Foreign Mission Society began urging white Episcopal hearts and congregations to welcome Japanese Episcopalians. Many of the relocated were “earnest Christians” who must not be allowed to “lose touch with the services and sacraments to which they have been devoted.”[14]

Many Christians responded positively when called to social action. For example, in the fall of 1943, Toshio, a little six-year old boy of Japanese ancestry was not permitted to enter the public schools in Kansas City, Kansas. Members of the Kansas City Ministerial Alliance all wrote letters of protest to the daily newspaper until the child was enrolled in the school. Dr. Harold Humbert, minister of the Central Christian Church, went even further by inviting Toshio to attend church with his own six-year old daughter so that he would have friends his own age when he arrived at school. Dr. Irvin V. Enos, of the Church of the Brethren, rented an apartment in his home to a young Nisei couple despite threatening letters and phone calls from his neighbors.[15] In Dayton, Ohio, local churches even recruited former internee, Robert Kodama, to add resettlers.[16] The AFSC also mobilized its members and clearly outlined the goal of its resettlement efforts.[17]

In the fall of 1942, just as Japanese Americans had begun entering the relocation centers, the AFSC was already planning an effective strategy for resettlement. They certainly intended to minister within the camps,[18] but foresaw the longer-term necessity of providing temporary housing, employment and educational opportunities, personal references, and actual placement after internment. Their remarkable ministry to internees included this plan for future resettlement.

The Call to Set Out

As resettlement began, promotional efforts were made within each relocation center to convince internees to set out from the camps:

The FCC and the Home Missions Council of North America chartered the Protestant Church Commission for Japanese Service to oversee worship in the camps and the Committee on Resettlement of Japanese Americans to help Nikkei leave the camps. Mark Dawber, executive secretary of the Home Missions Council, organized the Committee on Administration of Japanese Work to oversee everything. . . . The commission also offered incarcerees information sessions and private counseling to prepare for their lives outside of camp.[19]

“The mainline denominations most committed to alleviating the harms of the incarceration included United Methodists, American Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians (U.S.A.), Congregationalists, and, to a lesser extent, Disciples of Christ.”[20] Churches provided considerable assistance and encouragement for all Nikkei, not just Christian adherents: “Aid workers like the AFSC’s Floyd Schmoe gave presentations and offered private counseling to incarcerees, advising them of opportunities outside. . . . Schmoe made a film of different resettlement communities during a scouting mission to excite incarcerees about life outside.”[21] He also applauded the efforts of the YWCA:

Staff members of the YWCAs were helpful with housing for young women and job finding during the relocation. For example, Frances Vogel, then secretary of the Seattle YW, was instrumental in helping returning Japanese doctors secure reinstatement within the King County Medical Society. At one point, a delegation from the National Office of the YWCA visited most of the centers to encourage and aid in the resettlement of young people.[22]

As with the evacuation and relocation, Nikkei ministers also proved greatly effective during resettlement. “As people moved out of the camps, pastors wrote letters of introduction to local churches and helped former congregants transfer church memberships. . . . Likewise, ministers on the outside wrote camp pastors for referral letters when resettlers wished to join their churches.”[23] Rev. Kojiro Unoura expressed the importance of ministers visiting families which had been scattered abroad: “In such a situation as this the minister is always welcome, regardless of religious affiliation.”[24] Even Buddhists and other non-Christians were greatly appreciative of Christian kindnesses.

Since ministers often resettled among their congregants, the growing religious communities drew more Nikkei to the area. Rev. John Yamazaki Jr., for example, sent Christmas greetings to his former church still meeting in the Gila River Center: “The good will and understanding we’ve received during life in the Center and now in the Midwest . . . testifies to God’s hand in creation and history.”[25] Rev. Dave Shinoda, who bypassed the internment camps by working as a farm laborer during the war, returned to California and started the San Lorenzo Japanese Holiness Church where he would serve for twenty-two years. Shinoda would also be instrumental in helping many other churches and launching JEMS in 1951.[26] Rev. Paul Nagano started the Nisei Baptist Church in Minnesota, while also ministering to the Japanese American soldiers stationed at Fort Snelling. Sally Tsuneishi, who grew up in a Buddhist home, became a Christian under Nagano’s ministry while attending a dress-designing school in Minneapolis. She wrote of her conversion and call to reach her family:

From that moment, I felt a great burden to win my family to Christ. I even traveled to Gila Relocation Center in Arizona, where my family had been relocated, to share Christ with them. However, my father was a formidable foe. He challenged my faith and opposed my attempts to witness to my siblings. One evening as I was kneeling by my bunk bed reading my Bible and praying for my family, I looked up and saw my father watching me. His face was etched in dark fury. He threw my Bible against the stove, scattering its pages, and struck my face with a hard blow. He forbade me to read my Bible or to pray in his presence. However, in the days to follow, God answered my prayer: all of my siblings were led to Christ.[27]

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[1] The Minidoka Churchman 1.18 (3 April 1943), citing an article in The Living Church. Not all religious leaders were supportive of resettlement. For example, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, president and founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, protested the release of the Japanese from the relocation centers. She claimed that their return “would incense the people and would create riots and bloodshed” (Granada Pioneer [16 June 1943], 3).

[2] John W. Thomas, “Baptists and the Japanese Evacuation,” Pittsburgh Baptist Association Bulletin 11, no. 12 (July 1942).

[3] “A Message to the Senate on the Segregation Program of the War Relocation Authority. September 14, 1943,” in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Franklin D. Roosevelt, vol. 12 (Privately published), 384.

[4] Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 101.

[5] Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 16 (10 June 1944). “No adequate restitution for the actual financial losses of evacuation has been provided, nor proposed by official sources. Evacuees must themselves pay costs for shipping any property of a commercial nature, and the individual cash allotment granted evacuees on leaving the centers is $25. Some 55,000 people, most of them old people and children under eighteen, still remain in the centers—forced to begin life over again, and fearful to make this venture in our American communities.”

[6] Charlotte Brooks, Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends: Asian Americans, Housing, and the Transformation of Urban California (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), 159-70.

[7] Wollenberg, “Dear Earl,” 49. See “Trailer Homes for Returning Evacuees,” Pacific Citizen (1 December 1945), 1; “1300 Evacuees Get Temporary Housing in Los Angeles Area,” Pacific Citizen (17 November 1945), 1.

[8] Marc Igler, “Both Fond, Bitter Memories: Post-War Trailer Park Refugees Plan Reunion,” Los Angeles Times (5 June 1986), accessed at https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-06-05-we-9773-story.html.

[9] Blankenship, Social Justice, 85.

[10] The Japanese in Our Midst (Denver, CO: Colorado Council of Churches, 1942), 6.

[11] Blankenship, Social Justice, 86-87. Saito told audiences, “We are not complaining one bit [about the incarceration] because we are Americans. If the American soldiers can battle with bullets, we can afford to battle with mosquitoes. We are not complaining because of the physical hardships. All we want is to be recognized as Americans. . . . You can be American even though you have a face that looks like the enemy” (De Nevers, Colonel and the Pacifist, 226-30).

[12] Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 14 (1 August 1944).

[13] ABHMS, “Special Relief for Japanese” (Annual Report of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 1942-43), 272. Executive Secretary, John W. Thomas, predicted the dangers to American society of continuing to hold the Nikkei evacuees in segregated camps: “Perhaps one of the greatest dangers to be avoided is that created by the mere circumstances of segregation, which breeds contempt from within and without. No matter how well standardized the education given the children, no matter how lenient army supervision, no matter how few the mistakes made in administration; so long as the people are kept in isolated groups, others will understand them less and they cannot be held at fault for gaining perverted ideas themselves. This segregation is the danger to be avoided following this war—for it is not a healthy situation to have existing in a body politic” (John W. Thomas, 1942 speech located in the American Baptist Archives Center collection).

[14] Gillespie, “Japanese-American Episcopalians,” 161.

[15] These stories were cited in Matsumoto, Beyond Prejudice, 64-65.

[16] See Paul Michael Dankovich, “The Japanese American Resettlement Program of Dayton, Ohio: As Administered by the Church Federation of Dayton and Montgomery County, 1943-1946” (M.A. Diss., Wright State University, 2012).

[17] Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 9(15 September 1942). For example, The United Council of Church Women organized a nationwide project to provide Thanksgiving dinner for all who had left the camps.

[18] The Friends called their members to be attentive to the needs and concerns of the internees. Some of this included working with the student relocation program, aiding in adult education, attempting to facilitate the release of individuals and groups from relocation centers, maintaining personal contacts with friends in camps, becoming “pen-pals,” endeavoring to build up the right kind of public reaction against what had happened, providing baby clothes and contributing financially. Many Friends responded positively, keeping in mind that “we have before us those age-old obligations—those privileges of Christians which the historic Church calls the ‘spiritual and corporal works of mercy’—to counsel the doubtful . . . to comfort the sorrowful . . . to visit the sick . . . to clothe the naked . . . to harbor the harborless” (Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 12 [2 January 1944]). According to the AFSC report, this aid came in multiple forms: “During the past four months the Clothing Committee of the Southern California Branch of the Friends Service Committee has shipped from 150 to 250 pounds of yarn each week to persons in the W.R.A. Centers, handling orders from between 50 and 100 individuals each time. This yarn is of different types— dark, bright, or neutral colors for sweaters and socks, and delicate pastel colors for baby garments. It is supplied at cost to these people who are unable to shop personally and helps to give them an interesting occupation in the limited camp life” (Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 8 [5 December 1942]).

[19] Blankenship, Social Justice, 11, 67. According to the AFSC, “A particularly significant development is the formation of a Committee on Resettlement of Japanese Americans sponsored jointly by the Federal Council of Churches, the Home Missions Council, and the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. This sponsors local committees on resettlement and groups of this type are now functioning in Chicago, Cleveland, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis, St. Paul, Detroit, and Peoria. The central committee has begun the publication of a Resettlement Bulletin, the first issue—a concise and helpful statement—appearing in February. It has also published a Resettlement Handbook and a pamphlet on Community Preparation for Resettlement of Japanese Americans” (Japanese American Relations Committee, Pasadena AFSC Information Bulletin 9 [1 April 1943]).

[20] Blankenship, Social Justice, 11. “The Presbyterian Synod of California denounced the incarceration without hedging its accusation in late October 1942. The synod used direct language to claim that the incarceration policy “involved racial discrimination” and a ‘suspension of the constitutional rights.’ It called for a return of Nikkei to the West Coast in July 1944. . . . Church groups like the Sacramento Council of Churches wrote letters protesting legislation that would have canceled the U.S. citizenship of Japanese Americans. . . . [and] Colorado Congregationalists helped defeat an anti-alien land law in 1944 (Ibid., 88).

[21] Floyd Schmoe, notes for speech, “The Role of Local Churches and Religious Leaders in the Evacuation, Internment, and Final Settlement of Americans of Japanese Ancestry,” Anniversary Conference: Topaz (March 1983), Box 1/Fld 48, Floyd Wilfred Schmoe Papers (496-8), UW.

[22] Schmoe, “Seattle’s Peace Churches,” 120.

[23] Blankenship, Social Justice, 179.

[24] Cited in Matsumoto, Beyond Prejudice, 106.

[25] Gila News Courier 4.1 (3 January 1945), 2. Yamazaki Jr. and Shunji Nishi acted as resettlement counselors while Yamazaki Sr. would scout religious conditions up and down the West Coast. Yamazaki Jr. would later commemorate the ministry in the camps through the artistic design of the marble baptistery and stained-glass windows in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church where he would serve as rector after the war.

[26] Dave Shinoda, “A Lonely Wartime Journey,” in Triumphs, 123-24.

[27] Sally Kirita Tsuneishi, “My Spiritual Journey,” in Triumphs, 150.