Rev. Dr. E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) was a former Methodist missionary to India who penned a well-received book, The Christ of the Indian Road. He was also a good friend of Mahatma Gandhi and later wrote a biography which inspired Dr. Martin Luther King “to apply the principles of non-violence to the American civil rights movement.”[1] Jones was a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. As a close confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jones had
sought repeatedly in the months preceding the attack [on Pearl Harbor] to convince the President that if America were to revoke its punitive protectionist stance and accord discretionary treatment to a “have-not” nation vexed by problems of an exploding population, Japan would not only doubly reciprocate but also might possibly end up as an ally.[2]
He could not sway the president, however, and America went to war with Japan. During the war, Jones also strongly opposed to the Japanese American internment and recalled one visit to encourage Nikkei Christians in the Santa Anita Assembly Center. He described how impressed he was by their worship service: “The whole thing was as orderly as a cathedral: boys stood at the entrance of the racetrack and passed out cyclostyled programs of the meeting though it was a week night; the singing of the choir and the violin and vocal solos would have done credit to any church in the land. A loud speaker carried the voice to the 7,000 assembled.”[3] Carl Yoshimine recalled Dr. Jones’s message of hope: “The way we could overcome the storms of life was to mount up like an eagle and to rise above the storms.”[4] That image of freedom and hope came from Isaiah 40:30-31, “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
From the outset, in 1942, Jones launched a “barbed-wire preaching mission,” bringing his renowned weeklong revival meetings to seven of the ten relocation centers. Thousands attended these revivals, both Christian and non-Christian, as Jones spoke often on “The Christian Answer to Suffering, Merited and Unmerited.” He exhorted internees to face their suffering with courage, using their suffering for good instead of simply bearing up under it. Many were kind enough to write him afterward, claiming that “the message raised the morale of the camp 100%.”
Jones also affirmed the essential role of Nikkei in the American church:
Their spirits are unbroken. They took the pledge of allegiance to the flag in a high school assembly, and my voice broke as I joined with them in the promise of loyalty “to one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” “Liberty and justice for all” how could they say it? But they did and they meant it. Their faith in democracy is intact. Their faith in God holds too, in spite of everything. . . . From them is emerging a Christian faith that has the touch of the catacombs upon it—or, to speak in more modern terms, the touch of barbed wire. But there are no barbs in their evacuees’ souls—at least not in many. They are showing us something. As I waved good-bye to a group standing at the gate to bid me farewell, there was nothing but gratitude in my heart for what they had given to me. I may have given them something, but they gave me more. And there is more to follow. A new Christianity is emerging out of these camps—the brightest spot in a terrible tragedy.[5]
He also predicted, “These Japanese American Christians are going to add a new chapter to Christian living in America, and are going to enrich the moral and spiritual life of this country. . . . Their Christianity is holding up under the strain and is a force for living amid adverse circumstances.”[6] Dr. Jones remained a constant supporter of the Nikkei church long after the war had ended.
Conclusion
The apostle Paul once exhorted a young pastor named Timothy, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). Paul knew the temptation of many preachers to tickle the “itching ears” (see vv. 3-4). The internment season called for deep-rooted compassion and courageous encouragement from the Word of God (v. 1). Some needed to be reproved and rebuked for their sinful response to injustice. Others had to be exhorted in times of discouragement. All needed to be shepherded with much patience and sound teaching. Those who preached during the Japanese American internment drew heavily from biblical examples of persevering faith, a robust theology of suffering, and eternal hope in Jesus Christ.
[1] Shizue Seigel, In Good Conscience: Supporting Japanese Americans During the Internment (San Mateo, CA: Asian American Curriculum Project, 2006), 60.
[2] Michi Nishiura Weglyn, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1996), 41.
[3] E. Stanley Jones, “The Christian Church and the Japanese Americans,” The Living Church 106, no. 13 (28 March 1943), 10.
[4] Carl Yoshimine, “Mounting Up Like an Eagle,” in Triumphs, 170.
[5] E. Stanley Jones, “Barbed-Wire Christians” (Unpublished sermon, 17 October 1943).
[6] Jones, “The Christian Church and the Japanese Americans,” 10. Jones wrote this article to enlist the Caucasian church in helping with the resettlement of Japanese Americans after the internment.
