Another matter greatly debated during resettlement was whether religious denominations should resume the segregated Japanese ethnic churches or push for integration. Almost from the start of relocation, the WRA began planning for Nikkei resettlement. Rev. Emery Andrews even noted that the “WRA is making it as hard as possible for people to stay in camp.”[1] So this impending re-entrance into American society raised the question of integration.
Most Caucasian leaders and many Nikkei believed that the integration of Japanese Americans into Caucasian churches was in the best interests of national unity and the fullest realization of the church envisioned by Jesus two thousand years earlier.[2] Integration would also reduce the denominational costs of supporting Nikkei missions and allow them to use those church properties for other purposes. Blending in was more appealing to the Japanese nature as well. According to one Japanese proverb: The nail that sticks out is the one that gets hammered down. Perhaps the humiliation and heartbreak of relocation would never happen again once the Nikkei were fully assimilated into American society.
Some, however, such as Methodist Superintendent Frank Herron Smith, fought against the popular idea of integration. During the post-war transition, he paid all the taxes for the Japanese Methodist churches and kept watch for their protection. He and others countered that segregated ethnic churches were still necessary for the sake of evangelism and that Japanese American unbelievers were often attracted to the ethnic church’s social community and preservation of culture. In addition, ordained Nikkei ministers worried that they could not effectively shepherd non-Japanese people due to cultural barriers. Some would be out of work without the Nikkei church. As Rev. Toru Matsumoto commented to the ABHMS, “Issei ministers are more or less useless now. . . . It would be a good and kind idea to put them on the retirement list with adequate pension.”[3]
Instead of seeking a gentle way forward, many Caucasian leaders exercised unilateral decisions to disband ethnic Japanese churches after the war. Among them were the American Baptists. Rev. Emery Andrews “made pastoral house calls to nearly three hundred Nikkei each month following his return to Seattle,” but his denomination would not allow him to reopen the Japanese Baptist Church.[4] The Episcopal Church also set in place a plan called “group integration,” to form congregations led by both a Caucasian and a Japanese priest. The latter would pastor the Issei and preach in Japanese.
Despite denominational good intentions, however, discrimination against the Nikkei largely hindered integration: “Several white pastors in Colorado and eastern Washington would not allow resettlers to use their buildings, let alone join their congregations. Church members acted ‘hostile’ to Japanese Americans in those regions.”[5] Integration was found to be difficult for other reasons as well, but Caucasian leaders needed to recognize this truth before Nikkei were allowed to re-open ethnic Japanese churches.
Segregation first started taking place in Denver and Seattle and once again became more common practice by the fall of 1945. Justin Haruyama later coined the term “Tsukemono Theology,” asserting that parishioners could not establish “a true dialogue with God” if they did not feel comfortable revealing their true selves.[6] In addition, “When the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society barred Nisei ministers from serving in Japan, Paul Nagano founded the Japanese Evangelical Missions Society (JEMS) to send the unique skills and perspectives of Japanese American pastors to the Japanese mission field.”[7]
In American today, many Nikkei Christians have since integrated by their own volition. Immigration from Japan has dwindled and cultural retention is not as essential now that the Nikkei have integrated in almost every aspect of society. Most Nichigo (Japanese-language) congregations are diminishing in size, though many ethnic Japanese churches still remain active in worship and evangelism. Thus, history has shown that both integration and segregation were effective in their proper time and place.
May It Never Happen Again
The Japanese American church responded to the internment by caring for souls through the ministry of God’s Word and meeting together in Christian fellowship. The non-Japanese church remembered their brothers and sisters by voicing protest against injustice and demonstrating sacrificial acts of kindness. Despite the racist attitude of the culture and the fearful indifference of many, members of the church body loved one another in the manner of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We pray that such atrocities may never happen again. Yet Christians today have much to learn from the church behind barbed wire. How do we care well for the souls of refugees and immigrants? How can unjust suffering become an opportunity for evangelism and spiritual growth? How might we personally maintain our faith in God when life seems to crumble around us? According to 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” The church today faces the same kinds of temptation, but we also trust in the same faithful God who promises to provide the way of escape. God does not guarantee the absence of trials, but rather the believer’s joyful tenacity in the midst of trials. As we encounter our own “barbed wire” challenges, may we remember the assurance of Jesus, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18b).
[1] Letter from Emery E. Andrews to John W. Thomas (19 July 1943), Box 2/Fld 4, Emery E. Andrews Papers (1908-3), UW.
[2] Blankenship, Social Justice, 171, 173. The Caucasian leaders rarely consulted the Nikkei, however, revealing their paternalistic view of a racial hierarchy within the American church.
[3] Toru Matsumoto, AB-HMS Report (25 March 1945), Reel 082, JAER.
[4] Blankenship, Social Justice, 198. Many Nikkei churches had signed away their buildings to their denominations for “safe-keeping” and for use during the war, but found it difficult to reclaim their property afterward.
[5] Ibid., 189. The most successful case of integration may have been at the First Baptist Church of Chicago where Jitsuo Morikawa was installed as Assistant Minister on 27 February 1944. One woman, Madeline Williamson, vigorously opposed bringing Morikawa on staff and took six months before she would even talk to him. Twelve years later, however, she refused to speak to him again because he dared to leave (Morikawa, Footprints,83-86).
[6] Justin Haruyama, “Tsukemono Theology” (1965), cited in Otani, Japanese American Episcopal Churches, 98. Tsukemono refers to tasty, but smelly, pickled vegetables which the Japanese love to eat.
[7] Blankenship, Social Justice, 213, citing Paul Nagano, in My Spiritual Pilgrimage.
