Rev. John Misao Yamazaki (1884-1985) served in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Los Angeles for parts of five decades. He pastored the church before the war from 1913 to 1942, then also after the war from 1945 until his retirement in 1956. He helped to found the Children’s Orphanage for American Japanese and also led in forming the Boy Scouts of America for children of Japanese descent. His son, John H. M. Yamazaki assumed the role of rector at St. Mary’s until he too retired in 1985. Yamazaki Sr. ministered to the Nikkei in Santa Anita and Jerome, while his son served in Santa Anita and Gila River.
Even in the face of relocation, Yamazaki Sr. expressed deep loyalty to America in the language of a resolution passed in January by the Los Angeles Japanese Clergy Association, of which he was the president. Nikkei residents felt a “sense of duty and responsibility to the American people at this time of crisis.” War between “the country of our adoption” and “the land of our birth” had crushed the hope that “nothing could break [our] long friendship.” Japanese in America, he declared, knew this privilege, and had striven to lead their young “into the stream of American thought and ideals, and the enriching experience of the Christian way of life.” He concluded: “Even in this tragic hour, we shall strive, with whatever sacrifice we can make,” to bring good out of evil, because as Christians we know that “Whoever would save his life shall lose it [Mark 8:35].”[1]
Yamazaki preached from Philippians 3:10 on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942: “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” He began by encouraging the church with the traditional blessings of music and fellowship:
What I have been predicting to you for the past weeks—that we would not leave our place until we have welcomed Easter in our own Church—has come true. And here, we are gathering together in His house today, singing our favorite Easter hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia!” We feel immeasurably happy and grateful. In a true sense of Easter, we are really and heartily joyous, even though we have an anticipation of the impending “evacuation.” . . .
In a few days, we all have to leave our dear homes and even this our beloved Church in which we have worshipped God, our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Here, for the past twenty-nine years, I have had the privilege of serving as pastor—witnessing the entrance of many into Christ’s flock. Here also, in this Church, we have learned and taught His Gospel and His way of life, enjoying the fellowship in His Communion. We cannot help but feel that somehow an abrupt end has come to our good life, and that we are defeated in our good efforts.
However, strange enough, when I hear you sing the Easter song of triumph, a strong power which never can be conquered arises in my spirit, and the dismayed feelings of fear and defeat disappear and I feel hope for the future and am unfailingly reassured with great strength and courage. Is it not because we believe in Jesus Christ and His resurrection? Is it not also because what St. Paul terms “the power of His resurrection” is sustaining us? Let us all rejoice in the Lord who is risen today.[2]
On Good Friday, the church had remembered the most tragic event in human history: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The resurrection, however, turned even that most horrible event a glorious celebration. As the apostle Peter had proclaimed, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Yamazaki declared this good news by which Christ’s disciples past and present have been transformed:
Christians can never be disappointed and defeated in their faith even in their worst circumstances. Keep in mind the disciples and followers of Jesus who lost their leader, saw their Master betrayed and taken away, witnessed His going through great sufferings, hung on the Cross with wretched criminals, and finally put to death in shame. Naturally, they were at first disappointed, feeling beaten, defeated, and utterly helpless. But when they saw that this same Jesus rose again on the third day, they became entirely different men and women. They no longer were defeated people, but courageously they carried His Gospel to the end of the world, and finally conquered that Roman Empire, the military power of that day, until, as an historian records, Justin the Emperor declared “Nazarene, thou has finally conquered me.” The power of His resurrection was felt by the world.[3]
Yamazaki pointed out that believers cannot know the power of Christ’s resurrection until they experience “the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). Good Friday must come before Easter. The sufferings of this present age must come before eternal glory.
You cannot be joyous without the experience of sufferings. You cannot be triumphant until you reach the point of seeming defeat and pay precious sacrifices which sometimes mean the loss of everything, even life itself. It is after His great passion in the Holy Week, climaxed in the Cross, that we have triumphant Easter joy. We who look forward to a better future and a better world, must expect the challenge of sufferings.[4]
Yamazaki called for submission to the U.S. government even as his people stood at the threshold of an unjust evacuation: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Romans 13:1-2). He did not consider such an approach to be fatalistic, but rather an act of faith in God as demonstrated through the stories of Scripture:
Thank God that Easter came just before our evacuation and thank God that we have the Holy Bible which throws light on all human affairs, and particularly on this very difficult problem that confronts us. It is in His providence and purpose to care for humanity. Throughout the Bible, we see God’s sustaining and saving grace permeating every incident and event. Recall the familiar stories of the Old Testament and find out His loving providence in this historic drama of sufferings and joys, exiles and restorations. You will see and understand all through those events that God tests His people, and that those who endure to the end with faith always are saved.
From Genesis to the Gospels, it is full of stories which I may term, without exaggeration, stories of “Evacuation.” Abraham leaving his home in Terah and going out “without knowing where he goes,” taking it as God’s call, is the forerunner, but in Exodus we come to the great stories of biblical mass evacuation in which four hundred thousand Hebrew people left Egypt, wandered around the Arabian Desert for forty years under the leadership of the great Moses, and finally reached the Promised Land. . . . Many of those older Hebrew people who started from Egypt died in the wilderness, and even Moses himself disappeared on the hill of Pisgah and never crossed the River Jordan. It was those of the new generation—may I term them “the second generation” or “Nisei of the Exodus”—that crossed the River and went into Canaan, the Promised Land, under the leadership of Joshua, a new leader. . . . The whole story of Exodus is the story of the test of faith in Jehovah. Many failed in the wilderness. With murmurs and disbelief, they could not endure the test [see 1 Corinthians 10:1-14]. There we see also many who emerged from it triumphantly with strong faith, passing the test of desert and river. They entered into the New Land. Why not accept this Evacuation as a test and a great opportunity to prove our faith in Christ and loyalty to our country? . . . Let us think of the Babylonian Captivities. After fifty years of exile on the banks of the Euphrates, the Hebrew people produced those greatest poems of history—the Psalms. And they were able to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the Temple.
Even through the New Testament, this story continues. Our Saviour was born in Bethlehem in a manger, when Mary was on her way with Joseph, far away from their northern home, to comply with the order of Augustus Caesar to register. Again, you find the Holy Child in Egypt with his earthly parents, awaiting such time as God would provide for their return to their homeland. When Paul was forbidden by the Holy Ghost to go into Bythynia [sic] and forced to go to Troas by way of Mysia, there opened a great opportunity for him to reach Macedonia, thence to carry the Gospel to the world. There was the working of the providence of God in all of this. This is the higher and greater way that God holds for us. So, if evacuation is the order of the day in our lives, we have examples in history recorded in the Bible.[5]
Yamazaki reminded the church in the face of uncertainty that their hope might not be fulfilled until many generations in the future. The Israelites had spent four hundred years in Egypt before the exodus. God’s people had been exiled in Babylon for over seventy years. Along with these biblical examples stood the testimony of longsuffering contemporary saints. Bishop Charles S. Reifsnider, who had preached at the church just a few weeks prior, had himself experienced the pain of being evicted from Japan and thus separated from his entire life’s work. In like manner, the Nikkei evacuees had no idea how long the war would last or the extent of their internment. The Lord would direct their paths, however, even through the “valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:3-4). Thus, Yamazaki called the Nisei generation
to accept the evacuation as a great opportunity to test our qualities and prove that we all are as genuine as we profess to be. Heretofore, you have not passed this road. By proving yourselves faithful now, you will build a future not only for yourselves but for your children. That glory cannot be compared with the sufferings and sacrifices you will undergo at the present time.
Our future promised land should be the kingdom of God for which Christ went to the Cross for the redemption of humanity and the restoration of men’s right relationship with God. It is the Kingdom of Christ’s spirit, His love, forgiveness, justice and service for all men. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the great assurance of all future life on earth and in heaven. We who have this living faith and hope, have a strength and support not known by those who do not know God and the power of His resurrection. We therefore have an obligation which we should accept as a privilege, to give comfort and assurance to the many who are depressed because they have not yet found the way of Christ and His life.[6]
Citizens of Christ’s kingdom must live differently than citizens of this world, for those who know the power of the resurrection and the assurance of God’s love have embarked on a rescue mission to bring others into the kingdom. Rev. Yamazaki then concluded with an exhortation:
May we go out from here with an aim for the future, trusting Him and His providence. Let us go courageously in St. Paul’s spirit of “fellowship in suffering”, bearing the Cross of Jesus wherever we go, and let us come through victoriously in His faith. . . . In a sense, this is our Calvary, and we must be willing to say: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” [Luke 23:34a]. We must also try, with Him, to say: “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit” [v. 46]. But that is not all. As Jesus the Christ had His resurrection from the dark tomb, so may it be with us. We shall have our Easter and be triumphant.[7]
[1] The Living Church 104, no. 12 (25 March 1952), 15, quoting the resolution of the Japanese Church Federation of Los Angeles (20 January 1942).
[2] Hunter and Binford, The Sunday Before, 43-44.
[3] Ibid., 44.
[4] Ibid., 44-45.
[5] Ibid., 45-47.
[6] Ibid., 46-47.
[7] Ibid., 48.
