Religious Organizations and the “Relocation” of Persons of Japanese Ancestry in North America: Evaluating Advocacy

Abstract

While both Canadian and American historians have offered a variety of explanations for the causes of the relocation of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II, they show remarkable unity in the belief that few Americans or Canadians opposed the removal, or sought to protect the rights of Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian citizens or non-citizens. This is not, however, entirely true. For example, the Cooperative Committee for Japanese Canadians (CCJC) was a Toronto-based umbrella group composed of representatives of Canadian missionaries, influential politicians, liberal-minded professionals, and other persons concerned with safeguarding the human rights and freedoms of Japanese Canadians during and after WWII. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an established civil liberties group with a widespread mandate, led the offensive in the U.S. through legal challenges in the Supreme Court. Additionally, in both Canada and the United States groups other than the CCJC and the ACLU agitated for the fair treatment of persons of Japanese ancestry. Many of these groups were religious organizations, especially from the denominations, in addition to the American Friends Society and, in both countries, the YMCA. In cooperation with the CCJC and the ACLU, the assaults by religious organizations on the relocation and (in Canada) on the deportation policies symbolized the growing interest in egalitarian rights which had already begun to emerge during WWII and which influenced human rights activism in Canada in subsequent years. This paper will assess the role of religious groups in advocating for the rights of persons of Japanese ancestry in North America. While the efforts of some who opposed removal and relocation was unquestionably inadequate and largely represented compromised positions, it is important to note that these activities should be understood within the difficult political context of their times. In addition to the representations made to government officials, the pamphleteering, the day-to-day ministering to the internees, the numerous petition campaigns and letters to the editor, for example, represented a creative and an eventually effective opposition to the rigid anti-Japanese racism of the day. Many of these individuals and organizations cooperated with the CCJC and the ACLU, and the nature of this cooperation will also be examined in this paper. More broadly, this study will demonstrate that attention to racial equality was fundamental for many church and religious activists. In spite of evidence which suggests the limitations of these individuals and groups, they were an integral component to the advocacy movement that eventually forced both the Canadian and American governments and peoples to reconsider the treatment of persons of Japanese ancestry in North America, and the issue of racial discrimination, in general. The role of the in North America in the relocation (and, in Canada, the deportation) debate has been largely ignored in many leading historical accounts of the relocation. (1) (For the purposes of this article, the term, Christian refers to the Protestant and Catholic denominations. It does not include the Peace churches. Hereafter, any reference to the has been shortened to churches for stylistic effect.) Other historians and commentators have accused these of supporting government policy on racial or other grounds. F.E. LaViolette, for example, argues that religious leaders and laity shared some of the anti-Asian stereotypes that long marked both British Columbian and Canadian society. (2) The focus on the churches' role in mobilizing opposition to governmental persecution of persons of Japanese ancestry in North America has been examined only recently in detail. Regarding the Canadian events, Ross Lambertson has noted the support by various. bodies for the work of the CCJC, while Michael Hemmings has outlined the response of the many religious denominations across Canada to both relocation and deportation. …