The forgotten Pearl Harbor story: Video lifts up American Baptist ministry in World War II internment camps
During World War II, thousands of men, women and children of Japanese descent were unjustly imprisoned, by executive order, in U.S. internment camps because of wartime hysteria and fear that they would serve as spies for the country of their heritage. Subjected to harsh living conditions, Japanese immigrants in the camps included parents of American-born young men fighting in U.S. military units. Two-thirds of those interned, born on American soil, were U.S. citizens. Society turned its back, but American Baptist missionaries stood with the oppressed, affirming them as brothers and sisters in Christ, and ministering to their needs. In “A Church Stands With Its People,” American Baptist Home Mission Societies lifts up the innocent individuals who endured the injustice as well as the courageous American Baptists who swam against the tide of popular opinion to serve as the hands and feet of Christ during what is, undoubtedly, a bleak period of American history.
Read Yosh Nakagawa’s personal testimony about the influence of Executive 9066 on his life journey