There was a small group of mukyokai, non-church Christians in the Seattle area. And I remember when I was growing up, that my parents and their fellow members would never work on Sundays—it was set aside for Sabbath. And we were members of the community church with non-Japanese in that area that we attended as Sunday school, and the Japanese would meet in a group by themselves. But at nighttime, Sunday night, they met in each other’s homes to do their services. And once in a while, about once a month, there was a returned missionary from Japan, Reverend Yuji Murphy. I think he was Methodist trained. But he used to come out and join the group of Japanese in their worship. So, this is what I remember going to each other’s houses and then the parents conducting the services themselves, besides going to the regular Sunday school.
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
Interviewee Bio
James Hirabayashi, son of hardworking immigrant farmers in the Pacific Northwest, was a high school senior in 1942 when he was detained in the Pinedale Assembly Center before being transferred to the Tule Lake Concentration Camp in Northern California.
After World War II, he earned his Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Anthropology from the University of Washington, and eventually his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Hirabayashi is Professor Emeritus at San Francisco State University where he was Dean of the nation’s first school of ethnic studies. He also held research and teaching positions at the University of Tokyo, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Ahmadu Bellow Univerity, Zaria, Nigeria.