• The Protestant Churches and the Resettlement of Japanese Canadians in Urban Ontario, 1942–1955
Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the Protestant churches and Japanese Canadians during and following the Second World War in their forced resettlement to central Canadian urban centers like Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario. While recent studies have focused on the forced movement of Japanese Canadian eastward to the rural areas of Manitoba and Ontario, this paper goes one step further, examining what was for many the last stage of relocation: urban settlement. More importantly, this paper provides a reinterpretation of the relationship between Japanese Canadians and Canadian society during the Second World War. Protestant churches such as the United and Anglican Churches of Canada followed the federal government’s intention to have Japanese Canadians live geographically separated from one another in cities like Toronto and Hamilton, but a close look at church attendance and the social function of churches will show how Japanese Canadians were able to use the churches to their own ends in maintaining and strengthening their community.

Résumé

Cet article porte sur les relations entre les églises protestantes et les Canadiens japonais pendant et après la seconde guerre mondiale dans le cadre de leur relogement forcé dans les conurbations du centre du Canada, tels que Toronto et Hamilton en Ontario. Alors que les études récentes se sont concentrées sur les déplacements sous la contrainte de ces derniers vers des zones rurales au Manitoba et en Ontario, il s’agit dans cet article de faire un pas de plus pour étudier ce qui pour beaucoup d’entre eux a représenté la dernière étape d’une relogement dans un contexte urbain. Ce qui est plus important, c’est de proposer une réinterprétation des relations entre les Canadiens japonais et la société canadienne pendant la seconde guerre mondiale. Les confessions protestantes, comme l’Église unifiée et l’Église anglicane du Canada, ont emboîté le pas aux intentions du gouvernement fédéral de voir les Canadiens japonais vivre géographiquement séparés les uns des autres dans les villes; mais il ressort d’une observation minutieuse des présences aux services religieux et de la fonction sociale des paroisses, que ceuxci surent se servir des églises à leurs propres fins, afin de maintenir et de renforcer leur communauté.

The relocation of Canadians of Japanese ancestry from British Columbia to central and eastern Canada is perhaps the most overlooked event of the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II. Given the choice between repatriation to Japan and “dispersal” east of the Rockies, many Canadians of Japanese ancestry, wishing to stay in Canada, were forced by the federal government to move from British [End Page 51] Columbia to other parts of Canada. As a further setback, once these Canadians arrived at their new locations, the federal government wanted them to live geographically separated from one another in order to prevent their presence from being noticed. The federal government crafted this policy as a result of the Japanese “problem” on the west coast because it was assumed that the hostility which developed between “Little Tokyo” and members of the occidental population in Vancouver would also develop in cities like Toronto and Hamilton. During this turbulent period, many Japanese Canadians relied on the spiritual guidance and support of the Protestant churches, the same churches that had been a fixture in the lives of many of them in British Columbia during the preceding fifty years. However, once they arrived in cities like Toronto and Hamilton, church attendance assumed a special importance: many Protestant and non-Protestant Japanese Canadians were able to draw upon the resources of local parishes in their attempt to maintain links among members of their cultural community. At the same time, the Protestant churches worked to alleviate many of the social and economic pressures involved in the process of relocation.

Unfortunately, the issue of urban resettlement of the Japanese Canadians is missing from previous works examining their experiences during World War II. In the historiography, the internment within British Columbia has long assumed a central position. Historians have spent much time and effort tracing the presence of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia beginning in 1877 to the forced evacuation in 1942. Scholars outline the various factors which led to such a policy, noting the groundswell of public support in British Columbia, the economic and legislative controls put into place forcing Japanese Canadians out of key industries such as the fisheries and farming, and the conditions Japanese Canadians faced in the internment camps in the interior of British Columbia.1 More recently, however, historians have begun to reveal that the Japanese Canadian experience during World War II was not limited to British Columbia, and that this group of marginalized Canadians did have social and political allies. The work of Stephanie Bangarth has been particularly important in this respect, illustrating the political support Canadians of Japanese heritage received from religious organizations during the war, and in showing that the discrimination Japanese Canadians experienced in small-town Ontario often mirrored what they faced in British Columbia.2 However, unlike the arrival of Canadians of Japanese heritage in rural Ontario — which was temporary in nature — their arrival in urban centers, such as Hamilton and Toronto, symbolized their earnest attempt to settle anew. To the detriment of the historiography, however, this urban resettlement is missing from the analysis of the Japanese Canadian wartime experience. The works that do focus on Japanese Canadians in urban areas are often cursory or limited to examinations of positive and negative “identity” in Toronto, and the important, but limited, geographic analysis of residential statistics in Montreal.3 [End Page 52]

This aim of this paper is to help bring forward the unexplored chapter of the Japanese Canadian internment and relocation process: their experience settling in Toronto and Hamilton during the 1940s and early 1950s. Perhaps the most effective way to reveal the circumstances surrounding their arrival in urban Ontario is through the perspective of the Protestant churches, since over half of all Japanese Canadians were involved with Protestant churches in various capacities.4 While this is admittedly not the entire Japanese Canadian population, examining the experiences of those involved in the churches provides a sense of the discrimination the larger Japanese Canadian community faced. Non-Christian Japanese Canadians, such as Buddhists or atheists, would have faced greater difficulties in their attempts to maintain and forge new ties to the Japanese Canadian community in the absence of the Protestant churches. This paper draws on an unused body of evidence, the records generated by parish-level and denominational organizations, such as the Women’s Missionary Society, which were charged with assisting Japanese Canadians upon their arrival in Hamilton and Toronto. Stephanie Bangarth has shown that the Protestant churches assisted Japanese Canadians in their political fights with the Canadian government. It is important to add, however, that the churches provided important social assistance during the initial and subsequent stages of resettlement in urban Ontario. This paper examines Toronto because this city received the largest number of Japanese Canadians of all Canadian cities. After the war, the largest number of Japanese Canadians resettled in Ontario. By 1951, 40% (8,581) lived in the province, and by 1956, after Japanese Canadians were allowed to return to British Columbia in 1949, the largest number of Japanese Canadians in Canada still lived in Toronto with numbers exceeding 7000.5

This paper examines and is organized around three related themes: how the Protestant churches were involved in the resettlement of Japanese Canadians; the various ways local places of worship assumed significance during this time; and how the Japanese Canadians used the services of the churches to their own ends. It will be argued that the Protestant churches played an important role in assisting Japanese Canadians to adapt to living in urban centers like Toronto and Hamilton. The Protestant churches offered a communal place for Japanese Canadians who were geographically separated in the cities. This paper will also seek to confirm and revise the current historiography in a number of ways. First, it supports the arguments put forward by Bangarth that Japanese Canadians did indeed have political allies. Pamela Sugiman’s conclusion that Japanese Canadians were not passive victims is also reaffirmed.6 Indeed, contrary to the suggestion that Japanese Canadians, victimized and demoralized, accepted changes in government policy passively and with only minor resistance, they utilized institutional churches to their political and social advantage in improving their living conditions. Second, this paper will argue that Japanese [End Page 53] Canadians faced legal and racial discrimination not just in British Columbia and small-town Ontario, as other historians argue, but also in urban Ontario. Third, this paper will challenge the validity of the argument put forward by Keibo Oiwa that Japanese Canadians, upon moving to eastern Canada, practiced “self-imposed residential decentralization.”7 While the scattered distribution of the Japanese Canadian community might certainly suggest that such an interpretation was plausible, it will be shown that the Canadian government and the Protestant churches both applied a good deal of pressure on Japanese Canadians to live apart from one another. The active promotion of dispersal reveals that this was not simply “self-imposed,” but, rather, imposed from above; this further shows the limitations Japanese Canadians encountered in their efforts to use the church as an integrative tool. Moreover, it is important to understand the process of relocation as not being limited to British Columbia or even to the movement of Japanese Canadian farm labour to small-town Ontario. Instead, to fully understand the degree to which Japanese Canadians were uprooted during the 1940s, the term “relocation” or “removal” should be used to represent a period of time when they were internally displaced persons, characterized by a legally restricted lifestyle and high degree of nation-wide transiency that lasted until the early 1950s. In this sense the move to small-town Ontario was one step in the process of moving to eastern urban centers where Issei and Nisei could re-establish family networks and begin their lives anew.8

Two Protestant denominations, the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada, will be considered in this study. The Anglican and United Churches were the largest Protestant denominations in Canada and were most involved with the Japanese Canadians. While there were other Protestant denominations, such as the Baptists, that aided in the process of resettlement, their relatively marginal role in the process, resulting from their minor institutional presence in British Columbia and extremely low numbers of Japanese Canadian church membership, preclude their inclusion in this study. The instance of the Roman Catholic Church provides a similar example; in British Columbia and Ontario the involvement of Japanese Canadians in the Roman Catholic Church was relatively minor compared to that in the Anglican and United Churches. It was in the province of Quebec and in the city of Montreal that the Roman Catholic Church’s role was particularly strong. The United Church of Canada, among the various Protestant churches, possessed the largest membership of Japanese Canadians: in 1942 approximately 5,500 individuals out of a population of 23,149 Japanese Canadians belonged to the United Church.9 The United Church of Canada’s Board of Home Missions reported in 1942 that over one-half of the total “Japanese population” were church members or adherents.10 If this is true, just over 10,000 Japanese Canadians were church attendees, with the United Church having the largest following. Finally, in the minds of the Japanese Canadians, being a Christian [End Page 54] often meant being a Protestant. This was the case for Toyo Takata, a Nisei critical of Japanese Canadians who converted to Christianity, who remarked: “If they… can’t become white at least they can become a Protestant.”11 Although church-goers comprised the majority of all Japanese Canadians, they do not represent the entire Japanese Canadian population. Missing from this analysis are the many Canadians of Japanese ancestry who were un-churched, Buddhists, or of other religious affiliations. Unfortunately, many Japanese Canadian churchgoers who did attend and use churches on a regular basis did not generate records or documents that could be used by historians to characterize the nature of their participation, so the records of those who did assume greater importance in representing the broader community in this study.

Organizational Response

The Protestant churches came to the aid of Japanese Canadians when, in 1942, the Canadian government issued an ultimatum to the Japanese Canadians that they be repatriated to Japan or relocate east of the Rockies. From as early as 1892, there existed sufficient numbers and finances to warrant the creation of the Vancouver Japanese Methodist Church.12 In 1942, the United Church reported that it had no less than seventeen Japanese congregations in British Columbia, seven Japanese clergymen ministering to 1,116 families comprising over 5,500 individuals, and a membership of over 1,000.13

One of the main ways the Protestant churches responded to the removal of Japanese Canadians from British Columbia was through their participation in the Co-operative Committee on Japanese Canadians (CCJC). The CCJC was an umbrella organization whose membership went beyond the churches. For instance, while the CCJC’s membership included the United, Anglican, Baptist and Catholic churches, it also encompassed the YMCA and the YWCA and over forty other regional and national organizations. While independent of one another, they cooperated and worked together for this cause.14 Although the leadership of the CCJC was shared among its members, Stephanie Bangarth has found that church leaders were the most numerous critics of the removal and dispersal. Furthermore, Bangarth illustrates that the CCJC played an important role in providing Japanese Canadians access to legal assistance in their fight against deportation and their efforts to achieve restitution from the federal government for their sold property.15 The CCJC believed that a fact-finding survey was required to discover what kinds of jobs, housing arrangements, and recreational activities Japanese Canadians could expect to find upon their arrival in the east. These findings could then be reported to the evacuation camps to encourage relocation in eastern Canada. The CCJC, along with the British Columbia Security Commission (BCSC), a branch of the Department of [End Page 55] Labour charged with administering the Japanese Canadian evacuation and dispersal, capitalized on the important social role and influence of Japanese Canadian Protestant clergymen within the Japanese Canadian community. Reverend Kosaburo Shimizu, a clergyman with the United Church, was commissioned by the CCJC, the United Church Board of Home Missions, and the BCSC to visit Ontario and Quebec with the aim of establishing employment connections and social groups for the eventual settlement of Japanese Canadians. To this end, and addressing the idea of having the Japanese Canadians live dispersed, Rev. Shimizu spoke with the principals and teachers in the evacuation camps before he left in order to prepare pupils for a “new world” where “oriental ‘islands’” would not exist.16

Rev. Shimizu visited Hamilton, Toronto, and Montreal, and many towns in between, such as London, Guelph, and Belleville, Ontario, where he attempted to make contact with every Japanese Canadian living in the areas in order to listen to their concerns and to provide counseling. Shimizu’s observations and conversations with Canadians of Japanese ancestry and church workers at local parishes were later turned into a report complete with recommendations. Back in the evacuation camps, however, the response to his trip was mixed. Rev. Shimizu had been called the “Security Commission Doc” by some because of his close connection with the BCSC.17 This illustrates the reluctance of many Japanese Canadians to move east, and, at the same time, reveals the limitations Protestant clergymen encountered in their efforts to induce Japanese Canadians to relocate.

Members of the men’s and women’s sub-committees of the CCJC echoed the findings of Shimizu’s report months later. The men’s and women’s sub-committees were composed of twenty-five Japanese Canadians living in Toronto, and were created by the CCJC with the aim of having Japanese Canadians “meet regarding helping their own people with problems as they occur.”18 The two reports combine to help contemporary observers understand the nature and extent of the difficulties Japanese Canadians faced upon arrival in eastern Canada. Broadly speaking, the reports identified two types of problems Japanese Canadians encountered: racial prejudice and legal barriers preventing full resettlement. The reports noted that the obstacles to resettlement ultimately manifested themselves in a host of “psychological difficulties” for Japanese Canadians.19 The first problem encountered was specific to Toronto, but representative of a prevailing racist attitude among many urban and small-town Canadians in the east. Applications for travel permits submitted to the BCSC with “Toronto” listed as the destination were unanimously disapproved because of a City of Toronto policy instituted by Mayor Conboy, which prevented the settlement in the city of all male Japanese Canadian evacuees over eighteen years of age. The reports of the men’s and women’s sub-committees made clear how this policy served to prevent efforts at family reunification and created feelings of hopelessness. [End Page 56]

Within the historical context of the Japanese Canadian evacuation from the west coast, Toronto’s policy (which ended at the beginning of 1944 and will be discussed later) is similar to the discriminatory policies at the provincial level in British Columbia and at the municipal level in small-town Ontario during the first half of the twentieth century. This policy escaped mention at any Toronto City Council meetings between 1942 and 1945. Many Japanese Canadians, however, were able to circumvent this legal setback. Kensuke Takata, for instance, moved east at the beginning of 1944 when the travel restrictions to Toronto were still in place. Instead of settling in Toronto proper, Takata moved his family to the suburb of Mimico, just west of Toronto. In Mimico, after the landlord “jacked the rent” and “shut off [the] gas,” Takata complained about his family’s mistreatment to housing authorities who subsequently let him “sneak into Toronto.”20

The experience of Kensuke Takata was the unfortunate reality faced by many Japanese Canadians in their attempts to settle in Toronto. The inability to find adequate housing resulted from a combination of three interconnected issues: the legal prohibition against Japanese Canadians purchasing or leasing property; the reluctance of many landlords to rent space to Japanese Canadians; and the low-wage and temporary work in which Japanese Canadians were involved. Through Order-in-Council 1457 of February 27, 1942, “no person of Japanese race” could, except upon special licence from the Minister of Justice, “have the capacity… to acquire or hold land or grow crops in Canada.”21

Not only did this prevent purchasing or renting farmland, but, in the urban setting, it prevented the renting and purchasing of homes and businesses. The licence from the Minister of Justice was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. When Japanese Canadians were able to secure the licence from the Minister of Justice, this did not necessarily mean that the holder would be able to open a business. For example, Jimmie Hirai was granted a licence by the Minister of Justice to purchase a restaurant in Toronto. All he required was a business licence from the city, but because the City of Toronto made an effort to prevent the settlement of Japanese Canadians, his eight appeals for the licence were all turned down. When the CCJC sent a delegation to the Mayor of Toronto in an attempt to resolve this issue, his assistant stated that “we don’t want them here but we can’t legally keep them out.” He stated that no licences would be granted.22 As a result, Jimmie Hirai sold his property at a loss. Because of the Order-in-Council, Japanese Canadians could not buy or rent homes for over one year, enter into interdependent business for themselves, or buy or rent farmland with a view to farming. When gains were achieved, such as finally moving into the city or acquiring the licence from the Minister of Justice, such progress often revealed further difficulties, such as an uncooperative municipal government.

In terms of renting apartments, the report of the subcommittees points out that [End Page 57] because landlords were unwilling to rent to Japanese Canadians, many were forced to temporarily live in concentrated areas where agreeable landlords could be found. Further compounding the problem, the wartime jobs Japanese Canadians were able to find in the city precluded them from living in high-rent areas, since they were unable to use the skills they had once used in British Columbia. These experiences, in the words of Shimizu, had the “effect to taint the overall experience of Nisei and Issei, making them restless and unsatisfied.”23 The news of such difficulties was not limited to eastern Canada, since many Japanese Canadians wrote about their experiences to family and friends living in British Columbia. Shimizu believed that such correspondence “served to deter others from migrating to eastern Canada.”24

The third problem of resettlement was finding appropriate employment. Japanese Canadians in eastern Canada, in the words of Rev. Shimizu, were “over-educated and over-trained” for the jobs they frequently carried out.25 Japanese Canadians trained in professional white-collar work, such as teaching, found it impossible to find work. Occupational difficulties also reflected gendered expectations of work. It should be noted, however, that the acceptance of manual labour was not limited to men. Nisei women also participated in manual work for which they were generally over-trained. In his report, Rev. Shimizu outlined how women were forced into domestic service upon arrival in the east. Shimizu reported Nisei women “found the conditions and class-divisions of eastern Canadian society difficult to adjust to.”26 Feminist scholars in the United States argue that prior to World War II, first-generation Japanese American women used domestic work as a way to assert a limited degree of financial independence and to establish relationships outside the family.27 This may be the case for Issei women in North America, but the experience of second-generation Japanese Canadian women suggests domestic work was undesirable. Nisei women were more educated and did not desire blue-collar work, yet domestic work remained one of the strategies the Anglican and United Churches pursu1ed to encourage young Japanese Canadian women to move east. Domestic work proved appealing because, as some scholars have pointed out, exposure to the language and culture of the dominant society had an assimilative effect on workers.28 The Protestant churches and the CCJC did not hide these motivations. “One reason for stressing housework as a job for girls,” in the words of the CCJC, “is that this will mean they will be scattered throughout the large cities.”29

The plan ultimately proved unsuccessful for two reasons: Nisei women balked at the efforts of church workers to have them take up domestic employment in Ontario and the City of Toronto did not formally allow Japanese Canadian domestics to enter the city until 1945. The United Church’s Women’s Missionary Society began as early as May 1942 to attempt to recruit Nisei women for domestic work. In June, 1942, United Church missionary workers recruited twenty-five women at the [End Page 58] Tashme camp, who volunteered to undertake domestic work, but reportedly only four demonstrated a “willingness to come.”30 A month later the WMS reported having successfully recruited seven girls to work as domestics at Albert College in Belleville, Ontario. The United Church’s ability to recruit Nisei women as domestics may appear unsuccessful because of the small numbers of women who took up the work, but compared to the Anglican Church, the United Church remained relatively more effective.

The Anglican Church experienced even more difficulty in its recruitment efforts than the United Church. The efforts of the United Church spurred the Anglicans to undertake a similar effort; the United Church’s example was frequently referred to in the correspondence between Canon Dixon and Rev. W.H. Gale in their plans to begin a domestic service program for Nisei women.31 One of the seven girls the United Church recruited to Albert College was reportedly an Anglican. Illustrating the high degree of competition for members which existed between the denominations, the Anglican church went so far as to notify one of the clergymen in Belleville of the Anglican Japanese Canadian girl working as a domestic at the United Church’s Albert College, so he could contact her.32 The Anglican Church also frequently discovered that permits were refused to women for whom positions had been found.33 Illustrating the reluctance of Nisei women to take up domestic work, Rev. Gale confessed to Canon Dixon that “demand is much greater than supply.”34

The hesitation of Nisei women to become domestic workers, and Rev. Shimizu’s observation that Nisei women were under-employed in the east suggests that the view of domestic work as “liberation” was a phenomenon limited to Issei women. Once Nisei women were able to achieve higher levels of education and English-language skills, which many of their parents lacked, they had reason to expect employment for which they were qualified and which provided better working conditions. The Protestant church and the CCJC attempted, on the one hand, to find work for Nisei women for which they were trained, while, on the other, in a pragmatic effort to expedite Japanese Canadian settlement in the east, the CCJC and the Protestant churches contradicted these efforts by encouraging Nisei women to accept domestic service jobs for which they had no training or desire to accept.

In 1944 the CCJC began to change its strategy for finding Nisei women work. Instead of the emphasis on domestic work, the CCJC began to look at white-collar secretarial work. CCJC members emphasized that it was important for the girls to possess experience in bookkeeping or stenographic work or they could expect to encounter difficulty finding employment. The CCJC exploited existing social networks and reminded its members that “social groups of the Y and church houses are good sources of contacts as to girls who need jobs or better jobs than they have.”35 The shift from domestic work to white-collar work reflects the realization within the [End Page 59] CCJC and the Protestant churches, generally, that attempts to channel Nisei women into domestic work were proving unsuccessful. Moreover, the effort to find women “better” jobs is reflective of the chronic underemployment many Nisei faced.

The recommendations outlined in the CCJC’s reports reaffirmed the need to bring an end to the legislative barriers to ownership and free movement throughout Canada which all Japanese Canadians faced, regardless of where they lived. In terms of social recommendations, the members of the subcommittees called for a meeting place in the Y.M.C.A. or Y.W.C.A., where “they can get together to form an organization whose membership may be open to all, regardless whether they are church members or non-church members.”36 Japanese Canadians, such as Shuichi Sasaki and Kimi Takimoto, who were members of Toronto’s United Church of All Nations and the CCJC sub-committees, assumed leadership roles; they worked towards creating an environment in Toronto favorable to all Japanese Canadians, not just members of the Church.

Local Places of Worship: “The Beginning of Community Gatherings”37

Once Canadians of Japanese ancestry arrived in eastern Canadians cities, local places of worship assumed a central role in the work of the Anglican and United Churches. It was in the parishes that the spiritual aspects of Protestantism were fulfilled and the social outreach by clergymen and women missionary workers carried out. Local places of worship performed two interrelated functions: evangelization and the provision of social assistance for Japanese Canadians. Although the evangelical impulse was present in the work carried out by the clergymen of local congregations, the provision of social assistance reflected efforts to promote social justice and racial equality.

From the outset of the Japanese Canadian evacuation, the Anglican Church looked at the activities and organization of United Church parishes as something of an ideal basis for facilitating the incorporation of Japanese Canadians into church services and membership, once they arrived in urban centers. Beginning in the 1920s the United Church converted certain urban churches in Toronto and Montreal into immigrant-outreach parishes. In Toronto this involved changing the name of Queen Street United Church to the “Church of All Nations” in 1928.38 Initially formed to attract recent European immigrants to Canada, the Church of All Nations allowed various ethnic groups to have church services in their native languages. In May 1942, the Anglican clergyman Rev. Savary commented to Canon Dixon, Secretary of the Missionary Society for the Church of England in Canada (MSCC), on the importance of having church workers who possessed a knowledge of the “racial background and customs” of Japanese Canadians. Rev. Savary believed that “this advantage can be [End Page 60] seen in the work of the United Church missions of the ‘Church of All Nations’ type, where they have used workers familiar with the racial backgrounds of their people to an extent that we have not done.”39 This comment by an Anglican clergyman on the shortcomings of their mission work with Japanese Canadians can also partially explain why this group of transient Canadians was more drawn to services provided by the United Church.

What this meant for Japanese Canadian Anglicans was that once in Toronto, they had no choice but to join congregations and organizations composed of “white” Christians. The Anglican congregations that Japanese Canadian work centered on included St. George the Martyr, the Church of the Redeemer, and Holy Trinity. The policy of the Anglican Church followed the policy of the Department of Labour (Japanese Division) in that there should be “no extensive organizational activities among the Nisei.”40 Anglican church workers actively sought to encourage Nisei to become involved “not in groups by themselves, but in small groups in the existing social, cultural and religious organizations.”41 Japanese Canadian Anglicans who desired to join the Young People’s Association or the Women’s Association in a local parish had to join those already established, instead of creating a parallel Japanese Canadian version.

Despite the emphasis on integration, by 1946, there existed one Anglican Nisei group in Toronto: a Hobby Club for young women that held meetings once a month at the Women’s Association house. Anglican women’s missionary worker Grace Tucker admitted that the Hobby group served a special function within the Japanese Canadian community, since “social contact with their own people” was “so necessary to members of this minority group.”42 However, by 1948 Japanese Canadian Anglicans in Toronto began to agitate for separate Nisei-only organizations. The desire for their own organizations can be explained partly, in the words of Grace Tucker, because members of the Anglican Women’s Association were “definitely happier without Japanese-Canadian members in their midst.”43 Grace Tucker reported that there was a general feeling among some members of the Anglican Church that Japanese Canadians “are different and must be treated differently.”44 Tucker compared the efforts of the Anglican mission to that of the United Church: when she visited a United Church congregation, she discovered “a young Nisei as usher, another [as] Church Treasurer, two were in the choir — one doing solo work.”45 By comparison, she knew of only two Japanese Canadians in the Anglican parishes who took part in church work in all of Toronto.46

While several Anglican Japanese Canadians had found teaching jobs in Toronto’s public schools by 1947 — jobs that have been previously closed to them — the Anglican Church reported being unable to find a place for them as “active and vital church members.”47 It was not until 1949 that the Anglican Church overcame [End Page 61] its initial reluctance to see the creation of “Japanese congregations”; it was at this time that a regular meeting of Japanese Canadians began to take place at St. James’ Cathedral Chapel.48 Anglican policy rested on the premise that all types of Nisei organizations were to be discouraged in order to quickly facilitate “Canadianization” and to integrate Nisei into congregational life. On the other hand, it became apparent that these efforts were not unanimously supported. The emphasis on integration encountered resistance from some Anglican workers such as Grace Tucker, who recognized the special function that groups like the Hobby Club played in providing social contact among Nisei women. Similarly, the Nisei pressed for the creation of their own organizations, demonstrating the desire to maintain close contact with members of their cultural community. All the while, the efforts of Anglican workers centered on the desire to carry out, in the words of Grace Tucker, “intensive evangelistic work” to firmly establish Japanese Canadians as members of the Anglican spiritual community.49

Like the Anglican Church, the United Church encouraged the dispersal of Japanese Canadians throughout urban areas, but remained more flexible in allowing the creation of parallel Nisei church organizations. In Toronto, Japanese Canadians primarily attended the Carlton Street United Church, Metropolitan United Church, and the Church of All Nations on Queen Street. It was not until 1945 that they had a permanent Japanese Canadian minister, Rev. Kosaburo Shimizu. He was called to Toronto to minister on a full-time basis at the Church of All Nations and to make monthly visits to the All People’s Church in Hamilton. The Anglican Church did not have a permanent Japanese Canadian minister, Kenneth Imai, until 1951. Interestingly, Shimizu was already in Canada, whereas Imai had to be transferred from Japan in order to serve Japanese Canadian Anglicans in Toronto. The more numerous Japanese Canadian ministers within the United Church reflects the attraction of Japanese Canadians to the United Church, and demonstrates the parish-level differences that existed between the two denominations. Prior (and even subsequent) to the arrival of Japanese Canadian ministers in the east, it was women missionary workers who were charged with administering and looking after Japanese Canadian congregants in their respective parishes.

The creation of a Japanese Canadian congregation formally began early in 1945 when Rev. Shimizu began holding Sunday afternoon services in the third-floor chapel of the Church of All Nations. Rev. Shimizu’s wife, Hide Shimizu, recounted the creation of the Japanese Congregation at the Church of All Nations: “They started with a group of eight, then it grew and grew, so they had to move from the third-floor chapel to the second-floor chapel, to the main international chapel.”50 The Church of All Nations in Toronto and the All People’s Church in Hamilton, unlike their Anglican counterparts, held worship services in both English and [End Page 62] Japanese. One of the main problems church workers encountered was that many of the older Issei were unable to speak and understand English. Consequently, holding services in Japanese served the mission of “strengthening and evangelicalizing” those without English-language skills. Despite the Christianizing motivations behind holding services in the Japanese language, Japanese Canadians gave their own meaning to attendance. Worship services were seen by many Japanese Canadians, Issei and Nisei alike, as a way to socialize with members of their own community. For instance, Hide Shimizu recalled that in Toronto, “Nisei would come to the Japanese service even though they couldn’t understand Japanese. Then their kids started to come and we had to institute a babysitting service to look after the young children.”51 She went on to state that the Church services were “the beginning of Japanese community gatherings”.52 Despite linguistic differences between first- and second-generation Japanese Canadians, church services served as an opportunity to remain close to members of their community. Church services assumed even greater importance in light of their being “scattered” throughout the cities. Churches were seen as a symbol of assimilation into Canadian society on the one hand and, on the other, as a tool for maintaining a sense of identity and community.

Hide Shimizu was not the only Japanese Canadian in Toronto who commented on the community-building aspect of attending church. George Tanaka, for example, explained: “the only association [with Japanese] would be if we were invited to a church or if we attended church.”53 Mrs. Kazuye Mayeda also recalled that “we just had a handful of Japanese friends — except in the church, we meet them at church, the Nisei church.” Mayeda further remarked: “We sort of lost track of all our friends, they lived here and there. Until we went to church and we got the usual church people, and a lot of people from BC went to the Church of All Nations and we made a point to go there every Sunday.”54 As Kazuye Mayeda’s comments suggest, even regular church services helped in creating new friendships and strengthening old ones. Esther Ryan, a missionary worker, noticed this phenomenon in Hamilton at the All People’s Church. As the congregation grew in number, “those who were strangers to each other [had] become friends.”55 Friendships and social networks were further cultivated with the assistance of Rev. Shimizu. During the late 1940s and early 1950s Rev. Shimizu edited a United Church publication for Japanese congregations titled “The Shepherd’s Call,” which was printed in both English and Japanese.56 While the main focus of the paper was to outline events happening within the United Church, the publication included a “New Arrivals” section which announced, upon the arrival in Toronto of Japanese Canadians who were affiliated with the United Church, the evacuation camp they had stayed in and their new Toronto address. The only edition which was uncovered over the course of the research for this paper, from March, 1945, announced the arrival of eight individuals.57 Hide Shimizu recalled that when old [End Page 63] friends from the New Denver evacuation camp arrived, with the assistance of The Shepherd’s Call , they held reunions at the Spaghetti House on Dundas Street.58

Pamela Sugiman has argued that the internment has become a central narrative in the wartime memory of Japanese Canadian women.59 The examples cited above demonstrate a similar trend with regard to church attendance. Instead of remembering the internment, however, the memory of church was central and punctuated the recollection of friendships among other Japanese Canadians. This reveals how church attendance often facilitated the creation and maintenance of friendships within the Japanese Canadian community. A unique meaning was given to church membership and attendance by Japanese Canadians, where it was explicitly stated that some made a point of going there every Sunday in order to remain in contact with Japanese Canadian friends. This social function of parishes is discussed below.

Social Assistance

Before the evacuation in 1942, the United Church considered Japanese Canadians a “major religious organization.”60 One indication of this, a report of the Board of Home Missions, listed the total financial contributions made by the Japanese congregations in British Columbia in 1940 as $14,568.61 The large amount the Japanese Canadians donated may help in understanding why the United Church was interested in maintaining their relationship; it does not, however, provide the complete answer. Any financial gains the United Church received from the Japanese Canadian congregations were reinvested into the Japanese Canadian community in the form of scholarships for young men and women pursuing their studies. This was the case for Sumi Iwamoto, who enrolled in a nursing program and received a $100 scholarship from the Women’s Missionary Society as a “bond of friendship.”62 In addition to making the congregations the focus of community work, they were the place where Protestant missionary workers and clergymen provided practical social assistance to Japanese Canadians. These social services can be categorized into three types of help, which served to facilitate the socio-economic integration of Japanese Canadians into eastern Canadian society: finding and providing housing; assistance with finding employment; and providing social and recreational activities for Issei and Nisei.

The role of the Protestant Churches in the provision of housing during resettlement requires a reassessment of the historiography dealing with the dispersal of Japanese Canadians. Historians currently credit the Department of Labour and the Ontario Farm Service Force as the main players in the relocation process. They note, for instance, how the Department of Labour established temporary hostels for transient Japanese Canadians coming into Ontario, housing thousands of individuals and families in poor living conditions.63 Also noted are the work camps many [End Page 64] Japanese Canadian men were forced to live in during their voluntary work on the sugar beet fields in Ontario.64 However, the experience of the Protestant churches and the CCJC illustrates that the process was not as uniform, or secular, as historians suggest. The Protestant churches assisted in finding Japanese Canadians housing by facilitating short-term residency at local Y.M.C.A.s, creating co-operative housing projects, and assuming responsibility for eastbound individuals so they would be allowed an “open” travel permit. Typically, women missionary workers at the evacuation camps in British Columbia would telegraph notices to the Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A. with the names and ages of those boarding the trains for Toronto. Upon arrival in Toronto, the Y organizations often provided temporary housing for Japanese Canadians, since housing was in such short supply and because men so greatly outnumbered women in Toronto.65 The Japanese Canadians, who arrived during the 1940s, often describe their first weeks in Toronto as having been spent at the Y.M.C.A. Harry Shibuya, for instance, recalled: “I stayed in the YMCA, where my brother-in-law had recently been. And he reserved a room for me on College Street, and I lived there for six weeks.”66

The United Church’s Women’s Missionary Society also assisted in establishing two co-operative housing projects in Toronto. In a move to help overcome the housing shortage, Miss Emma Kaufman, a member of the United Church’s WMS and the Welfare Committee of the BCSC, purchased a thirteen-bedroom home at 506 Jarvis Street and donated it to the WMS in 1944. A report noted that the contents of the house were donated as well. “Inadequate furnishings were added to by interested friends; cleaning, decorating and painting were undertaken by the young Japanese men and soon the house was filled with twenty boys and a Matron and co-operative living, with an excellent Committee.”67 Any rent that was collected from the tenants went towards providing scholarships for Japanese Canadian girls at university, in nursing schools, and in Mothercraft programs.68 The WMS did not simply want to create housing; it wanted to create homes of a Christian character which had values that would continue in the lives of the Japanese Canadian men and women. Through these housing co-operatives, proper morals were enforced by “regulating the discipline and morale of the residents.”69 Intoxicants were not allowed on the premises and gambling was strictly prohibited. There were a number of administrative by-laws drawn up to govern the functioning of the houses, but the rules of behaviour are the most telling. The living conditions of this house were infinitely better than the hostels offered by Department of Labour, and the residents experienced a limited degree of control over their lives and the place in which they lived. A similar project for Japanese Canadian girls was discussed, as they expressed an interested in the Business Girls’ Co-operative House, which was later established with all the work attended to by the girls themselves.70 [End Page 65]

The CCJC also worked towards finding housing in creative ways by drawing on social networks that existed at the parish level. At a CCJC meeting in March 1944, a number of Nisei voiced the difficulty they experienced in their attempts to find housing. The recommendation from this meeting called on all the members present to report to the other groups to which they belonged, such as the Christian Business Men’s Association, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Minister’s Fellowship Christian Social Order, and Professional Women of the Church, in order to “stress the difficulty in finding adequate housing” and to come up with solutions. At the same meeting it was decided that an article be printed in the monthly publications of the United, Anglican, and Presbyterian Churches on “housing and property for this group of Canadians.”71 The CCJC and the Protestant churches thus utilized existing organizations in order to resolve the housing difficulties experienced by Japanese Canadians. The churches also assumed full responsibility for them in order for the RCMP to send them to Toronto on an “open permit,” where they would have the freedom to choose work for themselves once they arrived.72

There was a turning point in the housing situation in 1947, when the federal government removed restrictions on the movement of Japanese Canadians. While Japanese Canadians were still not allowed to return to British Columbia, they no longer required travel permits to move through the rest of Canada; they were able to move freely without providing the government proof of residence or employment at their destination before they relocated. At the same time, government hostels throughout Canada were being closed, and Japanese Canadians were urged, once again, to move eastward. Grace Tucker commented that

since the restrictions were lifted, many families have moved into Toronto, and each day one finds some new ones here from surrounding districts, or even Alberta or BC. Although the living is so very crowded, Toronto offers the best opportunities for employment and study.73

In addition to receiving Japanese Canadians from the western provinces from which they had moved during the war, Toronto proved to draw Japanese Canadians from Ontario’s other urban and rural areas. Esther Ryan, a missionary worker with the United Church’s All People’s Church in Hamilton, commented that many Japanese Canadians who took up residence in Hamilton often stayed only briefly as a stopover before settling in Toronto. Ryan remarked: “The general feeling is that those who can move on to Toronto are fortunate. In the larger city they find less prejudice and more varied opportunities. So we have lost many of our more ambitious people.”74 Grace Tucker also pointed to the phenomenon of the rural-to-city movement of Japanese Canadians, who originally settled in small-town Ontario during the war, noting that in 1947, there was a “drift from country to city.”75 While 1947 [End Page 66] signaled an influx of Japanese Canadians into Toronto, it also reflected the increasingly “simple” task of finding homes of their own for the Japanese Canadians.76 No longer did the missionary workers have to walk around Toronto and talk with potential landlords about leasing apartments and houses to Japanese Canadians. By 1948 “many [were] permanently settled and often using the whole house — although there [was] still some subletting.”77 While Grace Tucker noted in 1947 that the work of finding suitable housing was increasingly “simple,” the task of finding suitable employment was “next to impossible!”78

Assisting Japanese Canadians to secure suitable employment was a complicated issue. Many of the jobs available to Japanese Canadians in eastern Canada were wartime jobs and temporary in nature. The training and education many Nisei received in British Columbia proved useless to them once they arrived in Ontario. Nisei men, who migrated to small-town Ontario to work on the sugar beet fields for the Ontario Farm Service Force, and women, in particular those in domestic service, were not satisfied with these jobs. This was further complicated by the fact that many Japanese Canadians in British Columbia were proprietors of small businesses, farmers, and fishermen, and upon arriving in the east in the mid 1940s, they were unable to secure business licences, purchase or lease farmland, or fish. Additionally, tradesmen who moved into other provinces were unable to practice their trades because the licences were issued provincially and thus valid only in British Columbia. In short, under-employment was a major problem for all Japanese Canadians who arrived in the east.

The Protestant churches and the CCJC took a particular interest in the area of employment from the outset of their involvement, yet both experienced limitations in what could be accomplished. The main goal of the churches and the CCJC was to find for the Japanese Canadians work for which they had been previously trained. Temporary jobs could certainly be found for men and women, but these only contributed to feelings of uneasiness and stress, articulated in the CCJC reports. The CCJC believed one of the best ways to find employment was through word-of-mouth and personal contact. In addition to the word-of-mouth strategy, Dr. Prince of the Metropolitan Church made the suggestion that church boards and committees be approached in the hope that businessmen might make openings for qualified Japanese Canadians.79 The CCJC and the Protestant churches worked towards utilizing the social and business networks established among church members in various congregations in order to find Japanese Canadians suitable employers for work in areas in which they were trained.

How successful were these efforts? Unfortunately, historical sources are particularly slight in this area. Despite this shortcoming, other sources help reveal the results. Anglican missionary worker Grace Tucker, for instance, reported in 1946 that [End Page 67] “‘placements have not been high, about 60 individuals and only 5 family groups placed in various types of work, in addition to a fair number of part-time placements.”80 The social outreach of the missionary workers in their attempts to find employment was further complicated because the individuals they were attempting to help often lived far away from the churches they attended. In this sense, dispersal in Toronto proved to be a challenge to church workers just as it was for Japanese Canadians.

Grace Tucker explained that a major part of the work carried out by missionary workers at Holy Trinity Church involved visiting Japanese Canadians in their homes to discuss employment and spiritual matters. She stressed, however, that it was becoming increasingly difficult “and has taken much time as our people are spread out to Scarboro Junction, New Toronto, Mimico, Port Credit, Sheridan, Weston, Dawes Road, Leaside, and Islington.”81 In order to facilitate this outreach work in Toronto and through the other parts of southern Ontario covered by the Anglican missionary workers based in Toronto, a car was “badly needed.” This finally materialized in 1954 after the Anglican Women’s Association held a fundraising Noodle Party to purchase a car, which would allow them to reach “the wide area covered by the city and the suburbs, as well as the Hamilton area.”82 The need for a car to carry out their work reflects the more centralized organization of the Anglican Church’s missionary society based in Toronto, whose work stretched to Hamilton. The United Church, by comparison, had missionary workers like Esther Ryan in Hamilton congregations at the All People’s Church, which was the central hub of United Church missionary work in Hamilton. Despite the challenges of helping Japanese Canadians find employment, the resolve of the Protestant churches and its women missionary workers was unshaken, and nowhere is this more evident than in the social and recreational activities they helped organize to assist the integration of Japanese Canadians.

Japanese Canadians and “The Urge to Get Together”83

Roberto Perin argues that it is “the size of a congregation, more than its beliefs or polity, [that] determine[s] the range and number of activities provided.”84 Certainly this was the case for the numerous Japanese Canadians at the United Church’s Church of All Nations in Toronto. In this congregation, a number of groups were attended exclusively by Japanese Canadians, including a sewing group, English class, badminton club, judo club, and a basketball club, each of which had an average weekly attendance of approximately fifteen to twenty people.85 After a survey of the Anglican and United Churches attended by Japanese Canadians, only one maintained a membership list of their “Japanese congregation” — the Church of All Nations on Queen Street in Toronto.86

The Japanese Canadian membership records for this church exist only for the [End Page 68] years 1948–51, and, to the benefit of historians, the church secretary recorded the addresses of members who joined during this four-year period. The type of membership was also recorded — whether it was made possible by “transfer” from a previous congregation or through a profession of faith, likely indicating a conversion. In the end, a snapshot is provided of where Japanese Canadian members of the Church of All Nations lived in Toronto at the time they became members. Equally important, we can begin to understand whether they were new to the church upon arriving in Toronto or if they had been church members in British Columbia prior to relocating.87 An analysis of the membership list is telling: Japanese Canadians made the trip on Sundays and during the week to attend services and group meetings on Queen Street from all across Metropolitan Toronto — from as far as Mimico and Etobicoke in the west, Yonge and Wilson in the north, and Danforth and Warden in the east (figure 1 ).

This evidence is particularly noteworthy when one takes into consideration Toronto’s pre-subway public transit infrastructure and the lengthy travel times. Equally revealing is the way Japanese Canadians became church members. As figure 2 illustrates, once they arrived in Toronto, over one-half of all Japanese Canadian members of the Church of All Nations became members for the first time by a profession of faith. This suggests church membership assumed special importance for individuals and families upon arriving in Toronto.88 Interestingly, the numeric growth of the Japanese congregation greatly outstripped that of other churches. By way of comparison, the Church of All Nation’s sister church, Queen Street United, increased on average by five to nine members a year from 1947 to 1949, whereas the Japanese congregation at the Church of All Nations grew nearly four times as fast. The Church of All Nations was also a mecca for Japanese Canadians in Toronto; transfers of membership were most often from the Carlton and Metropolitan churches.

A similar experience occurred at the All People’s Church in Hamilton. While there is an absence of membership statistics, the social role of the church remained central. Despite the desire to move to Toronto, by 1948 there was reported to be 1,000 Japanese Canadians living in Hamilton. In the congregation of the All People’s Church, many social activities and clubs, such as summer camps, socials, and sports clubs, were organized for and by the Japanese Canadian community. In a comment that points to the Church’s role in providing community space for these Canadians, Esther Ryan said that, while the Church followed the policy of “scattering” the Nisei,

they feel the urge to get together, and in Hamilton as in other centers have formed themselves into various clubs for sports, recreation and so on. Two of these clubs have used All People’s Church as their place of meeting.89 [End Page 69]

Esther Ryan also mentioned the existence of a cultural group organized by Nisei called the “Sophy-Eds” (social-physical educational), which met weekly in the Hamilton Y.M.C.A. and at the All People’s Church. Tellingly, the organization dropped the word “spiritual” from its name in order to appeal to the Buddhist members of the community, who expressed an interest in joining.90 Over the course of a year, the Sophy-Eds grew fourfold. The downplaying of the “spiritual” aspect of the group’s name suggests community building with other Japanese Canadians was more important than maintaining ties to the church. Clearly, these Nisei saw their community extending well beyond the church population. The fact that this group was able to grow fourfold suggests they were successful in their efforts. A similar situation also occurred within the Anglican Church. In northern Ontario, Japanese Canadians involved in the Anglican Young People’s Association dropped the prefix “Anglican” because there was “fear of scaring off their Buddhist brothers and husbands.”91

Church summer camps also proved to be a popular way for Nisei to socialize with young people outside their immediate communities. Forty-seven campers out of four hundred were Nisei in 1947.92 In addition to providing social activities for Nisei, members of the congregation in Hamilton also assisted the Issei, who in many instances struggled with the English language. Assistance focused on helping with a number of daily activities and errands in order to ease the transition to living in an English-dominated city. Esther Ryan articulated the range of assistance in a 1951 report on her work with the Japanese congregation:

A father needs help in a business transaction. An elderly lady desires to have her old Japanese passport translated for the use of the Pension Board. A young girl, a newcomer from Japan, would like a friend with her as she goes to see the doctor. A widow with young children is grateful for help in her house hunting problem. There are opportunities to bring together employers and those who need suitable work.93

Where there existed a need to fulfill certain social duties such as finding a residence, translating important documents, or helping with a business transaction, the church often acted as a intermediary between social institutions and Japanese Canadians who required the linguistic assistance and social support. In this sense, the church provided much more than just worship services to Japanese Canadians; it was also a place where they could find assistance and maintain a sense of community, while “scattered” across Hamilton and Toronto.

The experience of the Anglican congregations points to a similar situation. While the various parish-level sources of the Anglican Church do not provide the same kinds of insight into the social activities or membership figures, the correspondence of Anglican workers and the monthly and annual reports of Grace Tucker reveal a good deal about the ways in which the Anglican church was involved in the social lives of [End Page 70] the Japanese Canadians. Commenting on the social role of missionary workers in 1946, Grace Tucker said that “entertaining has been a large part of our job, and many times have been spent with groups of young people with no homes, and only very dismal rooms.”94 It was also pointed out that spiritual services were beginning to assume a “social aspect.” For instance, Tucker noted the increasingly popular practice of wedding “showers” among Nisei brides-to-be. A point of concern in regard to these marriages was the fact that they increasingly occurred between Christians and non-Christians. Tucker pointed out that “the Brides are church girls, graduates of our B.C. kindergartens, but they are marrying non-Churchmen.”95 It was not just marriage and the social events leading up to it, but baptism, too, that became a chance for new Christians and their friends to socialize. Tucker commented on a nineteen-year-old girl who was baptized at Holy Trinity in June, 1947, stating that she later came to the Women’s Association House “with some of her old Vancouver friends for a social time.”96 At the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto, the Women’s Association hosted a “Valentine Social” for the Nisei, in addition to holding regular social gatherings for the Issei and for young married couples.97 The evidence provided by the Anglican workers helps to reveal how even traditional “spiritual” rites of passage such as marriage and baptism began to assume a special social importance in the Japanese Canadian community upon their arrival in eastern Canada. The Anglican Church also helped Japanese Canadians organize traditional Japanese cultural events which drew in a good number of non-churchgoers and occidental Canadians alike. For instance, March 3, 1948 marked the first time since before the evacuation that Japanese Canadians had the opportunity to celebrate the Japanese Doll’s Festival — or Girls’ Festival — because most had either lost their dolls or had them sold by the Custodian entrusted with their property upon evacuation. The Anglican Church purchased a set of fifteen dolls and “many visitors came to view them making it an educational programme.” It was noted that the “Japanese people, too, were quite thrilled.”98

Conclusion

While not all Canadians of Japanese heritage turned to the Protestant churches during the long process of resettlement, many did in their attempts to find advocacy, shelter, employment, and the maintenance of their social and recreational lives. The Japanese Canadians were able to use these services from the moment they disembarked from the trains that brought them to Ontario. During the initial period of resettlement in Toronto, the Protestant churches and the CCJC worked towards overcoming legal barriers to owning and renting property, and, with co-operation from the “Y” organizations, were able to find temporary housing. In the absence of an established geographic community, local places of worship assumed an important [End Page 71] role in facilitating social contact with other members of their community, which was needed during this time of great psychological distress. Women missionary workers in particular were very active in the social and recreational lives of Japanese Canadians during this time, helping to establish and organize basketball, badminton, sewing, and English-language clubs for the Japanese Canadians. The physical space of the church buildings was also used for other non-spiritual activities, even those which intentionally dropped the word “spiritual” from their organization’s name, demonstrating, on the one hand, the demand and need for such social gatherings, and, on the other, how references to Christianity could scare away Buddhist and non-religious Japanese Canadians.

Even religious devotional services, the traditional focus of congregational life, became a centre for community gatherings. The provision of services in Japanese and English appealed to Issei and Nisei alike, as attested to by the Church of All Nations Japanese congregation in Toronto, which grew at a rapid rate, drawing in members from across Metropolitan Toronto. Marriage and baptism also became opportunities for Japanese Canadians to meet with old friends, as special attention was increasingly paid to the “social time” afforded by wedding showers and post-baptism parties. All of these social and recreational activities point to the importance of establishing a semblance of normalcy and friendship during a period of great social, political, and economic upheaval. If the membership list of the Church of All Nations is any indication, attending church in Toronto assumed a special importance, as over half of all new members of the Japanese congregation became members for the first time. At a time when the collective future of the Japanese Canadians was uncertain, with the possibility of being deported to Japan in their minds, it is no wonder that they turned to an institution which promoted racial equality, provided an environment where they were free to organize, and which noted the positive contributions made to Canadian society by the Japanese Canadians.

Japanese Canadians did experience limitations in their participation in the Protestant churches and the CCJC. The fact that the Protestant churches remained open to Japanese Canadians in all aspects of congregational life, yet at the same time emphasized dispersing them throughout urban areas, is perhaps the best example. However, the Japanese Canadians did work, encumbered by these limitations, for the betterment of their community and the formal conclusion of the discriminatory legislation. During this process the Protestant churches and the CCJC stressed the need for the Japanese Canadians to become “assimilated” and “Canadianized” through their participation in local churches. Interestingly, the Japanese Canadians were able to use their participation in the Protestant churches as evidence of their desire to “assimilate,” while, at the same time, using that very same institution to cultivate and maintain their community despite living separated from one another. [End Page 72]

The mid-1950s marks a period of normalization among Canadians of Japanese ancestry within the Protestant churches and in Canadian society generally. Many families began to migrate into the suburbs after initially settling in Toronto. The issues and problems to which Japanese Canadian ministers called attention were not unique to their community, but were similarly experienced by Canadian society in general. Issues such as material consumption, the acquisition of durable goods, and the general challenges introduced by a period of unparalleled prosperity were experienced by all Canadians. Anglican minister Kenneth Imai remarked in 1954 that the Japanese Canadians were now “trying to put extra luxuries into their homes — radio, TV, refrigerators and all sorts of equipment.”99 Iami felt that there was a great challenge to the Japanese Canadian community and society in general to fill the “spiritual vacuum” which characterized the period. While the decrease in spirituality in the Japanese Canadian community in the mid-1950s may be subject to debate, the role of the Protestant churches in providing the Japanese Canadians a communal place in the 1940s and early 1950s assumed a level of importance, which is beyond doubt.

Appendix

Fig. 1. Metropolitan Toronto
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Fig. 1.

Metropolitan Toronto

[End Page 73]

Fig. 2. Church of All Nations, Japanese Congregation
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Fig. 2.

Church of All Nations, Japanese Congregation

David Dowe

David Dowe is a doctoral candidate in the department of History at McMaster University. He completed his Master’s degree at York University.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Roberto Perin, Richard Harris, Michael Gauvreau, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions for improving this paper.

Footnotes

1. See for instance Roy, The Oriental Question ; Sunahara, The Politics of Racism; Ward, White Canada Forever .

2. Bangarth, “Religious Organizations and the ‘Relocation’ of Persons of Japanese Ancestry in North America”; Bangarth, “The Long, Wet Summer of 1942.”

3. For a broad overview, see Roy, Mutual Hostages ; Concerning identity, see Makabe, “Ethnic Identity and Social Mobility”; for settlement patterns, see Oiwa, “The Structure of Dispersal.”

4. The United Church of Canada’s Board of Home Missions reported in 1942 that over one-half of the total “Japanese population” were church members or adherents.

5. For the first figure regarding the number of Japanese Canadians living in Ontario, see Ward, The Japanese in Canada , 7; see Makabe, “Ethnic Identity and Social Mobility,” 107, for statistics regarding the City of Toronto.

6. Sugiman, “Unmasking a Transnational Community.”

7. Oiwa, 23.

8. Issei refers to first-generation Canadians of Japanese ancestry, Nisei , second-generation, and Sansei , third.

9. “Memorandum re Japanese Situation,” 1942, United Church of Canada Archives (UCC), Board of Home Missions, fonds 82.001C, reel 40–63.

10. “Minutes, National Interchurch Advisory Committee on Resettlement of Japanese Canadians,” ibid., fonds 250, series 3.

11. Toyo Takata, interview by G. Shikatani, December 12, 1977, Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO), tape 2/3.

12. Kawano, A History of the Japanese Congregations , 4.

13. UCC, Board of Home Missions, fonds 82.001C, reel 40–63.

14. “Statement to Claimants re: Origin, Nature and Work of the CCJC, April, 1950,” McMaster University Archives, Co-operative Committee on Japanese Canadians (MAC-CCJC), folder 13.

15. Bangarth, “Religious Organizations,” 511–540.

16. McFadden, Kosaburo Shimizu , 29.

17. Hide Shimizu, interview by Gerry Shikatani, January 22, 1979, MHSO, tape 3/3.

18. “CCJC on J-C Arrivals in Toronto”, September 23, 1943, MAC-CCJC, box 128, file 2.

19. “Combined report of the men and women’s subcommittees to CCJC,” Toronto, November 1, 1943, UCC, Board of Home Missions, fonds 250, reel 3; “Report made by Rev. K. Shimizu on Resettlement of Japanese Canadians,” ibid.

20. Kensuke Tanaka and Toyo Tanaka, interview by Gerry Shikatani, December 12, 1977, MHSO, tape 2/3.

21. Adachi, The Enemy That Never Was , 148.

22. “A Record of the Work of the CCJC, June 1943-Sept. 1947,” MAC-CCJC, box 128, folder 12.

23. “Report made by Rev. K. Shimizu on Resettlement of Japanese Canadians,” UCC, Board of Home Missions, fonds 250, reel 3. [End Page 74]

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Glenn, The Dialectics of Wage Work, 428–471.

28. Danys, “Contracting Hiring of Displaced Persons,” 46–51.

29. “Cooperative Committee on Japanese Canadian Arrivals in Toronto,” MAC-CCJC, box 128, file 2.

30. UCC, Women’s Missionary Society, Minutes of the Home Missions Committee, fonds 82.058C, box 1, file 5, May, 1942.

31. Canon Dixon to W.H. Gale, July 23, 1942, Anglican Church of Canada, General Synod Archives (ACC), Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada (MSCC), GS 75–103, series 3, General Secretary’s Material, Leonard Alexander Dixon, 1939–1959, box 72, file 2, Correspondence re: Japanese Evacuees.

32. W. H. Gale to Canon Dixon, July 25, 1942, ibid.

33. “Minutes of the Annual Meeting, April 30, 1942,” ibid., GS 75–103, series 3, box 72, file 1, Provincial Board of Home Missions to Orientals in B.C.

34. W. H. Gale to Canon Dixon, July 25, 1942, ibid., series 3, General Secretary’s Material, Leonard Alexander Dixon, 1939–1959, box 72, file 2, Correspondence re: Japanese Evacuees.

35. “CCJC Minutes, 1944,” “CCJC in Toronto” March 25, 1944, MAC-CCJC, folder 3.

36. “Combined report of the men and women’s subcommittees to CCJC,” Toronto, Nov. 1, 1943, UCC, Board of Home Missions, fonds 250, reel 3.

37. Mrs. Hide Shimizu, interview by G. Shikatani, Jan. 22, 1979, MHSO, tape 3/3.

38. Perin, “The Churches and Immigrant Integration in Toronto,” 277.

39. Rev. Savary to Canon Dixon, May 15, 1942. ACC, MSCC, GS 75–103, series 3, General Secretary’s Material, Leonard Alexander Dixon, 1939–1943, box 72, file 1.

40. “Report of Work among Japanese-Canadians in Toronto, Niagara and Huron Diocese: January-October 1946,” October, 1946, ACC, Grace Tucker fonds.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid.

43. “A few thoughts on the Japanese-Canadian works this year, September 12, 1947,” ACC, Grace Tucker fonds.

44. Ibid.

45. Ibid.

46. “Report of Japanese-Canadian Work for Month of May 1947,” ibid.

47. “A few thoughts on the Japanese-Canadian works this year, September 12, 1947,” ibid.

48. Rt. Rev. A. R. Beverly to General Secretary Dixon, June 16, 1955, ACC, MSCC, GS 75–103, series 3, box 72, file 1.

49. ACC, Grace Tucker fonds, October 1946.

50. Mrs. Hide Shimizu, interview by G. Shikatani, January 22, 1979, MHSO, tape 3/3.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid.

53. George Tanaka, interview by G. Shikatani, October 12, 1977, MHSO, tape 3/3.

54. Mrs. Kazuye Mayeda, interview by G. Shikalani, January 19, 1978, MHSO, tape 1/3.

55. UCC, Esther Ryan, personal papers, fonds 3210, 86.219C, box 1, file 8, Community Missions East, Hamilton Ontario, Work among the Japanese 1948.

56. “The Shepherd’s Call” is not found in the United Church archives. It can only be found at Library and Archives Canada, where there is only a “partial run” of a single edition, despite the finding aid’s description of the holdings as existing to the mid-1950s.

57. “The Shepherd’s Call” March 1945, p.1, Library and Archives Canada, MG55/28-No.17, Japanese United Church Collection, box 1.

58. Mrs. Hide Shimizu, interview by G. Shikatani, January 22, 1979, MHSO, tape 3/3.

59. Sugiman, “Passing Time, Moving Memories,” 51–79.

60. “Report made by Rev. K. Shimizu on Resettlement of Japanese Canadians,” UCC, Board of Home Missions, fonds 250, reel 3.

61. Ibid. To put this amount in perspective, according to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator, at 2008 inflation levels this would amount to a sizable $198,622.24.

62. UCC, WMS Home Missions Committee on Oriental Work, B.C. Conference, Japanese Canadians, scrap-book, fonds 505, box 128, file 4.

63. Adachi; Roy, Mutual Hostages ; Sunahara.

64. Bangarth, “The Long, Wet Summer of 1942.”

65. MAC-CCJC, “CCJC Arrivals in Toronto,” June 8, 1943, folder 2.

66. Kiyoshi Harry Shibuya, interview by Gerry Shitikani, January 9, 1978, MHSO, tape 1/1.

67. UCC, WMS Home Missions Committee on Oriental Work, B.C. Conference, Japanese Canadians, scrap-book, fonds 505, box 128, file 4. [End Page 75]

68. Ibid.

69. “Letter,” UCC, Board of Home Missions, fonds 250, reel 3.

70. “CCJC Minutes, 1944, “CCJC in Toronto” 13 January 1944, MAC-CCJC, folder 3. Unfortunately, there is an absence in the records pertaining to this project, except for the information noted here.

71. “CCJC Minutes, 1944,” “CCJC in Toronto” 25 March 1944, ibid.

72. “Report of Work on Japanese Canadians, October 1946,” ACC, Grace Tucker fonds.

73. “Report of Japanese-Canadian Work for Month of May 1947,” ibid.

74. “With the Japanese in Hamilton, January 1948,” UCC, Esther Ryan, personal papers, fonds 3210, 86.219C, box 1, file 8.

75. “Report of Work among Japanese-Canadians in Ontario for the year 1947,” ACC, Grace Tucker fonds.

76. “Report of Japanese-Canadian Work for Month of May 1947,” ibid.

77. “CCJC Toronto area, October 31, 1948,” ibid.

78. “Report of Japanese-Canadian Work for Month of May 1947,” ibid.

79. “CCJC Arrivals in Toronto” 24 June 1943, MAC-CCJC, folder 2.

80. “October 1946,” ACC, Grace Tucker fonds.

81. Ibid.

82. “Japan East of the Rockies,” “Report of the Church Activities among the Japanese Canadians in the Year 1954,” ACC, Ken Imai fonds, file 1.

83. Queen Street United Church: Annual Reports, 1946–1949. UCC, Annual Reports fonds.

84. Perin, 275.

85. “Church of All Nations Annual Report for 1946,” UCC, Annual Reports, Queen Street United Church.

86. It is important to bear in mind that membership lists, while helpful for indicating the members of a church, do not indicate the total attendance, since many individuals and families attended but never became members. Thus, attendance of Japanese Canadians at the Church of All Nations most likely greatly exceeded the number of members.

87. It should be noted that during this period Japanese Canadians were highly mobile within Toronto itself, but frequently became church members once “bread and butter” issues such as secure employment and housing had been dealt with. While some would have moved after becoming members and thus undermined the reliability of the membership statistics, the records, nevertheless, provide some understanding as to general settlement trends within Toronto.

88. It is important to keep in mind that the inherent analytical limitations of statistics precludes one from making sweeping qualitative conclusions. In the absence of a comparative study of membership lists of the congregations in British Columbia, it remains difficult to ascertain whether or not these new church members were indeed “new” or if, instead, they did not have in their possession a transfer of membership. However, membership lists do provide a sound quantitative backdrop to understanding the phenomenon of the Protestant churches’ relationship with the Japanese Canadians in Toronto.

89. UCC, Annual Reports fonds, Queen Street United Church: Annual Reports, 1946–1949.

90. Although the word “spiritual” was dropped from the name of the group, the records for this church do not indicate what the actual name changed from or to.

91. Rev. Savary to Canon Dixon, October 13, 1942, ACC, MSCC, GS75–103, series 3, General Secretary’s Material.

92. Hamilton Minutes of All People’s Assisting Board, 1947–1954, October 3, 1947, UCC, fonds 1283, 77.067L, box 1, file 1.

93. “Community Missions East – Hamilton, Ontario. Work Among the Japanese, January–December, 1951,” UCC, Esther Ryan, personal papers, fonds 3210, 86.219C, box 1, file 8.

94. “October 1946,” ACC, Grace Tucker fonds.

95. “Report for June 1–27, 1947,” ibid.

96. Ibid.

97. “Report… January and February 1948, ibid.

98. “March 1948,” ibid.

99. “Report of the Church Activities among the Japanese Canadians in the year 1954,” ACC, Ken Iami fonds, Japan East of the Rockies, file 1.

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