I recently stumbled upon a blog post that caught my eye. As many of you might recall in your history class, thousands of Japanese-American were forced to relocate from their homes and move into internment camps. To many Americans, they felt threatened by the presence of a Japanese within their community. Most Americans were ignorant to the fact that many Japanese living in the states were 2nd or even 3rd generation American citizens. Fortunately many Baptist churches provided assistance, storage, and even financial help during this time of oppression. Some even lived in the very camps the Japanese-American citizens were imprisoned in. Once the camps were disbanded after the war, many churches helped the Japanese-Americans finding jobs and reclaiming what was previously taken from them. Some Baptist families would even open their homes for a couple of days to help families get back on their feet.

Some of the pamphlets I’ve included here were used to persuade the members of several Baptist churches to support action against the persecution of Japanese-American citizens during the war. By the end of 1945, it seems like the pamphlets and activism of the Baptist churches worked well.

Many Japanese-American Christians that I know are Baptist. Perhaps some became a Baptist purely based upon the doctrines of the Baptist church (which should be the sole priority) However I’d like to also think that many hearts were affected and changed by the compassion displayed by these churches during this period.

We need to show compassion and love towards those that are oppressed. This is exactly what Christ did. An entire ethnic group should not be judged based upon the actions of a few individuals.