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BF: I mentioned earlier about the Baptist, the larger Baptist church, coming into the camps and helping out. And you had mentioned earlier about Mayberry -- Reverend Mayberry playing a role. Could you discuss a little bit more about what the larger Baptist denomination... how they continued to serve some of the Japanese Americans in camp?

PN: Yeah. Okay. Because of my Baptist affiliation, we, we refer to Baptists, but there are other denomination involved as well. But as far as my own experience is concerned, the American Baptists -- they appointed someone from the headquarters to deal only with this particular experience. And it is Dr. John W. Thomas. Fact is, I just sent in a couple of issues to the Pacific Citizen. I think you're gonna read a little bit more about John W. Thomas because Harry Honda recognized him as one of the outstanding helpers during the war experience. But John W. Thomas, he was a real champion (in) the relocation of the Japanese and helping out the Japanese. And he got all kinds of scholarships for the Japanese Americans. And I guess a classic example would be Mrs. Michener -- James Michener's wife. She got a scholarship through John W. Thomas of our American Baptist churches to Antioch University. And I think James Michener was a professor there. And they got married. And you know the story from there, how James Michener and she went all over. And then he's written all these books. And he had wonderful articles in the newspaper as well as some of the books regarding his feeling about what was happening. But you see how the denomination helped her to go to this university -- how he -- she met this outstanding author, and how the influence began to feel... well, there were many who've been helped that way. And a lot of the leadership in the American Baptist churches came out of the universities, as they were given these scholarships and helped them to get adjusted in these different universities as well as jobs. For the ministers in camp, books were given, Christmas gifts were given. Even one piano was brought in and things like that. The denomination was always helping, hymnals, whatever you needed. And they were actually paying it. You know, in camp the professional people were supposed to be paid by, so much. But the denomination said, "Don't take that money. We'll pay you." So they were getting a pretty good salary. But the ministers were saying, "We can't receive this kind of money when others are just receiving (only) so much." So they limited their salary to whatever the other professionals were getting in camp. But these are some of the ways in which the denomination wanted to say, "No, we're with you. We want to support you every way we can."

SF: So did the ministers play a big role with that -- with the Nisei student relocation program, in terms of working with that organization or working with the churches in the communities where the colleges were found?

PN: Right. They're always doing the negotiation with the colleges and with the denominational churches and groups near the colleges. And then with the American Friends Service Committee -- which is very strong in terms of helping people resettle -- they developed these committees within cities. Like, for example, Chicago, they had this committee that helped people with all these different needs: places to stay, job, school, whatever else. And so these committees were developed here and there and everywhere. Then the denominations kind of worked together to see that the people are resettled in a good manner.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.