<Begin Segment 12>

SF: What was your future like in the church? I mean, when you finished the seminary, were you expecting to be assigned to a Japanese church or a mainstream church, or -- ? What did the future look like for you then?

PN: You know, this Dr. Mayberry that we referred to, he was a little different from most people. The climate at that time -- just about the time the war was ending -- were going to do away with the ethnic churches. Dissolve them and have them assimilate into the established churches. That happened over here in Seattle to the Presbyterian church, Congregational church. They all wanted to go into the larger church, and they're not going to start them again. But anyway, in my case, I was just about ready to graduate seminary. And this Dr. Mayberry wired me. He said, "Paul, come on back to the West Coast. The people are now released from the camp, and they need jobs. They need to resettle. They need to adjust themself to the new life. So, you better come ahead, and kind of see that they get settled and be of help wherever you can, as well as begin the worship experience."

So before I got my degree I took off and came back to Los Angeles area under Dr. Mayberry's direction and support. And I begin to open up churches and get the people settled, and did whatever I can to find jobs and kind of comfort the people in every way I can to get settled. So that's what I did right after the war. And the other thing is that we had an ecumenical worship. I don't know if you folks knew a Reverend Emery Andrews over here in Seattle. Well, he started an ecumenical service here. And we didn't have the Congregational, Presbyterian, the Baptist, or whatever. They all met together under the leadership of Reverend Andrews, Emery Andrews. And so at first, there was a hope that it would be an -- just one church here -- Protestant church in Seattle. But in time, you know, no jobs and all that, the different denominations began their groups, and they had their own denominational pastors to start the churches. And that was a case in southern California, too. I had an ecumenical church, and everybody that came out of camp, they knew where to go. But then again, the denomination began to take over. And they begin to develop their own churches. So I went back to the Baptist church, who were the ones that initiated the first group, anyway. And then we developed what we know as the Evergreen Baptist Church.

SF: When you first went back to the -- what became the Evergreen Baptist Church, was it occupied by a different group, but, were taking it over when the Japanese were in camp, or -- ? What was the shape of the church when you came back to it?

PN: Yeah. The church building, as such, was used to -- as a storage for the, the baggage and so forth of the evacuees. But I think the sanctuary was big enough to hold a Mexican -- Iglesia church there. So they had this small congregational meeting in the sanctuary, and the rest of the building, used for the storage of baggages. And so we couldn't occupy it until the baggage were redistributed and the Mexican congregation went out. And so we went back into the old church. But we -- at the meantime, we were meeting at what is known as the Spanish American Seminary. The American Baptists had a seminary there on Indiana Street, about a mile away from the church. And we used to meet there as a ecumenical group. I've got some pictures of that church. I think it's a very wonderful picture to keep. And then when that local old church was opened up and we went back into that, and we're just a mission because we couldn't afford the salary of a minister, let alone all the other expenses in running a church. So we were just a little mission. And then in time we became self-supporting and began to grow.

SF: Did...?

BF: We need to take a break. But let me ask one clarifying question. You -- when you were called back by Mayberry to the West Coast, you came back before finishing, before graduating?

PN: Yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.