Religious Freedoms behind Barbed Wire: Worship in Japanese American Incarceration Camps

This paper explores the religious diversity of WWII Japanese American incarceration camps.  As seen in the military chaplaincy, the U.S. government developed unique structures to organize “free” religious practice.  After the government stripped incarcerees of most constitutional rights, the agency managing the camps, the War Relocation Authority (WRA), went to great lengths to preserve religious freedoms.  While officials banned Shinto practices, they permitted Buddhist worship and meetings of Seicho-no-Ie, a new religious movement they knew little about.  Camp directors fought federal overseers to protect incarcerees’ right to practice any tradition lacking overt Japanese nationalism and made numerous provisions against proselytization.  Non-Japanese ministers could enter the camps only if incarcerated members of their denomination invited them by name to support the camps’ established churches.

However, discrimination did occur.  The WRA initially determined one Catholic church, one Buddhist group and one Protestant church would be sufficient for each camp and devised a self-monitoring system that gave incarcerees the power to regulate one another.  Marginalized groups struggled contribute to mainline services, while others strove to follow dietary laws in camp mess halls.  When sectarian groups formed independent congregations, the WRA did not interfere.  Strict limitations on the use of state property for religious purposes placed burdens on non-Christians who could not rely on ministry and material aid from the outside.

This paper addresses the following questions: Why did United States officials prioritize the right to religious freedom?  Why was the WRA so committed to preventing evangelism that would have occurred naturally outside of the camps?  Why did they compromise religious freedoms by granting incarcerees regulatory control?  Using government documents, church records and the memoirs and correspondence of incarcerees, camp administrators and white ministers, this paper counters claims that the camps were designed to Christianize as well as Americanize citizens of Japanese descent.