| Original caption: “Japanese American woman shaking hands with a white minister while other evacuees holding their belongings stand nearby at the Puyallup Assembly Center known as Camp Harmony.” Reverend Everett W. Thompson (January 9, 1899 – April 18, 1979), pastor of the Japanese Methodist Church of Seattle, worked closely with Japanese congregations to allay their fear and panic. In this view, he greets Japanese as they leave “Camp Harmony,” Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington. The Japanese Americans in this photo are unidentified. Reverend Thompson spent nearly 30 years as a missionary in Japan during his lifetime. Thompson and his wife, Zora (1895 – 1978), 1st came to Japan in 1925. were members of the American Association of Nagasaki, a social organization created to promote American values and to protect American interests in Nagasaki while they were missionaries teaching English in Chinzei, Japan before the war. Reverend Thompson, Galen M. Fisher (1873 – 1955) of the Northern California Committee for Fair Play for Citizens and Aliens of Japanese Ancestry, Reverend Ulysses G. Murphy (1869-1967), superintendent of the Methodist Church, and Floyd Schmoe (September 21, 1895 – April 20, 2001) of the American Friends Service Committee testified before the “Tolan Committee,” the House Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, appointed to conduct hearings into the proposed evacuation. Their testimony was opposed 10 to 1 by representatives of such groups as the American Legion and organized labor. Both, and Thompson pointedly reminded the committee in their separate written statements that the overwhelming majority of alien Japanese had only remained alien because American law forbade their naturalization. Thompson warned, “We should be repeating the deed that Hitler perpetrated against the Jews. Though our policy would be gentler than Hitler’s in many ways would, the basic injustice would be the same. Thus we should be conquered by Hitler’s spirit and methods even though not by his military machine. We cannot fight for democracy by such methods.” Regardless, the Tolan Committee decided incarceration was best for the duration of the war. “Evacuation” began in March 1942. “In a few cases,” wrote Everett W. Thompson, “We were present when an arrest was made and were able to help as interpreters. In many more, we called at the home shortly afterward to reassure the family that such an arrest was not a disgrace and that we had all confidence in the integrity of the arrested man. Next, calls were made on the men themselves in the local jail, and even several hundred miles away at the camps where they were being kept…Many pastors and church workers had a share in arranging bank accounts or guaranteeing people now under suspicion because the FBI had taken their husbands or fathers, or merely translating and interpreting in business arrangements.” Reverend Thompson observed that 1 very good reason why there was not more bitterness and sense of frustration in the face of flagrant injustice was the constant steadying influence of the Japanese churches in sermon, worship service, and pastoral calling. Other anglo/white clergy at Puyallup and Minidoka included Emery E. Andrews (July 29, 1894 – May 30, 1976) and his wife Mary (May 25, 1895 – April 5, 1980). They were joined by 3 missionary women from the JBC with whom they had served: Florence Rumsey (January 4, 1878 – July 9, 1972); May Herd Katayama (1893 – 1978); and Esther Mary McCollough (September 24, 1887 – August 16, 1964), Baptist missionary to Japan for 28 years and teacher at the Winslow Japanese Baptist Church on Bainbridge Island. Other Caucasian Seattleites who followed their flocks to southern Idaho included Nora Bowman (April 29, 1878 – March 24, 1965), former missionary to Japan; Ethel Hempstead (September 26, 1886 – June 24, 1978), former missionary to Japan; Marie Juergensen (March 27, 1902 – December 8, 1991), Assemblies of God; Gladys Kaiser (February 10, 1901 – February 27, 1996), Presbyterian; Sarah Margaret “Guthrie” Peppers (Feb 14, 1894 – Aug 27, 1952), an Episcopal missionary to the Philippines to the Navajo in Arizona in the thirties; and Father Leopold Tibesar, Catholic Priest (August 27, 1898 – March 13, 1970). The wives of Andrews and Thompson were not listed as official missionaries at Minidoka. The households of Andrews, Thompson, McCullough and others served as lodging houses, tea parlors and wedding chapels throughout the war. Japanese Americans shopping in town would frequently stop for a visit to talk about a particular problem or simply to enjoy the comfort of a normal home. Missionary women advertised their “Haven of Rest” in the Irrigator, urging Japanese Americans to “rest and refresh themselves” while visiting Twin Falls. In a typical week, as many as 3 or 400 Japanese Americans would be granted shopping passes. Another dozen or more might leave Minidoka for church activities or special occasions, like weddings. Military police or camp administrators drove Nikkei to town and picked them up at an appointed time. Japanese Americans did not require escorts and could freely conduct business. Many stayed at pastors’ homes while waiting to leave for college or jobs in the east after being released. In her biography, Monica Sone (September 1, 1919 – September 5, 2011) recounted her family’s departure by bus: When all the busses were filled with the 1st contingent of Japanese, they started creeping forward slowly. We looked out of the window, smiled and feebly waved our hands at the crowd of friends who would be following us within the next 2 days. From among the Japanese faces, I picked out the tall, spare figures of our young people’s minister, the Reverend Everett Thompson, and the Reverend Emery Andrews of the Japanese Baptist Church. They were old friends, having been with us for many years. They wore bright smiles on their faces and waved vigorously as if to lift our morale…In the morning we went to church to listen to our Reverend Everett Thompson who visited us every Sunday. Our minister was a tall and lanky man whose open and friendly face quickly drew people to him. He had served as missionary in Japan at 1 time and he spoke fluent Japanese. He had worked with the young people in our church for many years, and it was a great comfort to see him and the many other ministers and church workers with whom we had been in contact back in Seattle. We felt that we were not entirely forgotten. The Council called Everett Thompson to act as a full time minister for the incarcerated Christians. Because Thompson had spent years conducting missionary work in Japan before moving to Seattle, he spoke fluent Japanese. Prior to his appointment, Thompson explained that “the Japanese themselves have repeatedly requested that…workers in their various churches be permitted to come into the camp.” Unable to meet the full needs of Christians at Camp Harmony, outside workers trained Nikkei to lead Sunday School and other church activities. But Thompson explained that “young people…want Americans, not their parents or the Japanese pastors to teach…classes.” If the young people requested “Americans,” their desire could have been simply for English speakers, as many Issei church leaders did not have good English. But other reports relay an “eager[ness for] Caucasian preachers” specifically. On the other hand, no Nisei pastor lived outside the camp at this time, so requesting outside aid meant requesting aid from white Americans, however phrased. Reverend Thompson went from Seattle to the Puyallup “Camp Harmony” Assembly Center, and later recalled: The Army made the rule that only 3 types of service would be held, Protestant, Catholic, and Buddhist, and asked the various denominations to cooperate to this end. This was known before people came to the camp, and committee meetings were held to work out plans. The pastors of our 6 Japanese churches arranged a rotation of speakers so that a service would be held in each fenced-off section of the camp (there were 4 separate sections), with a sermon in Japanese when that became permissible. In Seattle, the English services for the young people had never been provided by the Japanese pastors, but by Caucasian workers. The Council of Churches of Seattle asked me to serve as their representative in the camp to unify the program for the young people. There were some 10 Caucasian workers from Seattle, 3 from Tacoma, and 2 from nearby Sumner who were interested in assisting regularly in the program. These had all been helping in the young people’s work in the various churches before evacuation. Several of us were ordained and in the habit of leading our own denominational worship services. However, when the pastors from Seattle offered to come down and preach if this was desired, the young people in the camp were very eager to have them do so, and we regular workers devoted our attention to building up a federated Sunday school in each of the areas of the camp. Thus, during the 4 months that the camp continued there, a constant stream of preachers from Seattle came down to speak, the young people themselves conducting the services and leading the choirs. We had brought hymnbooks and even pianos with us. What the Seattle Council of Churches did through Reverend Thompson for Camp Harmony was typical of the services rendered by Councils of Churches in Portland and in northern and southern California, and by many other smaller councils and ministerial associations throughout the coast area. Seattle churches also helped them “to procure pianos, Sunday School curriculum, reading material, hymnals, music, clothing, and personal items, and to process the paperwork for day-passes and security checks for the Caucasian Sunday School teachers and guest preachers who were needed to keep the Puyallup programs staffed and operated.” Visiting ministers, such as Andrews and Thompson, were frequently invited to preach in the worship service. On most Sundays, white pastors from Seattle, Tacoma, Puyallup, and Sumner drove to the camps—often without remuneration for their time or gas, a rationed commodity after April 1942. Over the summer, more than 50 different clergy worked with the 4 new congregations…Guests could preach only if invited by Japanese Americans. The establishment of relocation centers was not accomplished without understandable difficulty. Here again the churches did much to make the task of the government lighter. Thompson reported again: When in late August, 1942, the Minidoka relocation center was opened in south central Idaho, the vocal public opinion in Idaho was solidly opposed to this mass influx of a people hardly known to them but condemned by wild and false rumors of sabotage and spying. There were, moreover, unfavorable attitudes as a result of the fact that the Army had considered them too dangerous to be left on the coast, though everyone knew that Japanese invasion was now more and more im-probable. This feeling was deepened by the fact that a large Boise construction firm had several 100 Idaho men working on Wake Island when it was taken by the Japanese. Many Idaho homes were among the very 1st to feel the heartache and heartbreak of war casualties. It was natural for them to assume that these people with Japanese names and faces were directly concerned with the death or imprisonment of these husbands and brothers of theirs. It was understood that the War Relocation Authority (WRA) had gained the reluctant consent of the state authorities for this center only by promises that the great bulk of the people would be relocated outside the state of Idaho. Early in the fall of 1942, a regular gathering of the Interdenominational Preachers’ Meeting of the Snake River Valley (the whole general region in which the relocation center was located) invited Thompson to attend and to tell them about the center, its people, and its Christian churches. Almost everything Thompson had to say was strikingly new to them, but they were eager to replace current prejudices with facts and asked practically and earnestly, “What can we and our people do to help?” On their 1st Easter Sunday in 1943, 1,500 people attended the sunrise service. Then during the main Easter service, the church heard messages from Revs. Thompson and Fukuyama and 39 Minidokans were baptized as a testimony of their faith in Christ. The church also recited the Lord’s Prayer and sang the victory hymn, Christ the Lord is Risen Today. The ecumenical Federated Christian Church of Minidoka was dedicated on November 1, 1943, with Reverend Francis Hayashi (August 3, 1897 – February 18, 1987) presiding over the service. The church listened to sermons from Reverend Everett Thompson and Reverend Naomichi Kodaira (December 11, 1912 – November 30, 2005). A variety of suggestions were made and within a few days there began a stream of goodwill gifts to the camp that was to continue for months and years. “Minidokans received an astonishing 17,000 presents from Christian groups.” Reverend Fukuyama wrote, “The number of gifts shows that the heart of America is essentially warm and the vociferous race mongers constitute only a small minority.” Reverend Thompson also reflected on the deeper significance of these gifts: Christmas has many rich messages to the followers of Jesus. One that has deeply impressed the people of this relocation center, both believers and non-believers is the realization of the world wide Christian Church as a fellowship of sharing far out beyond the horizon of the nearby hills. Our imagination has reached out to a Ladies Circle in Kansas and a country church, in Michigan and a men’s class in a metropolitan church in Illinois. It has not been the things received, though these were fine generous gifts, but the thought of this fellowship with people whose very existence we had not known till now, that was the most impressive thing…In the gifts sent us and in the gifts we sent, denominational lines did not separate us but we were able to think in terms of the Christian Church as a whole—carrying its deeds of love to Christian and non-Christian alike wherever there was need. What a fellowship in which to share. What a thrill it brings to be Christians in this broad, rich meaning of the word!” After the war, Thompson moved back to Japan, where he established the Kinugasa mission in Yokosuka as a Methodist affiliate. Thompson then spent 2 years as a missionary in Vietnam before returning to the United States. Photo by Walter H. Clifford (1912-2009), Tacoma News Tribune. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1706.jpg |
| Image Size | 263.12 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2081 x 1400 |
| Photographer | Howard Clifford |
| Photographer Title | Tacoma News Tribune |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 1, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Puyallup |
| State or Province | Washington |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | University of Washington Libraries Special Collections |
| Record Number | UW562 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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