Soul Liberty for Nikkei Christian Internees: Nikkei Christians in the Incarceration Camp and Their Relationship to the Religious Freedom

This paper explores how Nikkei (Japanese immigrants and their descendants) Christians’ incarceration experiences challenged U.S. national myths about religious freedom within the transnational power dynamics during World War II. Duncan Ryūken Williams’ American Sutra persuasively contends that the U.S. incarceration policy sought to assimilate Nikkei internees into white American society through Christianization, thereby undermining the religious freedom of Nikkei Buddhists. Building on this discussion, this paper shifts to the infringement on Nikkei Christians’ freedom of worship and their resistance, examining Japanese documents of Nikkei Christian internees and English documents about the U.S. incarceration religious policy. In response to the Japanese empire’s criticism of the U.S. racism, white American Protestants, alongside the U.S. empire, sought to integrate Nikkei into white American society, thereby urging Nikkei Christians to cease their Japanese vernacular worship and join white American churches. However, Nikkei Christians safeguarded their spiritual liberty by maintaining their ethno-racial identity and churches.