How Did Christianity Affect Japanese Immigration to America?

In the US, Japanese immigrants’ adoption of Christianity could be a natural consequence of living in a predominantly Christian nation. However, Christian institutions aimed at Japanese immigrants in America served many purposes besides religion. Particularly in the early period, churches were often the first points of interaction for newly emigrated Japanese, especially among those without established contacts.

Christianity played an important role in shaping the course of Japanese history. After decades of allowing missionaries to proselytize, in 1633, the Japanese government decided that the growing religion was a threat to its sovereignty. Those in charge feared that the spread of Catholicism would mean Japanese Christians would be more loyal to the pope than to the nation, so they imposed severe travel restrictions (both international and domestic) and all but eradicated Christianity within its borders. In fact, less than two percent of Japan’s current population identifies as Christian (The World Factbook, Japan).

Japan began allowing foreigners to enter the country after the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. Foreign traders in Japan proliferated, and with them came Christian missionaries. These missionaries played an important role in helping the Japanese modernize to Western standards; they taught the children of the former elite samurai class at newly established American-run mission schools (Lee, 2018, p. 51). This association with the upper class may have favorably biased Japanese travelers toward accepting Christianity. Of those who decided to emigrate to the United States, fifteen to twenty percent converted to Christianity by 1930 (Spickard, 1996, p. 61).

Who Emigrated & Why 

When the Meiji officials decided to focus their resources on modernization, they found it an expensive process. To raise funds for modernization, Japan began introducing a system of tax reforms in 1873. One of these reforms was particularly burdensome to farmers. Instead of taxing income made from the production and selling of crops, the government decided to tax the farmer’s land at a flat rate of three percent of its estimated value. If the farmer had a good year and could sell at a high price, he was relatively unaffected. However, a poor harvest or low market would put the farmer in tough straits. Unfortunately, regulations of the rice markets caused prices to fall by more than half between 1881 and 1884 (Moriyama, 1985, pp. 2–4). No longer able to support their families or meet the tax obligations, many farmers lost their lands.

A significant influence on the Meiji government’s decision to let its citizens travel was pressure from nations seeking Japanese workers. Between the Meiji restoration in 1868 and the end of the travel restrictions in 1885, the Japanese government received several requests for workers from the Dutch, Spanish, Kingdom of Hawaii, Britain, Canada, and the United States (Moriyama, 1985, p. 8). Most Japanese who emigrated to America came from the south of Japan. The prefectures of Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto supplied the bulk of the early immigrants (Moriyama, 1985, p. 13).

Many early immigrants considered themselves to be temporary sojourners or dekaseginin. Their purpose in traveling to America was to find good-paying jobs that would allow them to save up enough money to return to Japan and set themselves up as farmers or merchants. While the average wage for a day’s labor in Japan in 1890 was about $0.14, work in America paid between $1.00 and $1.50 (Peterson, 2004, p. 12). The immigrants’ intention to return to Japan is supported by the fact that most early immigrants were heads of household or elder sons who would inherit their family’s wealth (Moriyama, 1985, pp. 17–18). As such, they could not be expected to settle permanently in the US.

Regardless of the reason for travel, the West Coast was a popular destination for Japanese immigrants. The Japanese community along the Pacific Coast had a population of around 1,559 people in 1890, and it expanded rapidly in the following decades (Ichihashi, 1915, p. 7).

From poor farmers to the sons of wealthy families, the first wave of Japanese immigrants, or Issei, came from diverse backgrounds. Nevertheless, once they reached American shores, their similarities far outweighed their differences. Newly arrived Japanese in America immediately faced the challenge of settling into their new lives despite having few or no resources to ease their way into society.

Early immigrants to America, especially those outside the major Japanese populations in California, had limited choices regarding religion. Those who immigrated after 1900 had a much wider range of organizations to choose from. Japanese immigrants were most familiar with the mixture of Shinto and Buddhism that had been practiced in Japan for centuries.

Shinto became particularly important in Japan around 1910 when the Meiji government established State Shinto to promote nationalistic and patriotic ideals. Part of this was the reminder that according to Shinto tradition, the Japanese emperor is a descendant of Japan’s patron goddess, Amaterasu (Gordon, 2003, p. 137). Although the first Shinto Shrine in the US was established in Hawai’i in 1898, Shinto played a minor role in America. It is involved more with tradition than specific services and rites, and Japanese immigrants in America practiced Shinto homes without the need for formal institutions (Abe & Imamura).

The majority of Issei retained their Buddhist faith while in America. As with Shinto, the Issei performed necessary rites at home before their family altar. One woman recalls: “We had observed Buddhist rituals at our family altar, and Father chanted his rituals before breakfast and after supper. Brought up in this religious family background, I found I could remember those chants in the United States” (Tamura, 1993, p. 129).

Despite the ability to continue some religious practices at home, during the earliest period of Japanese immigration, there were no Buddhist priests or temples established in America, so there was no one who could perform familiar birth, marriage, and death rites. Protestant churches and organizations stepped in to fill the void. In addition to spiritual salvation, Christian institutions, including associations like the YWCA, held English language classes, offered help with finding employment, and even provided childcare. Furthermore, the Christian church became extremely popular with Japanese women in America because it allowed them to participate in life outside the home (Spickard, 1996, p. 60).

One example of how Christianity facilitated life in the US can be seen in the story of sixteen-year-old Masuo Yasui. Yasui arrived in America in 1903; he intended to join his father and brother, who had already been in America for several years (Kessler, 1993, pp. 9–10). However, when Yasui’s ship docked in Seattle on March 12, his family was not there to greet him. Instead, they were one thousand miles away working on the railroad. With fourteen dollars in his pocket and no English at his command, Yasui was fortunate to be greeted by the Methodist Missionaries who (at the time) waited to meet each incoming ship (Kessler, 1993, p. 12). Yasui, who had a clear destination and plan, did not linger with the missionaries. However, their presence at the dock in Seattle suggests the great difficulties new immigrants faced in America and the ability of the missionaries to help them.

Of all Christian denominations, the Methodist church was particularly active in the lives of Japanese immigrants. Their mission work was so vital that Japanese-oriented missions sprang up in areas where the Japanese community was negligible. For example, in 1887, the Japanese population of Portland, Oregon was around thirty people, but by October 1892, the Reverend Teikichi Kawabe, an ordained deacon of a San Franciscan Methodist Church, was charged with journeying throughout the northwest to meet with immigrants in different communities. Reverend Kawabe reported a definite need for a mission to serve the widespread Oregon communities, and in 1893, he founded the Japanese Episcopal Church of Portland—currently known as Epworth United Methodist Church.

Despite their services, doubts arose as to whether Christian churches were helpful for assimilation. A 1915 report on the status of Japanese immigrants in California states:

“In every community where any considerable number of Japanese have settled Christian missions have been instituted for their benefit. The membership of the Christian missions, while large and increasing year by year, is smaller than that of the Buddhist organizations. These missions are for Japanese alone, a recognition of the difference between them and other races and a condition which lessens their value as an assimilative force” (Ichihashi, p.48).

The report suggests that the homogeneity of the congregations of Japanese-oriented churches made it impossible for Japanese immigrants to assimilate into American life. However, Japanese immigrants may have looked to the predominantly white leaders of the churches to help them understand and adapt to white society (Spickard, 1996, p. 60).

Support from the Epworth Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, and nurturing from a white family was certainly pivotal in the life of Yosuke Matsuoka, a Japanese immigrant of the “schoolboy” variety. Matsuoka’s mother was a dedicated believer in the True Pure Land Sect of Buddhism (Shin Shū). Part of her reasons for allowing him to travel to America was to help facilitate US-Japanese relations by exposing Americans to Buddhist thought (Lu, p.4.). Matsuoka, it seems, had other ideas about religion.

Not long after Matsuoka’s arrival in Portland, Reverend Kawabe took him in and helped him settle into his new life. He enrolled Matsuoka in a local grade school and found him a part-time job performing chores and errands for local Christian families (Lu, 2007, p. 6). Placing Japanese students with Christian families to do odd jobs served many purposes for Christian missions. The missionaries saw it as providing a source of cheap labor to the families and giving the boys a chance to see how established Americans were living life. It also gave the boys good Christian role models to emulate and a chance to improve their English. Many immigrants came to the US with little English.

Soon, Matsuoka was invited to live with a Christian family. In return for his room and board, he helped around the house doing small chores. Furthermore, he was taken under the wing of the lady of the house, Isabelle Dunbar Beveridge.

Mrs. Beveridge treated Matsuoka like a son, teaching him English and seeing to his education. Matsuoka would remember Mrs. Beveridge as a second mother. His description of the lady is as follows:

“The lady was a faithful Christian who possessed a lucid penetration into everything. And besides, she was a very virtuous housewife. When I look back on myself, daily directed and enlightened by such a lady like an angel during my growing period from ages 14 to 16, I really think myself fortunate and I consider it a strange act of Providence” (Ano, p. 174).

Decades later, Matsuoka would rise to power in Japan. He became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he would eventually be charged with traveling to Germany to sign the Tripartite Pact with Adolf Hitler. Still, he always remembered his time in the United States and the Christian woman who had supported him. Throughout his life, Matsuoka spoke of her fondly.

Religious conversion was a convenient way for some immigrants to gain acceptance in American society during their stay in the United States. For others, such as Matsuoka, the conversion was genuine and wholehearted. In Matsuoka’s case, the choice to adopt Christianity was influenced by the kindness and sympathy shown to Matsuoka by Reverend Kawabe and Mrs. Beveridge. After returning to Japan, Matsuoka respected observances of Shinto and Buddhism but maintained that he was a Christian if only in his own way, saying: “While I am a Christian, I am a Matsuoka Christian” (Ano, 1997, pp. 173–174).

From their first steps on US soil to their burial on the same soil, Christian institutions were meaningful for many Japanese immigrants’ lives in America. The church offered fellowship, community connection, practical aid, and spiritual support.

References:

Abe, D. K., & Imamura, A. (2019). The destruction of Shinto shrines in Hawaii and the West Coast during World War II: The lingering effects of Pearl Harbor and Japanese-American internment. Asian Anthropology, 18(4), 266–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478x.2019.1592816

Ano, M. (1997). Yosuke Matsuoka: The Far-Western roots of a world-political vision. Oregon Historical Quarterly 98(2), 164–204.

Gordon, A. (2003). A modern history of Japan: From Tokugawa times to the present. Oxford University Press.

Ichihashi, Y. (1915). Japanese immigration its status in California. Marshall, 1915.

Kessler, L. (1993). Stubborn twig: Three generations in the life of a Japanese American family. Random House.

Kamano, Y (Trans).  (1982). History of Epworth United Methodist Church. Epworth United Methodist Church.

Lee, J. H. X. (Ed.). (2018). Japanese Americans: The history and culture of a people. ABC-CLIO.

Lu, D. J. (2007). Agony of choice: Matsuoka Yōsuke and the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire, 1880–1946. Lexington.

Mears, E. G. (1928). Resident Orientals on the American Pacific Coast; Their legal and economic status. University of Chicago.

Moriyama, A. T. (1985). Imingaisha: Japanese emigration companies and Hawaii, 1894–1908. University of Hawaii.

Peterson, T. (2004). Japanese Americans. Heinemann Library.

Spickard, P. R. (1996). Japanese Americans: The formation and transformations of an ethnic group. Twayne Publishers.

Tamura, L. (1993). The Hood River Issei: An oral history of Japanese settlers in Oregon’s Hood River Valley. University of Illinois.