North America in the relocation debate has been largely ignored in many leading historical accounts of the relocation. Other historians and commentators have accused these churches of supporting government policy on racial or other grounds. Religious leaders and laity shared some of the anti-Asian stereotypes that long marked both British Columbian and Canadian society. The focus on the churches' role in mobilizing opposition to governmental persecution of persons of Japanese ancestry in North America. (Ross Lambertson, 1998).
Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II. This internment occurred even if they had been long time US citizens and posed not threat. How could the internment of Japanese-Americans have occurred in "the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
http://americanhistory.about.com/cs/worldwarii/a/internment.htm
For American leaders and laity, opposition to government policies was remarkably similar in that the relocation was viewed as an issue of the survival of morality and Christianity. Religious groups in North America were equally aware of the potential for Christianization and Canadianization/Americanization that the dispersal policies afforded, but also recognized their obvious racial discrimination. The response of the Christian churches, however, was distinctive in the appeals to "British justice and fair play."
The situations of the Japanese in the United States are remarkable. Japanese immigrants beginning in the 1870s, when the community quickly established a presence on the Pacific Coast. At the same time in North America, there was a constant fear which began in the 1860s that an East Asian power--usually, but not always Japan--would at some point invade and take over the continent.
Religious groups in the United States had interactions with persons of Japanese ancestry in North America long before removal policies were enacted in February of 1942. In particular, various missionaries were sent to West Coast states and provinces.......
