St. Mary's Japanese Episcopal Mission Lecture with Dr. Chrissy Lau

500 West Washington Street,Indianapolis IN 46204

20 April, 2023

Description

Join Dr. Chrissy Lau for an important discussion about Reverend John Misao Yamazaki and his congregation from St. Mary's Japanese Episcopal Mission in Los Angeles as they dealt with anti-Japanese discrimination and restrictions on immigration in the 1920s and 1930s. This pre-WWII history of the Japanese Episcopal Mission in Los Angeles is a window into telling the broad history of race in religion in California during the interwar period. In 1913, the year of the passage of the Alien Land Law, John Misao Yamazaki became vicar of the Japanese Episcopal Mission of Los Angeles. Setting out to pastor and evangelize Japanese immigrants, he soon found himself having to also navigate anti-Japanese housing crusades that kicked out Japanese families from the surrounding neighborhood in the 1920s. Reverend Yamazaki developed strategies and tools to sustain his congregation and achieve what few could in a period of segregation and expulsion: a building permit to construct a larger church to meet his growing congregation. This pre-WWII history of the Japanese Episcopal Mission in Los Angeles is a window into telling the broader history of race and religion in California during the interwar period. Dr. Chrissy Lau is the Assistant Professor of History and Social, Behavioral and Global Studies at California State University- Monterey Bay. In addition to hosting numerous workshop, programs, and lectures, and winning multiple fellowships, she is also the author of New Women of Empire: Gendered Politics and Racial Uplift in Interwar Japanese America (2022) and co-editor of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice (2021). Her work centers on exploring the development of women's politics (specifically Japanese American women) and activism in the public sphere as well as in the intimacy of familial relationships. This lecture is sponsored by the Clements Center for Southwest Studies, the Japan-America Society of Indiana, the Japan Foundation, and Barnes & Thornburg. Doors open at 6pm, and the event begins at 6:30pm. Light hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar will be available.