Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in New York

投稿者:

Isaku Kida (1905-1996)

Isaku Kida was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1905. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin’s English normal school, he came to the U.S. and attended Oberlin College, however he left school and moved to New York in 1932.

Two years later, he joined the OSS’s military intelligence group, and served in India. The end of the war found him in Yunan province in China.

Immediately following the end of WW2 Mr. Kida wrote an editorial stressing the urgent need for a concerted effort to send relief to war-torn Japan’s needy millions. As a result, in 1946 The New York Committee for Relief to Japan was formed with Mr. Kida as one of its founding members. The group shifted its focus to the welfare of local Japanese and Japanese Americans, being reborn as the Japanese American Association, with Mr. Kida as its director.

In 1945 the first edition of the Hokubei Shimpo was published and Mr. Kida became the first stockholder of the newsppaer. He took over the running of the paper in 1952.

In 1963 the paper was renamed “The New York Nichibei” which it remained until its closing issue on July 1, 1993.

Japanese American Christian Association (est. 1909)

By the time WWII began in 1940, there were three Japanese churches in New York City.

Despite the harsh treatment and incarceration of Japanese happening, pastors from the churches visited the Japanese being detained on Ellis Island, and assisted non-incarcerated residents by providing employment, funds, and counseling.

After the war, when many Japanese immigrated to the East Coast, the Japanese Christian community grew accordingly.