Yoshitada "Yosh" Nakagawa

Yosh Nakagawa was a fourth-grade student when he, his siblings, and his parents were taken to the Japanese American Internment Camp in Minidoka, Idaho for almost four years.  Life in the camp was one most humiliated, inhumane, and in dignify as shared by Yosh in his numerous speeches across the country and overseas. 

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President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which put 120,000 Japanese American citizens into internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Yosh and his family lived in military-style barracks, in a one-room apartment with a pot-bellied stove and a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room.  For four years, Yosh and his family lived within the boundary of the barbed wires, separating them from freedom. They returned to Seattle in 1945 became homeless, and the family started their life all over again.

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 The Internment experience bears a deep wound and loss of dignity for Yosh and 120,000 Nisei Japanese Americans.  When the country turned from them, the church stood beside Yosh and the Japanese Americans who were members of Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, WA.  During their incarceration, the American Baptist Home Mission Society and the Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society provided ministries to the camp residents.  Rev. Emery Andrews, pastor of Japanese Baptist Church became their home missionary, making numerous trips from Seattle to Minidoka to carry messages for families, console, and conduct services.

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Yosh engaged in the sports industry for his career life where he encountered sports players, business entrepreneurs, and even a runner in the ball fields, carrying water (water-boy) to the players.  He never stopped sharing his story with the people in the field of business sectors.  His illumination of the intern experience took hold of him.  He became involved with American Baptist life.  Through the belated Rev. Dr. Paul Nagano, he worked with the American Baptist Asian Caucus, soared from serving as President of the Caucus, to become the Vice-President of the American Baptist Churches USA in 2002-2003. 

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Yosh was a mentor, a speaker, a game-changer to many American Baptists.  He visited American Baptist Home Mission Societies in October 2014 to give a word of encouragement to the staff.  He worked with Susan Gottshall, former director of Communication for a week-long trip to Minidoka, Idaho revisited the footprints of his internment experience.  “The Church Stands with Its People”, a documentary was produced about his experience.  In April 2019, Yosh delivered a dinner speech at the Converge conference held at LAMB.  He worked with an artist friend who captured the internment experience onto the arts and poem, and those works were hung in the LAMB for honoring and memory. 

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Yosh called me on an average of once a month for the last decade sharing his testimonies of forgiveness but not forgetfulness.  He said repeatedly what happened to him (and 120,000 Japanese American should not have happened) is an American story, a lesson learned.  Bypass all the American politics we talked about on the phone, Yosh was a fanatic American Baptist not because we do things differently, we, like sheep being scattered around, confronted, and challenged daily about being fed, being faithful and justice.

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Yosh’s famous quote, “I watch you like a hawk” as he spoke with me, constantly reminded me of the metaphor of a “water-boy, water-girl” in a baseball game, “serving others”.  Yosh is a legend, fearless, and resilient.  He had made sweet lemonade out of sour lemon. He had told his story, an American story, a story of faith and justice.  He had fought till his last breath for the people he loved (so that we may live).

“I watch you like a hawk!”  “It is your turn now!”

 

Rev. Florence Li

February 2022

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Click here to read the official ABCUSA news release.