A sociohistorical study of racial/ethnic identity in the inculturated religious expression of Japanese Christianity in San Francisco, 1877-1924

The study demonstrates that historically Japanese American Christianity has been an important source in shaping Japanese American ethnic identity and consciousness. The methodology critically adapts Robert Schreiter's theoretical model of inculturation and Robert Blauner's theoretical model of racism and culture to help elucidate the complexities of Japanese American Christianity. The religious expressions of the early Japanese Christian congregations in San Francisco between 1877 and 1924 comprise the focus of socio-historical analysis.;This study shows that Japanese American Christians developed, on the one hand, denominational churches, and on the other hand, nondenominational, interdenominational, and federated organizations such as Dendo-Dan and Kirisuto Kyokai in San Francisco.;The enhancement of the anti-Japanese land law of 1913 challenged Japanese Christians' concepts about Christianity and changed their approach to anti-Japanese discrimination. They saw that American society did not actually represent a civilization expressing the principle of brotherhood/sisterhood under God as American Christians had taught. In order to resist anti-Japanese discrimination, they demanded co-existence with the American people and encouraged the American people to help them accomplish this purpose. Japanese Christians re-interpreted this principle of brotherhood/sisterhood under God, and expanded it to overcome Anglo-Saxon chauvinism within American Christian civilization. They thus experienced their own ethnic Christianity as an inculturated expression of Christianity.;American racism nurtured and rebuilt the Japanese Christian ethnic and political consciousness as the Japanese Christians struggled to recover their identity and empower a racial/ethnic community in America. Japanese ethnic Christianity also partly depended on western paternalism.;This study discussed these issues designed along Schreiter's model of the process of inculturation and adding a component to this model: Japanese expression of Christianity in Japan as the forerunner of local theology, Japanese Americans' cultural contexts, American Christianity as a church tradition for Japanese Americans, and Japanese Americans' denominational as well as nondenominational, interdenominational, and federated expressions of Christianity.