Guide to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Christian Education Department of Colleges and Theological Seminaries and National Japanese American Student Council Records

In May 1942, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker-affiliated peace and social justice organization, established the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council (NJASRC; also sometimes called the National Japanese Student Relocation Council) in response to growing concerns for the thousands of Japanese American students affected by the federal government’s incarceration and forced removal of over 120,000 Japanese American citizens and people of Japanese descent into American concentration camps at the outbreak of the United States’ declaration of war against Japan during World War II.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, giving the federal government the power to forcibly remove and incarcerate Japanese American citizens and people of Japanese descent from their homes on the West Coast, which was designated as a military zone, to concentration camps further inland. The federal government established the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to execute and oversee this process and to manage the concentration camps. The WRA asked the AFSC to create a national program to assist Japanese American students in concentration camps.

The objective of the NJASRC was to assist federally incarcerated Japanese American students in continuing their education. Though coordinated by the AFSC, the NJASRC was an ecumenical organization, and it had the support of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.’s (PCUSA) Board of Christian Education. Within the Board of Christian Education, the Division of Higher Education’s Department of Colleges and Theological Seminaries (which was also called the Department of Colleges and the College Department) actively participated in the NJASRC’s efforts. From 1942 through 1948, the Department of Colleges and Theological Seminaries helped Japanese American students enroll in colleges and universities around the country and provided financial grants and scholarships to students.