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Painting the Picture: Rev. Seido Ogawa

1946. Four besuited men gather for a photograph in Grinnell, Iowa. The man in the middle snakes his hand into the box he’s carrying and returns with a button, which he pins to his neighbor’s lapel. The click and flash of the shutter have immortalized this moment, captured it in perpetuity. 

We’ve all heard the old adage, but I find that, within the archives, it is doubly true. A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s often not enough to simply procure an archival photograph—you must analyze it, use it as a jumping-off point for deeper research, piece together the context that it is steeped in by searching elsewhere. This is one of my favorite parts: the winding, swirling rabbit trail upon which we run, historians in pursuit of the full and fleshed out narratives of the past. Here, I offer you a story—one thousand words diving into the history behind this image. 

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One race--100.
One race—100, 1946. [Pearl ID: 359861.]

This Religious News Service image shows Reverend Seido Ogawa in attendance at the 1946 centennial convention of the Congregational Christian Churches in the company of other religious leaders in attendance. The event was held on the grounds of Grinnell College. To the left of Rev. Ogawa is the Rev. John B. Hanna of New York; looking on over Ogawa’s shoulder is the Rev. Albert L. Scott of Brooklyn. The man upon whose lapel Ogawa is pinning his button—a button advocating racial democracy—is the Rev. T.M. Brumfield of Fisk University. The button reads “One Race—100” and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the American Missionary Association.

But we aren’t focusing on the American Missionary Association, nor on the centennial celebration attended by these men. We are focusing in on the life and work of the Rev. Ogawa, who served as Executive Director of the Honolulu Council of Churches from 1962 to 1969 and was focused on lifting up social and community issues that transcended denomination.

Seido Ogawa (1915-2004) was an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ. Born in Honolulu in 1915, Rev. Ogawa attended Chicago Theological Seminary and Harvard Divinity School before returning to the west coast to begin his ministry. He was an early participant in Nuuanu Valley’s annual interfaith Thanksgiving Service, which will celebrate its 64th year this November. He was a huge advocate for mental health, public eduation, and labor issues; his passion for these topics was perhaps influenced by his experience working as a juvenile-delinquency specialist and serving as president of the Health and Community Services Council. During his time with the Council of Churches, Ogawa welcomed noted speakers to Hawaii—including Martin Luther King, Jr. For almost a decade, starting in 1951—the year they celebrated their 26th Anniversary—Rev. Ogawa took the pulpit at Waipahu Evangelical Church in Hawaii. A year after he stepped down from his pastorate, the Waipahu Evangelical Church merged with the Waipahu Community Church, forming the Waipahu United Church of Christ.

His work with Japanese Americans in the post-World War II decades portrays best Rev. Ogawa’s dedication to the safety and well-being of his community members. During World War II, he worked in California at the incarceration centers where hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans were relocated. In 1947, when the Rev. Clarence Gillett (whose papers are held at UCLA’s Special Collections) returned to missionary work in the Pacific, Rev. Ogawa took over his position with the Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy—a group that worked to assist relocated Japanese Americans during the tumultous years following World War II. Gillett had taken up the role in 1942, when the committee was brand new. It had been set up by a group of Congregational churches with the original title of: Congregational Christian Committee for Work with Japanese Evacuees. The following year, the committee changed its title to the Citizens’ Committee for Resettlement; in 1945, their name changed for the final time, becoming the Committee for Christian Democracy.

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Letter from Seido Ogawa to Mrs. Ryo Tsai, July 3, 1947
Letter sent on Congregational Committee letterhead, from Rev. Seido Ogawa to Mrs. Ryo Tsai, July 3, 1947; Courtesy of the Ai Chih and Ryo (Morikawa) Tsai Family Collection, Densho.

This is the title that graces the letterhead upon which Rev. Ogawa writes to Ryo Morikawa Tsai about the return of her husband, Rev. Ai Chih Tsai (1913-1998), to the United States in 1947. 

Born in Taiwan in November 1913, Ai Chih Tsai traveled to Chicago to continue his education in 1938. Four years later, he was closing out 1942 as an ordained minister and married man. After his ordination in 1942, Rev. Tsai served an interim ministry in Chicago before working as a research analyst, instructor, and translator for the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1947. It was at that time that he decided to return to the U.S.

But when he began the process of returning stateside, he and his bride faced many obstacles. In a letter penned to Seido Ogawa on June 24, 1947, Ryo Tsai writes that an immigration officer told her “that if he did apply through the regular channels for his visa and come under the quota [150 persons per year], it might take 10 years before he could come!”

With Rev. Ogawa in their corner, however, that ten years whittled down to just one. He immediately began the search for a ministerial position for Rev. Ai Chih Tsai, and, in October 1947, he sent the following letter to Ryo:

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Letter from Seido Ogawa to Mrs. Ryo Tsai, October 6, 1947
Letter from Rev. Seido Ogawa to Mrs. Ryo Tsai, October 6, 1947; Courtesy of the Ai Chih and Ryo (Morikawa) Tsai Family Collection, Densho.

Part of the handwritten note at the bottom reads: “Would you and Ai Chih, if you were asked, be willing to minister at the Pasadena Japanese Union Ch. I have tried phoning but your mother had difficulty understanding. As soon as you get this letter please phone me.” Things were happening, situations evolving, and, soon enough, in 1948, Ai Chih Tsai took up the pastorate of the Seattle Japanese Congregational Church, where he served until his retirement in 1978.

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The Tsai Family, 1957
The Tsai Family, 1957. Image courtesy of Densho.org.
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Rev. Seido Ogawa
The Rev. Seido Ogawa, 1915-2004

 

Rev. Ogawa’s relationship with the Tsai family was just one of many similar connections he established and nurtured throughout his ministry. Whether he was working with relocated Japanese-Americans, his own congregants at Waihapu, or young folks dealing with mental health issues, the Reverend Seido Ogawa put his all into ensuring that those around him were comfortable, safe, and united through kindness and shared faith. Though not a Presbyterian by denomination, Rev. Ogawa lived a life of example—one which ought to be remembered, and one which ought to transcend denomination. 

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Topics: American History, Japanese Americans

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