ABSTRACT
Aurobiographica1 spiritual narratives attest 10 religion's vital role in the polilica1, cultura! and edmic awakening ofPcmestant Japanese Americans in the 1970s. Life stories reveal how ethnic congrc:gations created supportive instirutional forums fot memhers to discover, examine, and explore the per~ sona! and communal dimensions of ethnic identity. Religion's inAuence in me construction of ethnic self-consciousness feods (0 be discounted because religious identity is ohen reduced to mean oolr a preference inspired by motivations of eimer assimilation oe acculturation. 1 This chapter will focus on Japanese American Protestant testimoniallife stories collected and publidy shared in the 1970s. The private and corporate spiritual histories produced in this decade show how }apanese Americans explored the connection between ethnic identity and religious identity, kept their ethnic history alive and relevant for each generation, articulated ethnic pride with a religious vocabulary that avoided segregationist rhetoric, and confromed and reconciled cuhural and political barriers between themselves, Caucasians, and other ethnic Asian Pacific Americans. For }apanese Americans, Christianity offered a foundational experience through which they understood the meaning and purpose of ethnic idemity.
