only God
Sharing stories only God could write.
Some moments in life leave us speechless—except for two words: Only God.
Hosted by Stephanie L. Jones, Only God shares powerful stories of faith, miracles, and divine moments that have no explanation but for God. From unexpected breakthroughs to life-changing encounters, each episode celebrates how God shows up in extraordinary ways.
Tune in for real conversations and testimonies that inspire hope, deepen faith, and give God all the glory.
only God
Episode 27: Faith in Adversity: How a Japanese American Family Endured WWII
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Discover the inspiring story of Jon Nitta’s family who immigrated from Japan to the United States where they endured prejudice and extreme hardship during WWII. Although it is common for Japanese families to hold onto the religion of their ancestors and their community, Jon’s grandmother converted from Buddhism to Christianity, which helped her hold onto hope - even while being held in a camp for over two years with her twelve year old son right after the death of her husband. How did Jon’s family respond to the injustice and prejudice they faced? Did his grandmother’s faith in Jesus stay strong? How does this relate to modern times? Check out this episode to be inspired by resilience, strength, and faith in the face of adversity, right here on the only God Podcast - sharing stories only God could write.
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Hey friends, welcome to the Only God podcast, where we share stories only God can write. I'm your host, Stephanie L. Jones, and each episode we'll dive into powerful testimonies, have great conversations, and encouragement that remind us when the impossible happens, it's only God. Let's get started. It's Stephanie here again with the Only God podcast, sharing stories only God could write. And today I am excited to be chatting with my pastor and friend John Mita.
SPEAKER_00How exciting to be here. Seriously, and to be introduced like that is amazing.
SPEAKER_01I love it. I love it. Well, do you we I always start the podcast with people sharing like our only God connection? How did we get connected? Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Uh, we got connected because I told the story about my grandmother in a sermon and how she became a Christian and that influence on my life, but more along the lines of what she had to go through as a as a person being a Japanese American, uh, you know, in the in the 30s and 40s. So yeah, that was that's the story.
SPEAKER_01Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I just want to like add on to that because I like that story just struck me. I remember sitting in church, I probably cried because I have such a tender heart and I cry about everything. Um, but I wanted to know more because you just shared a little bit. And so uh I asked you for time. I came and sat in your office. And I mean, I feel like that was only God too because uh that just started a beautiful friendship between us. And you have uh come to speak at uh my giving your best life retreat. You were my like end keynote speaker, and just um, you know, you shared your grandmother's story. But also, too, is I've talked on this podcast, is I'm making a film and just I was really struggling. And you've always been so gracious for me to email you and say, John, as my pastor, can I come talk to you with about a couple of things? And you always say yes. And I gotta say, just I leave your office and I'm like, okay, thank you, Lord. So I always feel like that's only God who's just like used you, you give gives you the perfect words, the Bible verses, whatever.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad for that. And it's always a joy to meet with you, seriously.
SPEAKER_01Wonderful. Well, I would love to open it up to you with uh you sharing your only God story and just share whatever the Lord has laid on your heart for today.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, I think a lot of it, first of all, has to do with the fact that there are certain things that happen in the world that lead to certain things that lead to other things. And so, you know, as a Christian, I would just simply say that this is this is God's sovereignty and his providence over our lives. In the 1920s, uh there was uh Japan was in the in the throes of an economic uh depression because they were coming out of the war with Russia, and economically things were very bad there. Agriculture was struggling. So uh many Japanese people decided that they would have a better shot at prosperity if they immigrated to the United States. So my grandmother's parents moved to the United States and uh looking for jobs in agriculture. Uh and so that's when uh at least in the in the on the West Coast, there was a a very strong fear about Asians coming in to take jobs, to uh to uh ruin neighborhoods, and and really the schools would suffer. So they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which uh which did not allow for Chinese to immigrate into the United States, but that didn't include Japanese people. So again, Japanese people began to immigrate to the United States to look for uh a better life.
SPEAKER_01You know, I guess like on the the West Coast of I don't know if it was fear, like where did that come from of like taking jobs and schools and what you talked about? Where did that come from?
SPEAKER_00Well, I I think that that's probably a fairly natural reaction to foreign people coming to the United States. It has been and it still continues to be uh an irrational fear of people who are different, who bring a different culture, who look different than you. And so this happened with the Chinese. And in fact, during this time in the 20s and the 1930s, there was a warning that was sounded, and it was the Asian peril warning that that Asians were going to ruin our country, and so we need to keep them out. So Japanese people, as they came, they were perceived. Now, see if this sounds fairly modern. They were perceived and said they were subhuman, so they were less than human, they were sneaky, they were morally bankrupt, uh, maybe a little bit uh higher than apes, but along those lines. And so mentally, uh the Caucasians thought the Japanese people were lower in their mental capacity than they were. So there was a lot of lies told about people. Uh, I find it fascinating that Japanese people were considered to be closer to apes uh than they were people, and so it's um it still goes on today.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely terrible. And you talked about so your great great-grandmother, is that right? Your great-grandmother.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, that they came over.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so they came over for a better life and share the story from you know, they come over here, they get here, and what happens? What's their life like? Your grandmother, you know, carry us through.
SPEAKER_00All of this was going on with racial prejudice, and uh especially on the West Coast, because that's where Asians immigrated to. They were coming from both China and Japan. And and so there were uh a lot of uh expressed prejudices against Japanese people, signs saying Japs go home, save California from Japs. Uh there were anti-miscegenation laws uh that were still enforced. So that was a holdover from slavery that said that you could not interracially marry. Uh so those laws were enforced, at least on the West Coast. And so, you know, I think about my wife and myself, we could not be married if those laws were still in effect today. But that was a part of the fear that was driving a lot of people during the 1920s, 1930s, and then even into the 1940s as the war was looming, the World War II was looming.
SPEAKER_01And so World War II happens. Your grandmother, how old was your grandmother in World War II?
SPEAKER_00My grandmother was, she was married. Okay, uh, a young woman who was married, and uh then of course in December 1940, not December 7th, 1941, uh, it gave people a real reason to voice their opinions uh loudly. So if they had social internet, it would have been all over social. Right. Uh so again, signs saying Japs, you're not wanted here, go home, keep moving. So she lived under a lot of uh the pressure of prejudice, unwarranted prejudice, uh, that was just everywhere.
SPEAKER_01And just for the listener, um, if they're not aware, December 7th was Pearl Harbor.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_01Um and invaded by the Japanese in Hawaii, right?
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_01Uh so your grandmother's living over here. Um, and is she a U.S. citizen? Was she born here or was she brought here with your great-grandmother?
SPEAKER_00She was brought here, but she had uh she had gone through all the uh naturalization process, so she was she was a citizen. So when World War II happened, uh Franklin Roosevelt passed uh Executive Order 9066, 9066, in February of 1942. And in this executive order, uh the U.S. military was to designate exclusion areas, and what that meant was that there were certain areas that Japanese people could not live. So at that point, it was clear that 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to, uh they were going to be forced to relocate and they were going to be incarcerated. So this executive order comes down, and there was not much time for uh my grandparents, and by this time my grandmother was married, and uh her husband had died right before the executive order came down. So now she's a widow facing this executive order and the ramifications of it with a young son. Uh and so in February of 1942, the ex this executive order comes down, and now Japanese people, Americans, they're American citizens, uh, don't know what to do because there are two questions how long are we going to be held, and what do I do with my property? And so there was a um almost a fire sale of of like asking Caucasian friends to hold property or to sell it for pennies on the dollar. Uh during this time, my well, of course, my grandfather passed from a heart attack. I I've never I never met him. But my father told me stories that every Japanese American was required to register with the government. And he recalls that the FBI came at night looking for my grandfather to ask him questions. And he was dead, of course, but they still came asking for questions. And my father told me that a friend of my grandfather's was taken in, he was beaten up and pressed for information. So uh a lot was going on now because of fear. So it turned out that when the executive order was passed, the government had to begin to build these incarceration camps. And uh and so my parents uh and my grand and my grandmother, my mom and my dad, my mom was here at the time too, uh, but this is just my dad's side. Uh they they were they were struggling with what do we do with our possessions. They found a Caucasian person who said, yes, I will keep it.
SPEAKER_01And so they had a home.
SPEAKER_00They had a home.
SPEAKER_01Okay, they had a home, and they're like, we gotta find somebody to basically keep our house and then pray that it is still here if if and when we come back, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yes. The end of the story is that is that this friend kept my grandmother's property. Uh, but we know many Japanese people who lost everything because they came back and found that their property was now belonged to somebody else. So in this time period when the executive order comes down and they're building camps, the government had to relocate 120,000 Japanese people on the West Coast to sort of holding tanks. My parents went to Pomona Fairgrounds, and so they they were forced on a train and they were taken to Pomona Fairgrounds. Uh, other of their friends were taken to the Santa Anita racetrack, where they lived in horse stalls uh for a certain period of time until the barracks could be built to hold these Japanese Americans. So my parents went to Pomona Fairgrounds. They uh at that time the military had erected barbed wire uh so they could not escape. Uh, they were living in hastily built barracks with no running water, no toilet, any privacy that you have, you put up a sheet, and that's kind of where your family marks out where they are, where they're supposed to live. And if you don't know Japanese people, we're incredibly private people. And so this idea of throwing everybody together, separated only by bed sheets, is uh is abhorrent. It's it's incredibly sad.
SPEAKER_01And so your father and your grandmother were put in basically these camps and to live there, and how long were they there?
SPEAKER_00They were in, they were at Pomona Fairgrounds for a few months until the camp was built, and then they were shipped out to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, which is I think like north uh it's like northwest Wyoming. Uh it um if you've ever been to Wyoming, yeah, it's just brutally cold in the winter with the wind blowing.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say the winds, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And really hot in the summer. So they were sent there. Uh 14,025 Japanese Americans were sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming. And they were there for two and a half years.
SPEAKER_01I did not realize it was that long, John, that they were there. And what, I mean, while they were there, what happened to them? What were they doing? Did they ever think they were gonna get out?
SPEAKER_00Uh the Japanese have a have a saying, and it's uh in Japanese it's uh shikataganai, and and it's uh it literally means what are what can you do about it? Uh and I think it has more to do with Buddhism and fatalism than it does with anything else. But that's what they told themselves is uh shikataganai, what can we do? And so they they tried to make the best that they could out of the experience. So it wasn't good, it was a horrible experience, but my dad was young.
SPEAKER_01How old was your dad?
SPEAKER_00I think he was 12 when he went to camp. Gosh, still yes, right. And so they played sports, there was uh a uh pond there that that turned into an ice rink, and they they made life there for two and a half years.
SPEAKER_01So they're there. Is your uh grandmother, your father, are they Christians? What are do they have a religion right now while they're in these camps?
SPEAKER_00So this is the interesting part. When my grandmother came over as uh right uh as a young woman or young girl, uh that uh she met some women in her neighborhood in West Los Angeles, and they invited her to a meeting, and she went with them. And it turns out it was a prayer meeting. And so through that uh she actually began the process of becoming a Christian. So this was uh this is very hard for people to understand, but this is a very radical break uh because of the Japanese mindset, which is you don't do things different than other people because when you stand out, you get peer pressure to actually conform. And so for my grandmother to do it, and if you met her, you would love her because she was this bubbly uh vibrant woman who had just tons of energy and laugh lots. So it's easy for me to see, but but it's very difficult in Japanese culture uh when you're predominantly Buddhist.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, was she raised Buddhist? Is that where her family was?
SPEAKER_00Okay, for her now to become a Christian was remarkable.
SPEAKER_01Only God, right?
SPEAKER_00She goes to camp as a Christian. She goes to a makeshift chapel in the camp that they set up as a Christian. She uh and she raised my dad as a a Christian.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So did her faith, you know, you and I've talked about because of her faith, um, you know, did that did she talk about that of helping her get through? Were there other Japanese Christians, American Japanese Christians in the camp with her? Or was this something that everybody was Buddhist and it was her? I mean, sh do you know about that?
SPEAKER_00I'm assuming that that because they set up a church there in the camp, that there were others, but probably not many. So she did she did hang on to her faith. I did not, the language barrier was a bit tough for us. Yes. So I didn't have this opportunity to ask her how her faith uh helped her through. I I would suspect that something like Shikataganai can obviously have a fatalistic meaning to it. But for the for a Christian, it means something different. It means that God somehow is in control still, even in this horrible situation. And so I tend to believe that that's the way that she leaned. But it was clear that she was a Christian because when they were released from camp uh two and a half years later, that she uh was part of a group of women that launched a new Japanese American church in West Los Angeles. So she was a part of that founding group.
SPEAKER_01That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00That's the church that I grew up in.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's incredible. And if you think about it, when she came back, you and I've talked about, you know, did she have resentment? Did she have hate? What was like in her heart? What how did she feel about Americans and the government and people that had done this to her and her neighbors? Like, you know, do you know any of that? And even your father, you know, at 12, you can have all those emotions and that.
SPEAKER_00I have never heard my parents or my grandmother speak negatively about Caucasian people. Uh they uh they just wanted more than anything to get back into the mainstream, and they would do anything they could to overcome prejudice, to remove false ideas from people's minds that somehow they were less intelligent, or somehow that they were spies from Japan sent here to uh tear apart the fabric of our nation. Uh they they wanted more than anything to demonstrate that they were good citizens, right? In fact, Stephanie, if I can interject real quick. Yeah, go for it. The the most decorated unit in World War II, it was the Japanese American Regiment, the 442nd. They fought on the European front, uh, but they these young men wanted so desperately to show that they loved this country and they were willing to give their life for this country. So my grandmother, I've never heard her speak in any derogatory way about Caucasian people. She loved all kinds of people. They were constantly coming over to her house. But I know that what you're what you want me to share is the one thing that she did is remember, she was a widow when she went to camp. She was a new widow when she went to camp. And and so my grandfather evidently owned some property, some buildings that their Caucasian friend kept for them as well. And when they came back from the war, there were many of her friends that uh their house their homes were gone, right? They no longer evidently they had uh Had ownership taken away from them while they were in camp. And so my grandmother used these buildings that my father had to help house people that didn't have a home.
SPEAKER_01I mean, how incredible. You just, I mean, again, I think those are the only God things where it's like she comes away, she becomes a Christian, you know, picks picks the right neighbor, you know, to entrust not only her home, but these other properties. And then that person is faithful and holding on to them and then giving back. And then, and then not only, I mean, your grandmother could have sold them, made money, you know, done other things and to go, no, like I'm going to use it to give and to serve and to house. And it's like God provided for those people who had what was taken away from them.
SPEAKER_00I I yes, absolutely true. And I think about this all the time. It is that in her heart, because Jesus had changed her heart, that she didn't know how to say this, but the Bible is really clear that that you and I are foreigners, strangers, exiles. And and literally it means like when and Peter talks about this in his in First Peter, when he uses those words, foreigner, stranger, exile, it means a person who's living permanently in one country, but you're the citizen of another. Well, for the Christian, that makes perfect sense. We are citizens of a heavenly country, but we reside here. You and I are foreigners, strangers and exiles. And that should really shape our heart toward what we see toward you know, when we look at the problem of immigration today, and we would all admit that it's incredibly complex and and it's a problem. But when we look at people, um we should see them as made in the image of God first. That we, along with them, are foreigners, strangers, exiles. If if I can tell a story real quick, I met a couple. Uh all that's been going on with Israel and the Palestinians, and sometimes people tend to lump all their people in with Palestinians, and so they just do horrific things, right? Think horrific things and act in horrific ways. I was at Panera one morning after there had been some some sort of um uh problem with between Israel and Palestine. And I saw a woman who was dressed in uh a hijab, and so she was a practicing Muslim, and I just asked her and said, Are you okay? Her husband was there as well, so it was proper for me to ask, are you both okay? And uh they said in English, yes, and and we're so grateful that you asked us how we're doing. Uh, because it's during these times when we see uh problems in the world with the Arab world and in Israel and that's going on even right now, that people tend to sort of lump all Arabs together and say that they all are wicked, evil people. When in fact, right, just the simple act of hospitality to open up my heart to them. Uh it spoke volumes to them. So I love that.
SPEAKER_01No, I love that you shared that. And I just want to like kind of build upon that of something that happened at church, your church, you know, the church that we go to this weekend. And um, I, you know, I serve on the at the coffee bar, on the coffee team, and um, this lady came up and, you know, John, not to judge, you know, like we're talking about is what people look like, but you know, I just I really felt like she was probably homeless. And um I just asked her her name, served her like I would serve everybody else. But I wanted to see how our church would treat her, you know, like I I wanted to see how do we treat somebody that comes in that looks really different than most of the people in our church. And, you know, she sits down in a chair, doesn't enter the sanctuary. And I got to see one of our security guys go up, have a conversation and sit with her. And just, I mean, like five to ten minutes, he just sat with her and then he moves away and you know, she's charging her phone and stuff. And then I got to see somebody from our guest services go sit with her, hug her, provide her resources. You know, and I went over and I just prayed with her, and I just like, you're so right, because that's how I thought our church would respond. But it's just like I see so many Christians a lot of times who turn away, look away, see people in need, see people that are different, and don't even just pause to say, are you okay? And why do you think that we have such trouble with that? I mean, you know, it are we are to love God and love people, you know? I mean, there's no like people that I don't know.
SPEAKER_00So I just you know what, and and I think that when when it comes to ethnicity, many people say, I'm colorblind. I don't look at skin color. But the fact of the matter is that we do. Yeah, we do. We do, right? But how we respond to people in showing hospitality, and hospitality isn't just opening up your house, hospitality is actually opening your heart to another person. And the reason why we do that with people who look different than us is that is that Jesus did that with us, right? He he opens his heart up to us in and to invite us into this relationship with him. And and if we think about heaven, uh one of the first things we're gonna notice is wow, this is really wildly diverse here. And so when we when we stay away from like statements like that and just realize, no, color actually is a really good thing, right? And we don't want to silo in our separate colors, but we want to actually learn how to reach out in hospitality to other people because all of us are exiles, foreigners, we're citizens of another country, but we're living here. And so we see the differences, but we embrace each other. And right, this is this is the family of God that you saw. And I think it's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's beautiful. And I want to like dive back into your grandma and your dad's story because you know, we were talking about your grandma comes back and you've never you never heard her or your father talk bad. Um, but how did they not? And and I don't know if you've had this discussion with them of like not having this victim mentality, because you know, I see people who go through hard things and nothing like this, like nothing what they went through, and not to live in the past, you know, and the Bible's very clear is we do not live in the past. We see what happens to Lot's wife, you know, it's like be present where you are, don't worry about tomorrow. And so, like, did they ever have that conversation of how they came back into life? And it was like, okay, this is the past, and we're move, we're present and we're moving forward.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a good question. I I think probably and honesty, some of it is cultural. Japanese are very strong in the area of like, we got to pick up ourselves by the bootstraps and we have to just move forward, and we can't live in the past. Uh, but I do know some people, some families that were had lost everything, and they were just captured by anger and bitterness. Uh so for whatever reason, I was spared of it. My parents, you know, there was a there actually was a time when we were talking about reparations or paying Japanese Americans. Remember, these were citizens that we incarcerated, right? Without a trial, okay. But then coming back years later and saying we want to offer a reparation, and my parents didn't want to take it because their their response was it's hard to put a money value on having your liberty taken away from you as an American citizen. So they said, we just we don't want it. And I I saw that and thought that's a that's a noble thing to do, it's a good thing to do. And so I think part of it begins with a choice, maybe. Like I'm not gonna be caught up in in this bitterness. But I think the power to do that comes from God's Holy Spirit, right? Who lives in the Christian to say, I can't be uh captured by this because all I'll do is just become more and more angry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's no, you know, if you look at the fruits of the spirit, or they always say is like, look at the fruits of what that brings you. And so being stuck in the past or what happened to you, like you said, it's bitterness, it's anger, it's unforgiveness. Like it, it starts to. I was, I can't remember if I was reading a book or maybe even when you and I were talking about is like it's you start to build your own prison, like you know, and and you're free to move forward and come out of what you've gone through. Um, so yeah, that's absolutely true.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, yes. So that's that's why I think you know that my grandmother's a great testament to uh letting Jesus make you a hospitable person, uh, even in the most dire of circumstances, and how not to get stuck on what we would all agree are are bad things that happen to us. That we we have to be able, as followers of Jesus, to be able to say, that is horrible what you've done to me, uh, but I'm not gonna be captured by that. You know, the other thing too, Stephanie, that that I would I would want to add is this is that sometimes I think we we tend to buy into this notion that it's the the really super spiritual people that do great things for God. And I just want people to understand that if a five'3 Japanese woman, uh right, I called her Bachan, uh-san in Japanese, like a grandmother, if she can do it, and if she can if she can actually rise above her circumstances because of her Christian faith to not get saddled down by all of the horrific things that happened to her, uh anybody can. Right? It's like if she can do it, uh it's it's available for all.
SPEAKER_01You know, God used your grandmother to start a church, and I mean, how many, like you said, like this ordinary, just Christian woman who went through something terrible, and God used her and her friends to start a church and probably impacted number of lives we will never know. And so God can use your past to step in, and then because she moved forward, I mean, is it do you think it's a reason why you're a Christian today?
SPEAKER_00I I honestly think that because I grew up going to church, now I had my own journey, right? Of faith. Yeah, but but but that was really helpful. And so I I wouldn't want to say it was it was bad. I I would just simply say it was a good thing that I went to church. It was a good thing that my parents took me, as uninterested as I was in it at some point, but I had to realize uh, like, no, this this is this Christian faith is for real. But as the the older I get, the more I realize that that I had all of the foundation there. And it was because my grandmother made this radical break initially as a woman, a young woman, uh, when she moved to the United States.
SPEAKER_01Incredible, incredible. And just think of everybody that affects that ripple effect of her one choice ripples effects through generations. John, I am just like, I'm so grateful for you coming here. I know I've heard the story, but now we are able to share it with so many more people. And it's how God, only God, is gonna use, you know, we talked about your grandmother's impact in the ripple effect, and it's still going. As long as that's why I love like sharing stories, because as long as we continue to share the stories of women and men of faith, um, whether it's from the Bible or people from our past to now of what God is doing, we know God can use that um to lead other people to Him. So thank you, John, for sharing your Only God story.
SPEAKER_00You are so welcome. Only He can create these stories. Yeah. So thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, John. Hey friends, thank you for joining me today on the Only God podcast. I hope today's story encouraged your faith and reminded you that God is still writing our stories each and every day. If you were inspired by this episode, please share, subscribe, and tell a friend. And to stay connected with me and find out about all my books and resources and events, go to shineforwardcreative.com. Have a fabulous day.