Gillett, Clarence

Biography

Gillett graduated from Union Seminary and received a doctorate in education from Columbia University; he served as a missionary in Japan for 20 years, returning to the United States shortly before World War II; served as Congregational minister for a Japanese congregation in Santa Maria, California; in March 1942 he became executive secretary of a new committee set up by Congregational churches to aid Japanese members who were being relocated; the committee was originally known as Congregational Christian Committee for Work with Japanese Evacuees, then in 1943 it used the name Citizens' Committee for Resettlement, and in 1945 changed its name again to the Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy; Gillett also served as a representative on the Protestant Church Commission for Japanese Service; he was active in the Los Angeles Coordinating Committee for Resettlement and the Community Relations Committee of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles; in 1947 he returned to missionary work in the Pacific, and Seido Ogawa took over the work of the Committee.

History of the Organization

This collection consists of the correspondence, procedural papers and publicity materials kept by Clarence Gillett during his special service as executive secretary of the Congregational Committee for Christian Democracy during and immediately after World War II.

Little is known about Clarence Gillett aside from the information contained in this collection. A graduate of Union Seminary, he also received a doctorate in education from Columbia University. He served as a missionary in Japan for twenty years, apparently returning to the United States shortly before the war. In the immediate prewar period, he was apparently a Congregational minister serving a Japanese congregation in Santa Maria, California. In March, 1942, when it became obvious that all people of Japanese ancestry would have to leave the West Coast, he became executive secretary of a new committee set up by the Congregational Christian Churches to aid members of the Japanese Congregational churches who were being relocated.

The committee was originally known as the Congregational Christian Committee for Work with Japanese Evacuees; in 1943 it also used the name Citizens' Committee for Resettlement, and in 1945 it changed again to the Committee for Christian Democracy. During the war, the committee moved its offices twice: once at the beginning of 1943, when it moved from Santa Maria to Saint Louis, Missouri, and again in 1944, when it returned to Los Angeles to prepare for the return of the evacuees to the West Coast. During the entire period covered by these records, however, its activities fell into the same three areas of emphasis: religious service to evacuees, assistance in resettling evacuees, and public relations work on behalf of the Japanese Americans in general.

In the course of this work, the committee as an organization and Gillett as its principal representative were frequently involved in formal and informal cooperation with other organizations which had similar intents. In the area of religious service, Gillett served as the Congregational representative on the Protestant Church Commission for Japanese Service, an interdenominational committee formed in 1942 to oversee Protestant religious services in the relocation centers. In the area of resettlement, the committee, of course, worked closely with the War Relocation Authority (the Federal agency responsible for operating the relocation centers), but it also worked to develop individual and group sponsorship throughout the Midwest; one of its major efforts grew to be the assistance of college students to leave the relocation centers to attend school. This latter effort was in large part channeled through the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, a special organization formed to funnel money from a number of private agencies (mostly churches) to needy Japanese American students.

The committee did much public relations work on its own, but it was also associated with the Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play, a private social action group formed to encourage fair treatment of Japanese Americans. In the late days of the war and in the immediate postwar period, Gillett was also active in local Los Angeles social action groups, most motably the Los Angeles Coordinating Committee for Resettlement and the Community Relations Committee of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles.

Gillett continued as executive secretary of the committee after the war for a short period of time; in 1947 he returned to missionary work in the Pacific islands, and Seido Ogawa took over responsibility for the committee's work. Shortly thereafter the committee donated its records, including Gillett's records of his work with the related organizations, to the Library. This collection fits into the broad area of Japanese American studies represented by other collections, most notably Collection 2010. Materials specifically related to the committee's work can be found in this and other collections:

War Relocation Authority: Collection 122.

Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play: Collection 2010, Box 153 (Ruth Kingman)

Prewar activities in Japan: Collection 2010, Box 153 (DeForest Papers).

National Japanese American Student Relocation Council: (The official records of this organization were deposited at the Hoover Library on War and Peace, Stanford University.

by Hugh Stocks

June 1979

From the guide to the Clarence Gillett Papers, 1942-1948, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)