Nisei Resistance and Resilience: A Japanese-American Life

by V.L. Purvis-Smith, Grace Kaori Suzuki (Contributor)

Teenage Allen Maruyama internalized the hostility directed at Japanese/Japanese Americans subsequent to the Pearl Harbor attack. He says he learned to hate himself and “felt subhuman,” but Presbyterians in his home state of Colorado “befriended” him. He proved himself as a student athlete and US Army Buck Sergeant. He graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary (MA, Christian education, and MDiv). His MTS is from Dubuque Seminary. Only when he earned a PhD in theology from the Aquinas Institute of Philosophy and Theology did he feel “emancipated,” no longer suffering from shame while living and working as a Japanese American in white majority culture.

Allen’s Nisei (second generation) experiences and his issho kenmei personality (all in, full throttle, nonstop) propelled him into centers of change and controversy in fields as diverse as social justice, theology, and cultural and church history. Dr. Allen Maruyama is the first Asian American to stand for the position of moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

398 pages, Paperback

Published July 30, 2021

Reviews

[Patricia Eichenlaub · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exhaustive study of the life and ministry of a Japanese American man, Allen Maruyama. His story is one of growing up in a life of faith and finding himself and the cultural and individual characteristics he brings. It’s not been easy but it has been rich and we are better off knowing him and his struggles.