A Century Of Faith -- Seattle Japanese Baptist Church Looks Back At Its Beginning As A Refuge For Immigrants And Its Survival Through The Internment Years. It Also Looks Ahead At What's To Come As The Community Around It Changes.

It started as a refuge from the tough streets of Seattle at the turn of the century.

When the crowded immigrant ships from Tokyo or Yokohama docked at Seattle's waterfront in the city's early days, the Japanese Baptist Church was one of the first places passengers headed. That was where they found comfort in numbers, faith in a new religion and help in learning to speak English.

The church - founded by people who came to work in the community's mills, fields and well-off neighborhoods - is celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is the oldest Japanese Christian church in the city and one of the oldest in the country, said Kathleen Yukawa, the church historian.

The church is marking the centennial this weekend with dinners and special services. Among the celebrants are several children of charter members - regulars at Sunday services to this day - and descendants of the Rev. Fukumatsu Okazaki, the revered pastor who started the congregation and the man they called sensei - teacher.

Okazaki came to America in 1887, according to remembrances of his life that were collected for the church's 50th anniversary in 1949. The booklets are being distributed as part of the church's centennial commemoration.

Okazaki arrived in San Francisco, wearing an old uniform from an English-language school he'd attended in Japan. He had with him "a few yen in his pocket, only one bamboo suitcase, no overcoat, although it was in the fall," one 1949 biographer wrote.

Like many of the young Japanese men who came to America during the early part of the 20th century, Okazaki's first job was as a house servant, working for an Army captain in San Francisco. At one point, the officer was sent to Eastern Washington, and Okazaki went along, camping in a tent.

After a time, Okazaki drifted to Denver, where he joined a Baptist church. He'd been raised Buddhist but had read the Bible as part of his English studies in Japan, one biographer wrote. He "admired the character of Jesus Christ," although his feelings at first were "the same as a soldier admiring Napoleon."

By the time Okazaki came to Seattle in 1892, his faith was firm and he was a serious Bible student. When he told a Sunday-school teacher at his Denver church he was leaving to help a friend with his restaurant business in Seattle, she asked how many Christians there were among the Japanese immigrants in Seattle. Okazaki said he thought two or three.

Then it was up to him, the teacher said, to "work and save the Japanese people in Seattle."

When Okazaki arrived, Seattle had some 80,000 residents, including 3,000 to 4,000 Japanese immigrants. He joined First Baptist Church and began a mission - the beginning of a church just for newcomers. He offered members English classes twice a day, and there was a popular youth program.

Many of the church members who wrote in the 1949 memoir spoke of racial discrimination they suffered throughout the years. The church, several said, was their safe haven.

Ichizo Ichikawa remembers meeting Okazaki at the immigration office when he stepped off the boat in 1905. Whenever another boat from Japan tied up at the waterfront, Okazaki was there to help translate.

"Up to this time, I did not know anything about Christianity nor about the minister that leads the church," Ichikawa wrote for the 50th anniversary book. "But I thought that he was great as an interpreter because he was a minister. Every time I got in touch with the warm and dignified manner of Rev. Okazaki, I came closer and closer to God."

Among the 11 founders of the church was Sokichi Hoshide, who is shown in a historic church photo standing beside Okazaki as he shovels the first bite of earth for a new sanctuary. The photo was taken about 1922, when members built the red-brick church that still serves them at the corner of Broadway and Spruce streets.

Hoshide's daughter, Kazuko, married the son of another founder, Toyozo Sakura, and changed her name to Catherine. She is 86 and is among several children of founders who still attend the church.

The darkest days for the church were during World War II, when Japanese people all over the region were sent to internment camps while America fought against Japan. Sakura said she recalls members storing most of their belongings in the church gym before boarding the trains for Minidoka camp in Idaho.

The Rev. Emery Andrews was pastor during the war - Okazaki had died in 1936. Sakura and other long-time members remember Andrews fondly for moving his family to Twin Falls to be near the congregation in the internment camp. He made regular trips back to Seattle - sometimes several in a week - to pick up necessities his people had left at the church.

"He was a wonderful friend to us," said Hisako Arakawa, the moderator or lay leader for the church. "His whole family suffered, because they had to relocate, too."

"When we were in the camp, it was always stressed to us to `integrate, integrate' when we got home," Sakura said. "Maybe the caucasians (who administered the camps) thought that would be the best way, but people gravitate to where they feel most comfortable. So that's why some of us still like this church."

That's also why the church still has one service in Japanese and one in English every Sunday. The Japanese service is held in a tiny chapel in the older part of the building; the larger English service is in a modern sanctuary that was added in 1985. Occasionally, the two congregations have a joint dinner or communion service.

"We worship separately because of the language," said Arakawa, the moderator. "Most of our people speak English, but some like to go just to hear Japanese."

As it looks toward its second century, the church may have to try to bring other ethnic groups into the congregation, said Yukawa, the historian. There are 450 members now, including many who come from Seattle's suburbs.

"We are going to have to reach out to other groups who live around us, not just Japanese," Yukawa said. "It's the only way we're going to keep growing."

Sally Macdonald's phone message number is 464-2248. The e-mail address is: smac-new@seatimes.com ------------------------------- Join the celebration

Seattle Japanese Baptist Church is celebrating its centennial this weekend with several events and services at the church, 160 Broadway St.

Japanese- and English-speaking congregations will have a joint communion service at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, followed at 10:30 a.m. by separate sermons.

At 3 p.m., there will be a worship service at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave., for members of the American Baptist denomination throughout the region.