The Chronicles Of Cowley County:
Faith And Family

April 23, 2021

Paul and Yoshie Hagiya with their children, Noel, Jan Elise, and Mark.
(This photograph was provided courtesy of Christ United Methodist Church in Santa Maria, California, circa 1957)

Kindness and respect were the weapons used in the face of fear and prejudice in Cowley County during the 1940s.  Opportunities were provided to those that others considered threats.  Leadership took the form of pragmatism mixed with lofty goals.  Sometimes very publicly, sometimes very quietly.

From those efforts, born of faith, families developed.

One was the Hagiya Family.

Paul Hisato Hagiya was one of the more than 110,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned by the Federal Government in the time period from 1941 through 1945.  He hadn’t committed a crime.  He wasn’t even accused of committing a crime.  Instead, he was incarcerated solely because of his heritage.  While Mr. Hagiya was born in the United States and was a citizen of our country, he was considered a threat to our nation because his parents were born in Japan and he had Japanese heritage.

Mr. Hagiya and his family had been living in Santa Maria, California.  According to his obituary, Paul Hagiya was named after the Apostle Paul by his sisters.  He was born in San Luis Obispo and grew up in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria. 

Southwestern College did not consider Paul Hagiya to be a threat.

The Cowley County institution put its core beliefs into practice during the World War II years.  Working with The United Methodist Church, Southwestern College offered the opportunity of an education to Mr. Hagiya and at least 14 other young people of Japanese heritage.

Among those 14 other people was Yoshie Fujita. 

Ms. Fujita and her family had been living in Oxnard County, California. 

She and Paul met while both were initially imprisoned at the Tulare Assembly Center (Tulare Prison) that was situated on the grounds of Tulare-Kings County Fair near the downtown of Tulare, California.  Americans with Japanese heritage were forced to live in horse stalls and other facilities at this converted fairground.

Both individuals were then sent with their families to the Gila River Relocation Center (Gila River Prison;  also known as the Rivers Relocation Center – the Rivers Prison).  This prison was located on the lands of the Gila River Nation in central Arizona.

Through the efforts of people in Cowley County and elsewhere, Paul and Yoshie each got the opportunity to get an education at Southwestern College.  The Gila News-Courier on October 9, 1943, reported that as of that date “six young people of the Rivers [Prison] are in the student body of 170 at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas…”  The news article went on to indicate that Paul Hagiya was majoring in religion and Yoshie Fujita was majoring in sociology.

While at Southwestern College, both Paul and Yoshie ran for elective office among students.  Both won their elections (elections for different offices), but only Yoshie was able to actually take office.

According to records of Southwestern College, Mr. Hagiya was one of the individuals who ran for president of the student body in 1943.  There were pressures from the community placed on the College, according to these records, to have Mr. Hagiya not participate in this election by the students;  some of the local folks in Winfield did not want a Japanese American to be the leader of the students at Southwestern College.  The records indicated that while the election took place with Paul Hagiya’s name on the ballot, Mr. Hagiya withdrew from the election before the votes were officially counted.  The actual votes, according to the college records, showed that Mr. Hagiya had won the election of the students.  With his withdrawal, though, he did not become student body president in 1943.

A newspaper in Santa Maria, California, confirmed the essence of this story in its edition dated December 9, 1943.  That news article in The Daily Times indicated that Mr. Hagiya had, according to his sister, won the election at Southwestern College, but resigned because of pressure from a local veterans group in Cowley County.

Paul Hagiya as seen in the 1943 Moundbuilder Yearbook and Yoshie Fujita as seen in the 1944 Moundbuilder Yearbook.
(These photographs were provided courtesy of Southwestern College, 1943 and 1944.)

The situation for Ms. Fujita was different.  The 1943 news article noted earlier from the Gila News-Courier indicated that “Miss Fujita was elected vice president of the freshman class last week.”

She, however, had faced a sad situation the year before.  Ms. Fujita was the highest ranked student in her senior class at Oxnard High School.  As such, she was slated to be the valedictorian of her senior class in 1942.  Due to her imprisonment because of her Japanese heritage, though, she was replaced as the class valedictorian and was not able to give the traditional valedictorian speech or to even graduate.  Her high school diploma was sent by postal mail to her while she was in the Tulare Prison. 

This situation was rectified in 2002.  Sixty years after most of the others in her senior class graduated, Yoshie Fujita Hagiya was awarded her diploma and was able to finally give her valedictorian speech.

“In June of 2002, I had the opportunity to organize and participate in a graduation ceremony to honor those Japanese-American students who were unable to participate in their own due to circumstances beyond their control,” stated Gary Mayeda.  At the time of this ceremony, he was an Assistant Principal at Oxnard High School.  “Mrs. Fujita-Hagiya was awarded a certificate of academic excellence acknowledging that she would have been the valedictorian of her graduating class but without detracting from the sense of accomplishment of the awarded student.  Mrs. Fujita-Hagiya gave an inspirational and positive acceptance speech in addressing ‘fellow’ graduates that included my nephew and father.  My dad actually had tears running down his face that I saw later during an after commencement reception in the staff cafeteria.  Nao Takasugi [a former mayor of the City of Oxnard and a former member of the California State Assembly] also served as an honored dignitary, a former Oxnard High School valedictorian, and internee himself who announced the names of the graduates during the ceremony, and I had the honor of shaking hands and personally handing them duplicate diplomas…The event was covered domestically and abroad [by the news media], but more importantly it was the right thing to do.”

During World War II, Mr. Hagiya – like thousands of other Japanese Americans – served our country in the United States military.  In his case, he served in the 4th Armored Division of the U S Army in Germany.  Nine other Japanese American men that attended Southwestern College during World War II also served in the armed forces of our nation.

Paul and Yoshie married the day before he left for Europe in 1945.  Over the years, their family grew with three children.  One of the children died at the age of 23 years.

Both Paul and Yoshie continued their education after leaving Winfield.

Mr. Hagiya earned a Masters of Arts degree at Berkeley Baptist Divinity School and earned a Master of Sacred Theology from Garrett Biblical Institute.  As an ordained minister in The United Methodist faith, he served in churches in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Santa Maria, California;  Denver, Colorado;  Hilo, Hawaii;  and Seattle, Washington.

Mrs. Hagiya continued her education by earning an advanced degree in Education at the University of Colorado.  She worked as an elementary school teacher in both Colorado and California.

One of the congregations where The Rev. Hagiya served as pastor was Christ Church in Santa Maria.

“In 1954, we came with Mark, Noel, and Jan Elise, eager to serve and enjoy the Santa Maria community,” stated Yoshie Hagiya in a letter to that congregation on its 80th Anniversary in 2009.  “It was a homecoming for Paul, who grew up on the corner of Main and Mary Drive.  His mother, Kinu, and the family were very active in Christ Church since about 1934, when they moved from Santa Barbara.”

Just as Oxnard High School recognized Mrs. Hagiya in 2002, Southwestern College did something similar to recognize Mr. Hagiya in the early 1970s.  On January 28, 1973, leaders of Southwestern College left Winfield to travel to Denver.  There, at Simpson United Methodist Church, Southwestern College conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on The Rev. Paul Hagiya.  At that time, he was pastor of that church.

Ms. Kaydee Riggs Johnson, the current vice president of marketing for Southwestern College, said the college takes pride in numerous examples of demonstrating a culture of love, value and acceptance throughout its 135-year existence. “Seeing and believing in the potential in every person; teaching and learning in relationships that are rooted in respect and care; applying a rich liberal arts education as a means to discover and reach a student’s full potential; these are each traditions deeply woven into the fiber of Southwestern College,” Riggs-Johnson said.

Other members of Hagiya family have also shown leadership through the years.

Grant Hagiya, the Bishop of California-Pacific Conference of The United Methodist Church, is the nephew of Paul Hagiya.  In that leadership role, Bishop Hagiya provides pastoral guidance for “…almost 350 local churches throughout Southern California, parts of Central California, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands, Guam and Saipan.”

Bishop Hagiya noted that his uncle – Paul Hagiya – was quite fond of the opportunities he found in Winfield:  “I know how much he valued his time at Southwestern College and he spoke well of it often.”

Paul Hagiya died in 1983.  Today, Yoshie Hagiya lives in California.

Yoshie and Paul Hagiya.
(This photograph was provided courtesy of Christ United Methodist Church in Santa Maria, California, date uncertain.)

The Chronicles Of Cowley County is a news column that details life and activities in Cowley County.

Please contact Richard McDonough at newsaboutamerica@gmx.us.

© 2021 Richard McDonough