Karen Yonemoto. "Paul M. Nagano," Densho Encyclopedia https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Paul%20M.%20Nagano/ (accessed Apr 10 2018). Nagano was born and raised in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. His grandparents, Manzo "Jack" and Tsuya Nagano, were the first Japanese immigrants to settle in Canada in May 1877. His Canadian born father, George Tatsuo, and Japanese born mother, Seki Uchiki Nagano, emigrated from Victoria, British Columbia, to the United States in 1915. Nagano received his Ph.D. in 1970 from the Claremont School of Theology and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Chapman University in 2012 where he had earned his Bachelor's Degree. At the outbreak of World War II, Nagano was finishing his last year of college at Chapman University in Southern California when he and his family were relocated to Poston, Arizona. Here Nagano was assigned by the Ecumenical Ministerial Council to serve as one of the first English speaking Japanese American pastors in the camps. His primary responsibility was to oversee the newly formed English speaking Nisei worship services in Poston I and III. Despite his station as a college student who lacked ministry experience and seminary training, Dr. Ralph L. Mayberry, executive director of the Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society, urged that Nagano be ordained. Wartime circumstances created a need for English speaking ministers in the camps, forcing Nagano and other Nisei to assume immediate roles of public religious leadership. On February 23, 1943 Nagano passed his ordination exam, and as a young reverend was released to perform marriages, funerals and ministry services for Japanese Americans in the camps. Nagano was responsible for reestablishing the first Japanese American church in California after the return of Japanese Americans from incarceration. With assistance from the Los Angeles Baptist Missions Society, he restarted the Japanese Baptist Church in Boyle Heights and helped hundreds of Japanese American families find jobs, procure housing and rebuild their lives. Impacted by his experiences in camp, Nagano went on to found influential religious organizations such as the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS), the Asian American Baptist Caucus, and Council for Asian Pacific Theology. He served as a pastor for the Los Angeles Japanese Baptist Church (renamed Evergreen Baptist Church), Makiki Christian Church in Honolulu, Oakland First Baptist Church and Seattle Japanese Baptist Church. He has taught courses on Asian and Asian American theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Pacific School of Religion, Northwest Theological Union and the American Baptist Seminary of the West. Nagano is currently a chaplain for the Atherton Baptist Homes retirement community in Southern California where he resides.