Volunteer work has been at the heart of this Seattle senior’s long life
Seattle
resident Thomas Kobayashi, 96, has been volunteering for more than
seven decades, making him one of the longest-serving laymembers of the
US council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The international organization is dedicated to serving the poor by offering person-to-person help to individuals in need.
Kobayashi
was born on September 4, 1916, into a poor family, the eldest of six
children. “I knew what it was like to be poor,” he says. “I was taught
at an early age by Maryknoll sisters, who instilled the idea of doing what is right to help the poor.”
In
1934, while attending the University of Washington, Kobayashi joined
the St. Vincent de Paul conference associated with Our Lady of Martyrs, a
Japanese parish. The pastor was Maryknoll Fr. Leopold Tibesar, who was fluent in Japanese.
In
March 1942, as US involvement in World War II grew, Kobayashi and his
family were among those of Japanese ancestry who were forced into
American “relocation centers,” or internment camps. The entire parish
community was relocated to the camps, and its pastor went along. At Camp Harmony in Puyallup, Washington, Kobayashi assisted Father Tibesar as a chaplain. The group eventually was moved to Minidoka Camp in Hunt, Idaho.
Undeterred
by his circumstances, Kobayashi continued the work of the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul in the camps, collecting extra food and clothing for
those in need. While at Minidoka he volunteered for the US Army’s 442nd
Regiment Combat Team. He was later transferred to the military
intelligence unit. “That was a story in and of itself, especially since
my parents were locked up,” he says.
After
two years, Kobayashi was discharged and reunited with his family. He
moved back to Seattle, and after the war, organized a Japanese relief
committee that sent food, clothing, and medicine to the St. Vincent de
Paul societies in Nagasaki and Tokyo. The care packages were distributed
to families, who later sent letters expressing profound gratitude for
the support. In 1946 and 1947 he chaired the relief committee.
Kobayashi, who never married, spent much of his professional career as
an accountant for the Port of Seattle.
“It
was about 1950 in which I made helping the poor a lifetime goal,”
Kobayashi recalls. “The Bible says that we will always have the poor, so
I thought, ‘That’s a job for me.’”
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