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Alice Malinda Lilliequist Sickels was the third Executive Secretary of the International Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1931 until 1944.

The St. Paul Resettlement Committee was started by the International Institute in St. Paul in October of 1942 to assist with the relocation of Japanese Americans from the concentration camps established by the US government’s War Relocation Authority (WRA) in March of 1942. It was one of thirty-five such committees that operated across the country during World War II. The SPRC was initially formed by the International Institute of St. Paul under the leadership of Alice Sickels, the Executive Secretary, and Bess L. Beebe, the Board of Directors president.

From the October 5, 1942 “Report to the Board of Directors of the International Institute from the Executive Secretary” {given by Alice Sickels} she shared news gathered from attending the National Convention in New York City, from September 26-27, 1942.

Alice Sickels wrote in the report: “The Japanese Americans are moving fast into War Relocation Camps and they are now under the control of the War Relocation Authority of which Thomas V. Holland of Washington D.C. is the director. It is the wish of the Federal government that loyal American citizens leave the camps and establish themselves in places where they can be accepted and self-supporting – preferably in the middle areas of the United States. This can only be affected on a case by case basis. Individuals must find places to work and live and then they will be released.”

Sickels later wrote, “It was agreed that we are not obligated …but that help in the resettlement of American citizen Japanese is a War Service which our government is asking of everyone who can help. In these days every person and every agency has a primary obligation to do the particular War Service for which they are best fitted; therefore, the International Institute does have an obligation both of service and leadership relative to this particular emergency and should help in the resettlement of Japanese Americans.” (SPRC papers, Minnesota Historical Society, folder 7)

This organization quickly became a community-wide organization and was reorganized in March of 1945 and separated from direct leadership of the International Institute of St. Paul in order to engage in legal contracts and get funding from the Council of Social Agencies and the Community Chest. From August of 1945 to August of 1948 the SPRC operated the St. Paul Resettlement Hostel at 191 W. Kellogg – next door to the Institute at 183 W. Kellogg Boulevard.

Alice Sickels left her position at the International Institute in St. Paul in September of 1944 with a leave of absence to write a book. Alice Sickels wrote an engaging history of the International Institute in St. Paul and the Festival of Nations in her book, Around the World in St. Paul (1945, University of Minnesota Press.).

From Chapter 7 of Alice Sickels’s book Around the World In St. Paul (1945, University of Minnesota Press), titled “Why Are You Doing This?”, Sickels wrote about the situations that brought Japanese Americans to Minnesota during World War II. She wrote that “Assimilation is a 2-way street.” She gave specific examples of Nisei she had helped and wrote “Second-generation Americans want terribly to be accepted…” She wrote that “The ultimate goal of cultural unity can best be achieved by accepting diversity for the present.” In this chapter, Sickels shared information and stories about discrimination faced by Nisei in housing and jobs. She detailed how International Institute social workers helped Nisei moving to St. Paul. She wrote that “A firsthand pleasant experience with a person of Japanese background kills the stereotype. It rarely dies any other way.”

In Minnesota there was another resettlement committee and hostel operating in Minneapolis. There were smaller efforts taking place around the state in Duluth and Rochester, for example. Exact numbers aren’t known but it is estimated that 3,000 Japanese Americans resettled to Minnesota during World War II assisted in part by the fact the Military Intelligence Service Language School training Nisei soldiers operated at Camp Savage and then Fort Snelling in Minnesota.

As of September 8, 1944, Sickels was in Detroit and became the director of the International Institute in Detroit, Michigan, where she assisted with its separation from the YWCA and the creation of a separate agency, as she did for St. Paul, Minnesota and served until 1959. She died December 18, 1965 in Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware at age 75. She is buried along with her husband and parents in Vasa Lutheran Cemetery in Vasa, Goodhue County, Minnesota.

In the words of Alice Sickels, “Liberty, justice, and amity can survive only among comparatively secure people.” These words still ring true.

© 2026 Krista Finstad Hanson. All rights reserved.