FATHER PETER OKAJIMA
WINDSOR TERRACE — Father Peter Okajima found God late in life, but he believes it’s better late than never. Father Okajima, 59, who is about to be ordained in the Diocese of Brooklyn, had a roundabout route to the priesthood.
Along his journey, he grew up in a family where religion was not discussed, married and had two children, divorced, had his marriage annulled and worked in the rough and tumble world of high finance.
“I have lived a full life,” he told The Tablet. “I’m a late vocation.” Okajima recently completed his studies at the Pope St. John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts. “It’s a wonderful institution, very special,” he said. He admitted that he was nervous as he entered the seminary. “I wondered if I could be in a rigorous academic enviroment and thrive. I am pleased to say that I can,” he said.
When he looks back at his old life, it makes him smile. “I was married with two children and had a great job that paid well. I guess you could say I was living the American Dream,” he said. Yet, he always had a feeling deep inside his heart that something was missing. He set about fi nding out what it was.
Okajima was born in Manhattan and raised in Queens. He attended P.S. 174, Russell Sage Junior High School and Forest Hills High School. He is a graduate of Dartmouth University, where he completed a double major in economics and history.
“God was not a big part of my life growing up. Religion was not something that was articulated or discussed at all,” said Father Okajima, whose mother and late father were Japanese-Americans.
His father, Robert, was a Buddhist. His mother, Kiyoka, was a Shintoist. Fearful of discrimination, the Okajimas did not practice any religion and did not encourage their children to be religious. Peter Okajima grew up questioning the existence of God.
His father, who was born and raised in Japan, served as a Japanese translator for General Douglas McArthur’s staff during the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri at the end of World War II. His mother, Kiyoka Okajima, was born in Japan but had spent most of her life in the U.S. She was among thousands of Japanese placed in internment camps in the U.S. during World War II.
“My parents never talked about the war to us,” Father Okajima said.
After college, Father Okajima worked in finance on Wall Street, steadily moving up the ladder. His personal life was also running smoothly. He married and he and his wife had two children.
But he started to have a nagging feeling that something was missing. He did some soul searching and heard a voice deep inside telling him to go to church. He listened to the voice.
Father Okajima went to church, met with a deacon and joined the parish’s RCIA program. A year after he first walked in the church, he received the sacraments. He became an active member of the parish
 and found that his relationship with Jesus Christ had deepened.
“Then, it struck me that his call to me was not just for a personal relationship, but to the priesthood,” he said. He laughed at first. “I thought of my age, of course. And then there was the fact that I was married,” he said. Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy. “But life happens,” he said.
His wife divorced him. His children were grown. He decided to give himself over to Jesus Christ.
 Still, there was the issue of his age.
In a 2019 speech at the seminary, Okajima recalled attending a lawn party there and talking with a guest who wondered aloud about the wisdom of preparing older men for the priesthood
“Surely, he said, you get more bang for the buck with younger men, men who have the potential of serving more years as a priest than someone as old as me. I replied he had a good point from a purely economic perspective. But maybe, I said, maybe God wants his church to have some priests with life experiences similar to the people sitting in the pews,” Father Okajima said in his speech.