opposed Japanese immigration due to the competition that Japanese farmers introduced to the state. Opponents Opposition to Japanese exclusion was strongest on the East Coast. The groups against exclusion and the CJIC's activities consisted of various national and regional clergy associations, businessmen, institutes of higher education, and peace activists. The most prominent of these were as follows. The National Committee on American Japanese Relations (NCAJR) Led by former U.S. Attorney General George W. Wickersham, NCAJR was founded in 1921 by Sidney L. Gulick, an educator who spent twenty-five years as a missionary in Japan before returning to the United States. Once the Immigration Act of 1924 had been passed, NCAJR distributed pamphlets written by Gulick and fellow missionary . Gulick argued that excluding Japanese immigrants was damaging relations with Japan and that the only way to address the problem was to institute a quota. One line of attack used by the CJIC against NCAJR was that advocates for modification of the law were beholden to Japan on account of their past work and were therefore concerned more for the well-being of Japan rather than the United States. Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America (FCCCA) This ecumenical association of Protestant denominations publicly opposed the exclusion of Japanese immigrants and called for the immigration law to be changed so as to provide Japan with a quota. It was primarily concerned with the effect Japanese exclusion had on international relations. According to McClatchy, Gulick “converted” the leaders of the FCCCA to his point of view and, as leader of the organization's Oriental Department, pushed anti-exclusion as an established church policy. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce From the late 1920s to the late 1930s, businessmen on the West Coast who traded with Japan sought to modify the exclusion clause so as to permit Japan an immigration quota. Their efforts were coordinated by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, which was mainly led by Wallace M. Alexander. Alexander was a businessman and trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Operations The purposes of the CJIC were: 1) to keep advised as to propaganda and efforts directed against the national policy of restrictive immigration; 2) to be prepared with data and literature to meet argument and attack; 3) to actively oppose anti-exclusion movements through distribution of literature and presentation of the facts by speakers. To these ends, the CJIC kept in