What I learned from Yuri Kochiyama

Imagine Yuri Kochiyama, a person who lived through Japanese internment during World War II. A person who then devoted the rest of her life creating change through fighting in human rights movements. A person who kept fighting against racism and against ethnic minorities being pushed into poverty and marginalization. A person who lived through many controversies due to her radical activism.

Before learning about historic Asian-American activism, I knew next to nothing. The only thing I learned was about Japanese internment during WWII, and the reparations that were brought about decades later in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. I had never even heard of Yuri Kochiyama. My perspective of activism in America comes from Martin L. King’s peaceful push for equal rights during the civil rights movements in the mid 20th century. Learning about Yuri Kochiyama transformed that perspective.

Reading about Kochiyama’s activism, I learned that she increasingly fought for the communities of the ethnically oppressed-- Asian Americans, African Americans, and Muslims. As she says, “I didn’t wake up and decide to become an activist. But you couldn’t help notice the inequalities, the injustices. It was all around you.” Kochiyama’s activist and advocacy legacy includes pushing for the Civil Liberties Act, founding Asian Americans for Asians, joining Malcom X’s group, the Organization for Afro-American Unity, and supporting many political prisoners, among many other acts of activism.

But Kochiyama’s achievements weren’t what intrigued me the most, it was her style of activism. Some of her influences were Malcom X, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Che Guevara. Despite the undoubtedly massive effect Kochiyama imposed on social justice reforms for ethic minorities, this one controversy of her radical ideology and seemingly contradictory views caused me to question: when will it become too much? Where should the line be drawn?

Kochiyama was definitely not a MLK or Gandhi, but she created social change, and started movements that are still relevant, and evermore prevalent in society today. No one can deny that Kochiyama is one of the most prominent and important figures to Asian American activism. She believed in advancing a society to embrace each others’ struggles, and unite to fight oppression, as “we are all part of one another”.