Karl Yoneda
Encyclopedia
Karl Gozo Yoneda was a Japanese American
activist, union organizer, World War II veteran and author. He played a substantial role in the founding of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
.
in 1906 to Japanese
immigrants, Hideo and Kazu. In 1913, Yoneda's father, now diagnosed with tuberculosis
, took the family to Japan
to live in their native village just outside Hiroshima
. His father died two years later, leaving his mother to raise him and his two sisters.
After World War I, Yoneda went to high school in Hiroshima. When he was 15, he organized a strike among the delivery boys of the powerful Chugoku Shimbun newspaper. The company had increased the delivery routes without increasing pay.
Such experiences led Yoneda to progressive ideas. He began reading the works of anarchists and socialists such as Karl Marx
, Engels, Kropotkin
, Bakunin, and the blind anarchist poet Vasili Eroshenko
, whom he hitch-hiked to meet in Beijing when he was 16 years old. He stayed with Eroshenko two months and went back to Japan. There, he participated in workers strikes and began publishing a journal for poor farmers, Tsuchi. For that, he was beaten and thrown into jail.
He changed his name to Karl to honor Karl Marx and began working as a dish and window washer in Los Angeles for $5 a day. He became involved with the Communist Party and the Los Angeles Japanese Workers Association. About that period, he wrote:
When Japan invaded China in 1929, he went back to Japan to protest against the invasion. Marching with the most militant groups, he narrowly escaped being arrested and returned to the U.S.
At a march in Los Angeles in 1931, the police "Red Squad" beat him up severely and threw him in a cell. The chief called Elaine Black, whom the police called the "Red Angel" for her work in helping strikers, rushed over, bailed him out, and took him to a hospital, saving his life. The couple soon fell in love. They could not get married, however, because of California's Anti-miscegenation laws
. They borrowed money for a ticket to Seattle, where they were married in 1935.
They participated in the largest demonstrations in the city's history. In 1933, after he spoke out against the tactics of the Red Squad before the L.A. City Council, the squad caught him in an elevator and gave him the worst beating of his life. During his three-month recovery, Elaine went to San Francisco to work for the International Labor Defense group. He was offered the job of editing the Japanese Communist publication Rodo Shimbun and moved to San Francisco to take it.
In May, 1934, they helped organize and participate in a longshoremen's strike in San Francisco. The bosses and police, determined to stop the strike, opened fire on the strikers, killing two and wounding several others. In 1938, Karl went to Washington State to help organize Alaska cannery workers.
at Manzanar
. Karl had registered for the draft and joined the army in November. He served in the United States Military Intelligence Service as a Japanese language specialist in China, Burma and India. He served valiantly and was decorated several times.
After the war, Elaine and Karl continued to work throughout their lives for the unions and anti-war efforts. His mother had survived the atom bomb. In 1960, they visited her on the occasion of attending a peace conference in Tokyo.
After he retired in 1972, he continued to organize and work for human rights. He lectured, wrote articles and an autobiography, and kept his membership in the Communist Party. His wife died in 1988, and he died in 1999.
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
activist, union organizer, World War II veteran and author. He played a substantial role in the founding of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska, and in British Columbia, Canada. It also represents hotel workers in Hawaii, cannery workers in Alaska, warehouse workers throughout...
.
Early life
Born in Glendale, CaliforniaGlendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
in 1906 to Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
immigrants, Hideo and Kazu. In 1913, Yoneda's father, now diagnosed with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, took the family to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to live in their native village just outside Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
. His father died two years later, leaving his mother to raise him and his two sisters.
After World War I, Yoneda went to high school in Hiroshima. When he was 15, he organized a strike among the delivery boys of the powerful Chugoku Shimbun newspaper. The company had increased the delivery routes without increasing pay.
Such experiences led Yoneda to progressive ideas. He began reading the works of anarchists and socialists such as Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Engels, Kropotkin
Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin was a Russian prince and anarchist.Kropotkin may also refer to:*Pyotr Nikolayevich Kropotkin , Soviet/Russian geologist, tectonician, and geophysicist*Mount Kropotkin, a peak in Antarctica...
, Bakunin, and the blind anarchist poet Vasili Eroshenko
Vasili Eroshenko
Vasili Yakovlevich Eroshenko was an anarchist writer, esperantist, linguist, and teacher. At the age of four, he contracted measles and as a result, became blind....
, whom he hitch-hiked to meet in Beijing when he was 16 years old. He stayed with Eroshenko two months and went back to Japan. There, he participated in workers strikes and began publishing a journal for poor farmers, Tsuchi. For that, he was beaten and thrown into jail.
Activist life in the U.S.
In 1926, Yoneda returned to the U.S. rather than be drafted into the imperial army. On entering the U.S., although he was an American citizen carrying his birth certificate, he was detained at the Immigration Detention House on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay for two months.He changed his name to Karl to honor Karl Marx and began working as a dish and window washer in Los Angeles for $5 a day. He became involved with the Communist Party and the Los Angeles Japanese Workers Association. About that period, he wrote:
I was a young dreamer back then, you know, the utopian type. The Plaza was my very first experience with mass demonstrations. It was easy to go over there because you felt like you were with your own kind of people--no dressed-up people there, nobody was wearing neckties.
When Japan invaded China in 1929, he went back to Japan to protest against the invasion. Marching with the most militant groups, he narrowly escaped being arrested and returned to the U.S.
At a march in Los Angeles in 1931, the police "Red Squad" beat him up severely and threw him in a cell. The chief called Elaine Black, whom the police called the "Red Angel" for her work in helping strikers, rushed over, bailed him out, and took him to a hospital, saving his life. The couple soon fell in love. They could not get married, however, because of California's Anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that enforced racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races...
. They borrowed money for a ticket to Seattle, where they were married in 1935.
They participated in the largest demonstrations in the city's history. In 1933, after he spoke out against the tactics of the Red Squad before the L.A. City Council, the squad caught him in an elevator and gave him the worst beating of his life. During his three-month recovery, Elaine went to San Francisco to work for the International Labor Defense group. He was offered the job of editing the Japanese Communist publication Rodo Shimbun and moved to San Francisco to take it.
In May, 1934, they helped organize and participate in a longshoremen's strike in San Francisco. The bosses and police, determined to stop the strike, opened fire on the strikers, killing two and wounding several others. In 1938, Karl went to Washington State to help organize Alaska cannery workers.
World War II and after
In 1942, Karl, Elaine, and son Tom were internedJapanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
at Manzanar
Manzanar
Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California's Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, it is...
. Karl had registered for the draft and joined the army in November. He served in the United States Military Intelligence Service as a Japanese language specialist in China, Burma and India. He served valiantly and was decorated several times.
After the war, Elaine and Karl continued to work throughout their lives for the unions and anti-war efforts. His mother had survived the atom bomb. In 1960, they visited her on the occasion of attending a peace conference in Tokyo.
After he retired in 1972, he continued to organize and work for human rights. He lectured, wrote articles and an autobiography, and kept his membership in the Communist Party. His wife died in 1988, and he died in 1999.
External links
- Karl G. Yoneda Papers, 1928–1989, Young Research Library UCLA
Archives
- Karl G. Yoneda papers. 1868-1969. .03 cubic foot. Labor Archives of Washington State, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.