Koji Ariyoshi
Encyclopedia
was a Nisei
, Labor activist, and a Sergeant in the United States Army
during the Second World War.
in 1914 to Japanese
immigrant parents. Ariyoshi grew up helping his family make a living on a small eight-acre
coffee
plantation
. He attended Konawaena High School
before working for six years to help pay off the family debt. Ariyoshi became interested in labor politics around this time. He attended the University of Hawaii
, but became alienated by his perception of institutional bias against labor unions and liberal
thought. He transferred to the University of Georgia
on scholarship
. In Georgia
, where he was befriended by the parents of novelist Erskine Caldwell
, Ariyoshi became determined to ease the plight of the sharecroppers he met, and to improve labor conditions for the working class
.
In 1941, Ariyoshi graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts
in journalism (A.B.J.) from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
. After graduation, Ariyoshi traveled to San Francisco where he befriended Karl Yoneda
, a founder of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
. On December 7th, 1941
, the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor
, Hawaii
; and soon after, Ariyoshi was placed in the Manzanar War Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment
camp.
, Sri Lanka
, and Burma because of his ability to translate Japanese. While stationed in the British Colonies, Ariyoshi witnessed what he believed to be the inequality of the colonial system. He was later transferred to China
, where he was exposed to the Communist movement.
in Yan'an
, Ariyoshi met and worked with both Chinese
and Japanese Communists, including Mao Zedong
and Nosaka Sanzo. His primary duties in Yan'an were to learn more about the Communist efforts to train Japanese prisoners of war
, translate Japanese source materials, and develop Allied propaganda
against the Japanese. In China, Ariyoshi saw the differences between the peasants' meager lifestyle under the Kuomintang
and the Chinese Communists
, and left China with an appreciation for what Communism, or at least, progressive socialism
could accomplish.
, began publishing a labor-oriented newspaper, the Honolulu Record
. (One of the paper's columnists, the Black poet Frank Marshall Davis
, later became a mentor to the teen-aged Barack Obama
.) As editor
, Ariyoshi lambasted labor conditions for the working class, and addressed what he considered to be other social inequalities in the islands. His socialist views bolstered the growth of the local labor movement
and the Democratic Party
in Hawaii. However, at the height of the Second Red Scare and McCarthyism
, he and six other progressives (including Jack Hall, head of the Hawaii Longshoremens Union) were arrested under charges of attempting to overthrow the American government under the Smith Act
. The case later became known as the Hawaii Seven. Ariyoshi spent one night in jail, and after his release he continued to promote his socialist views through his paper. The court found him guilty, but he appealed the ruling and was eventually acquitted of all charges. Madame Sun Yat-sen, the widow of "The George Washington of China" had donated her mother's wedding dress to be sold to provide funds for Ariyoshi's legal defense.
In 1958, Ariyoshi was forced to close his newspaper due to lack of funds. He became a florist, earning himself the nickname, "The Red Florist." In 1969, he was appointed a member of the Hawaii Foundation for History and the Humanities. Ariyoshi was later appointed president of the organization, a position he held for three years. With the American opening to China, Ariyoshi was one of the first Americans invited to return to that country, even before President Nixon's visit. He wrote a series of articles for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
, and a television documentary on Chinese arts and crafts, which helped to repopularize cloisonne in this country. He was a founder of the Hawaii-China People's Friendship Association to improve relations between China and the United States. He served on the national steering committee of the U.S. China Friendship Association from its founding in 1974 until his death.
Later in life, Ariyoshi began teaching at the University of Hawaii
in the Ethnic Studies department. In 1976 the Hawaii legislature honored Ariyoshi for his life's work, and apologized for the things done to him in the McCarthy era. Koji Ariyoshi died later that year, and an annual award in his name was established by the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship to honor an outstanding figure in promoting U.S.-China friendship.
Nisei
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage...
, Labor activist, and a Sergeant in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during the Second World War.
Early life
Ariyoshi was born in HawaiiHawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in 1914 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...
immigrant parents. Ariyoshi grew up helping his family make a living on a small eight-acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
. He attended Konawaena High School
Konawaena High School
Konawaena High School is a public school located in the community of Kealakekua, Kona District, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. Konawaena means "the center of the leeward side" in the Hawaiian Language.-History:...
before working for six years to help pay off the family debt. Ariyoshi became interested in labor politics around this time. He attended the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
, but became alienated by his perception of institutional bias against labor unions and liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
thought. He transferred to the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
on scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
. In Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, where he was befriended by the parents of novelist Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South like the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was...
, Ariyoshi became determined to ease the plight of the sharecroppers he met, and to improve labor conditions for the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
.
In 1941, Ariyoshi graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in journalism (A.B.J.) from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
The Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is a college within the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States...
. After graduation, Ariyoshi traveled to San Francisco where he befriended Karl Yoneda
Karl Yoneda
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.-Early life:...
, a founder 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...
. On December 7th, 1941
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
; and soon after, Ariyoshi was placed in the Manzanar War Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment
Japanese 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...
camp.
The Second World War
Ariyoshi met and married his wife, Taeko Ariyoshi, at Manzanar. He decided to help the war effort by working as a language specialist with the United States Army Military Intelligence. He was soon transferred out of the internment camp and into IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, and Burma because of his ability to translate Japanese. While stationed in the British Colonies, Ariyoshi witnessed what he believed to be the inequality of the colonial system. He was later transferred to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, where he was exposed to the Communist movement.
The Dixie Mission
While stationed at the Dixie MissionDixie Mission
The United States Army Observation Group, commonly known as the Dixie Mission, was the first U.S. effort to establish official relations with the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army, then headquartered in the mountainous city of Yan'an...
in Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
, Ariyoshi met and worked with both Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
and Japanese Communists, including Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
and Nosaka Sanzo. His primary duties in Yan'an were to learn more about the Communist efforts to train Japanese prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, translate Japanese source materials, and develop Allied propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
against the Japanese. In China, Ariyoshi saw the differences between the peasants' meager lifestyle under the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
and the Chinese Communists
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, and left China with an appreciation for what Communism, or at least, progressive socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
could accomplish.
Post-war life
Ariyoshi returned to Hawaii in 1948 and, inspired by the progressive Japanese language paper, Hawaii HochiHawaii Hochi
The Hawaii Hochi is a Japanese and English language, six-day-a-week, newspaper published and sold in Hawaii, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1912 to serve the Japanese immigrant community in Hawaii. At its peak in the early 1990s, the newspaper had a circulation of 9,000. The number...
, began publishing a labor-oriented newspaper, the Honolulu Record
Honolulu Record
The Honolulu Record was a newspaper established after World War II by Koji Ariyoshi, a Hawaiian Nisei labor activist and war veteran with support from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union....
. (One of the paper's columnists, the Black poet Frank Marshall Davis
Frank Marshall Davis
Frank Marshall Davis was an American journalist, poet, and political and labor movement activist.-Early life:...
, later became a mentor to the teen-aged Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.) As editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
, Ariyoshi lambasted labor conditions for the working class, and addressed what he considered to be other social inequalities in the islands. His socialist views bolstered the growth of the local labor movement
Democratic Revolution of 1954 (Hawaii)
The Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954 was a nonviolent revolution that took place in the Hawaiian Archipelago consisting of general strikes, protests, and other acts of civil disobedience...
and the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in Hawaii. However, at the height of the Second Red Scare and McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
, he and six other progressives (including Jack Hall, head of the Hawaii Longshoremens Union) were arrested under charges of attempting to overthrow the American government under the Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
. The case later became known as the Hawaii Seven. Ariyoshi spent one night in jail, and after his release he continued to promote his socialist views through his paper. The court found him guilty, but he appealed the ruling and was eventually acquitted of all charges. Madame Sun Yat-sen, the widow of "The George Washington of China" had donated her mother's wedding dress to be sold to provide funds for Ariyoshi's legal defense.
In 1958, Ariyoshi was forced to close his newspaper due to lack of funds. He became a florist, earning himself the nickname, "The Red Florist." In 1969, he was appointed a member of the Hawaii Foundation for History and the Humanities. Ariyoshi was later appointed president of the organization, a position he held for three years. With the American opening to China, Ariyoshi was one of the first Americans invited to return to that country, even before President Nixon's visit. He wrote a series of articles for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin was a daily newspaper based in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the second largest daily newspaper in the state of Hawaii...
, and a television documentary on Chinese arts and crafts, which helped to repopularize cloisonne in this country. He was a founder of the Hawaii-China People's Friendship Association to improve relations between China and the United States. He served on the national steering committee of the U.S. China Friendship Association from its founding in 1974 until his death.
Later in life, Ariyoshi began teaching at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
in the Ethnic Studies department. In 1976 the Hawaii legislature honored Ariyoshi for his life's work, and apologized for the things done to him in the McCarthy era. Koji Ariyoshi died later that year, and an annual award in his name was established by the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship to honor an outstanding figure in promoting U.S.-China friendship.
Koji Ariyoshi on film
On May 5, 2005, Koji Ariyoshi was featured in the Biography Hawaii series airing on PBS Hawaii. The documentary featured original footage of Ariyoshi during his time in Yen'an and explored his persecution during the 1950s.Book
- Hugh Deane (editor), Remembering Koji Ariyoshi: An American GI in Yenan (Los Angeles: U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association, 1978).
- Koji Ariyoshi, From Kona to Yen'an: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi, Beechert, Edward D., and Alice M. Beechert, eds, (Honolulu, HI: U of Hawaii Press, 2000).
- Carolle J. Carter, Mission to Yenan: American Liaison with the Chinese Communists 1944-1947 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1997).
- Hugh Deane, Good Deeds & Gunboats: Two Centuries of American-Chinese Encounters (San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals, 1990).