AAPI Contributions: Meet Yuri Kochiyama
Written by Jon S. Randal
“Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama are both American civil rights icons,” according to writer Sushmita Arora. “But while you probably learned about Malcolm X’s lasting legacy in school, Kochiyama remains one of American history’s unsung heroes.”
“The daughter of immigrants, Kochiyama experienced the hardships of a World War II internment camp after public hysteria surrounding Japanese Americans erupted in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack,” according to journalist Elaine Woo. Before the war, she “was a model of assimilation,” according to the Washington Post.
“She wrote a sports column for the San Pedro News-Pilot and was a Sunday school teacher at the local Presbyterian church.” However, after she and her family were sent to an internment camp and her father died shortly after being taken into custody, she began to have a different view of the world after the war.
“By the 1960s, Yuri Kochiyama actively advocated for civil rights causes like Black integration, the anti-war movement, and reparations for Japanese Americans from the government,” according to writer Natasha Ishak. She and her husband “moved to a low-income housing project in Harlem, New York,” according to Brown University. “There, the Kochiyama family spent time at the Harlem Freedom School (part of a grassroots organization advocating for safer streets and integrated education, which Kochiyama took part in) learning about Black history and listening to Black speakers, writers, and activists.”
The family “shared a community with renowned black activists such as Sonia Sanchez, Bill Epton, and Paul Robeson,” according to Ishak. They “lodged advocates who needed a safe place to sleep,” and their apartment in Harlem was soon dubbed ‘the grand central station’ by local activists, according to Ishak. Known as “Sister Yuri” in a wide circle of African American activists, which included poet Amiri Baraka and activist Angela Davis, Kochiyama continued to speak out even more against racism, according to Woo. She and her husband even used a summer vacation in 1963 to visit Birmingham, Alabama “to see charred houses and storefronts left behind by racial protests,” as well as the 16th Street Baptist Church weeks before a bombing there killed four black girls, according to writer Hansi Lo Wang.
On October 16, 1963, at a worker’s rally, Malcolm and Yuri’s paths would cross. By that time, Malcolm X was already a household name in the civil rights movement. Kochiyama at first “was hesitant to approach him, unsure how he would respond to an Asian-American woman,” according to Arora. “Eventually, Yuri gained the courage to approach Malcolm.” Kochiyama described the scene in a Democracy Now! interview in 2008, according to NPR: "I felt so bad that I wasn't Black, that this should be just a Black thing," she recalled. "But the more I see them all so happily shaking his hands and Malcolm so happy, I said, 'Gosh, darn it! I'm going to try to meet him somehow.' “ Eventually, Kochiyama called out to Malcolm X, "Can I shake your hand?" When he asked why, she replied, “To congratulate you for giving direction to your people.” “Malcolm X smiled and extended his hand,” wrote Wang. “She was immediately “overwhelmed by his charisma and his warmth,” wrote Arora. No one knew at that time that a long-lasting friendship was born.
“She began to study his ideas and joined his Organization of Afro-American Unity; she also became a Muslim for a short time,” wrote Woo. “He opened my mind, like opening a door to a new world. He helped me to start thinking, studying, listening, and observing and seeing contradictions,” Kochiyama recalled.
On June 6, 1964, Kochiyama hosted a meeting for Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors (Hibakusha) and peace advocates at her home. The group had toured a Black school and church in Harlem, but what they really wanted to do was meet the famous Malcolm X. That’s when Malcolm X showed up at Kochiyama’s door. Connecting civil rights with human rights, Malcolm X told the group: “You have been scarred by the atomic bomb. You just saw that we have also been scarred. The bomb that hit us was racism.” “It was really just overwhelming and everybody was quite excited about him,” Kochiyama said. “The Hibakushas asked that the translators not interfere once Malcolm got started…I think people were quite surprised at all the things that he said.”
Malcolm and Kochiyama would continue their friendship, with Malcolm X even sending her postcards whenever he traveled outside the country.
On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X would speak at New York City's Audubon Ballroom, according to NPR. “That Sunday afternoon, gunmen killed Malcolm X moments after he approached the podium.” “Most of the audience in the ballroom fell to the ground after the gunfire, crawling away for safety,” wrote Wang. But “one of the first people who rushed to his side was a petite Asian woman in glasses,” wrote Woo. It was Yuri Kochiyama, who had attended the event, to support her friend. "I just picked up his head and just put it on my lap," Kochiyama said in the Democracy Now! interview. "I said, 'Please, Malcolm! Please, Malcolm! Stay alive!' "
The moment was immortalized in a photo in Life magazine in 1965. “She's the unidentified Asian woman peering worriedly through horn-rimmed glasses at a soon-to-be lifeless Malcolm X,” wrote Wang.
“After the murder of Malcolm X, Kochiyama launched herself even further into political activism,” wrote Arora. “Her NYC home became a weekly meeting place for Freedom Riders and other activists (eventually welcoming a young Tupac Shakur into the mix).” She remained close with his family after his death” wrote Ishak. Malcolm X’s views “continued to heavily influence Kochiyama’s own activism within the Asian American community long after.”
“Kochiyama's friendship with Malcolm X fascinated playwright Tim Toyama, who wrote a one-act play called "Yuri and Malcolm X,” according to NPR. "Malcolm X's movement was probably the last thing you would imagine a Japanese-American person, especially a woman, to be involved with," he says. But, according to Van Jones of CNN, their friendship wasn’t unique. There is a long history of the Asian-American and Black communities supporting one another.
Jones lists Frederick Douglass advocating for Chinese and Japanese immigration; Ida B. Wells empathizing with Filipino freedom fighters during the Philippine-American War; Chinese American activist Grace Lee Boggs mentoring generations of young leaders, especially African American ones; Muhammad Ali speaking out against the Vietnam War; Gloria Lum and other Asian Americans working to free Black political prisoners; Jesse Jackson joining Asian American activists demanding justice for the murder of Vincent Chin; and Asian Americans supporting Black Lives Matter.
Yuri Kochiyama remained a “lifelong activist, fighting for social justice and human rights from the 1960s until her passing in 2014,” according to Brown University.
“She remained active into her 90s, often encouraging youths to become politically involved,” wrote Woo. “After meeting her, the hip-hop duo Blue Scholars wrote a song about her. ‘When I grow up,’ the lyrics go, ‘I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama. And if she ever hear this it's an honor.’ She “fought against the racial profiling of Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians post- 9/11,” and in peace vigil rally in 2001, she spoke about how Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians were increasingly becoming the “newest targets of racism, hysteria, and jingoism.”
In 2005, she was one of 1,000 women collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize through the "1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005" project. On June 6, 2014, the White House honored Kochiyama on its website for dedicating "her life to the pursuit of social justice, not only for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, but all communities of color." “She was not your typical Japanese American person…” said Toyama. “She was definitely ahead of her time, and we caught up with her.” But, she will be forever remembered for her friendship with Malcolm X.
“Yuri and Malcolm’s unique bond forever changed the course of history,” wrote Arora. “Despite [their] differences, their friendship transcended the boundaries of race, class and public recognition.” "He certainly changed my life," Kochiyama said in a 1972 interview for KPFK radio.
“Kochiyama’s lifetime illustrates her dedication to solidarity and understanding, as she says, the ‘togetherness of all peoples,’ according to Brown University. “Kochiyama pushes us to ‘fight against racism and polarization [and] learn from each others’ struggle’.” Her “dedication to social causes, in the Asian American community and in support of other groups who have been discriminated against, will continue to inspire younger generations of activists long after her death,” wrote Ishak. When she was asked what legacy she hoped to leave behind, she responded, “Build bridges, not walls.”
Jon S. Randal is a writer, whose "The Jon S. Randal Peace Page" on Facebook features stories which share awareness of events in history, pop culture, and literature and celebrates individuals, known and unknown, past and present, whose words and courage foster understanding and promotes peace. The mission of the Peace Page is to educate, inform, and bring people together. As he has done with Black History Month and Women's History Month, this month the page will honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
