For the Record articles have highlighted how to search for records of civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin, and queer activist, Marsha P. Johnson in Municipal Archives collections. This week, in honor of Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage month, For the Record will spotlight some collections that feature Japanese-American political and civil-rights activist Yuri Kochiyama.
Yuri Kochiyama was born May 19, 1921 and named Mary Yuriko Nakahara. She later took the name Yuri to connect with her Japanese heritage. In 1946 she married William (Bill) Kochiyama, a former soldier in the United States all-Japanese 422nd Regiment. Researchers are advised to take note of her several names when searching in Archives collections.
Kochiyama, Mary. Malcolm X assassination case file records. NY District Attorney NYC Municipal Archives.
Possibly the first evidence of Kochiyama in the collections can be found in the New York District Attorney Malcolm X assassination closed-case file. It contains a document dated June 1964, noting that Kochiyama invited Malcolm X to speak in her Harlem apartment during a meeting for nuclear bomb survivors: “She has seen Malcolm X at her house in June/1964 where she had a meeting there on business for the “Pilgrimage of the Hiroshima Nagasaki World Peace Study Mission (A Communist Organization).”
Index card with physical description of Mary (Yuri)Kochiyama. Nation of Islam Index. NYPD Intelligence Division Records. NYC Municipal Archives.
Kochiyama was especially passionate about organizing against nuclear proliferation and for civil rights because of her experiences as a young woman. During WWII, she and her entire family were forcibly removed and incarcerated in American concentration camps called “relocation centers.” Throughout WWII, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated; of those approximately 112,000 persons were incarcerated because of President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 from March to August 1942.
Nearly 70,000 incarcerees were American citizens and others had lived in the United States for decades but were barred from gaining citizenship because of anti-immigrations laws like the Immigration Act of 1924 and “Alien Land Laws” of 1913. Kochiyama’s early experiences with discriminatory laws and hearing first-hand accounts from others in her community shaped her later work as an activist.
Kochiyama and Malcolm X’s friendship continued beyond these meetings. Records in the NYPD Intelligence Division a.k.a. the “Handschu” collection index-card series documents her close ties to the Nation of Islam. The cards show NYPD surveillance of mosques, organizations, and individuals. There are several cards on Kochiyama, one provides a physical description. Other cards in the collection comment on her presence at Vietnam War-related moratorium in 1969, and a court appearance by H. Rap Brown and others in 1972.
Mary Kochiyama, 1969. Index card series, NYPD Intelligence Division Records. NYC Municipal Archives.
Mary Kochiyama, 1972. Index card series, NYPD Intelligence Division Records. NYC Municipal Archives.
The Malcolm X assassination files also reveal that Kochiyama and her son, Bill Kochiyama, were present at the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was speaking before he was assassinated. The District Attorney recorded Kochiyama’s account as a witness.
Letter to NYPD from Philadelphia Police Department, July 30, 1971. Numbered Communications Files, NYPD Intelligence Records. NYC Municipal Archives.
Letter from NYPD to Philadelphia Police Department, September 21, 1971. Numbered Communications Files, NYPD Intelligence Records. NYC Municipal Archives.
Other evidence of NYPD surveillance of Kochiyama can be found in the Intelligence Division’s communication files. These records consist of police reports on individuals who were observed at rallies or providing updates on the investigation of an individual or organization. The files include correspondence from the Philadelphia Police Department to the NYPD confirming Kochiyama was under investigation in 1971.
Beyond her friendship with Malcolm X, Kochiyama dedicated most of her life to activism, helping to build solidarity between Asian-American and Black communities. Kochiyama was involved with a variety of organizations throughout her life from the Congress on Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) to the Young Lords. In 1977 she participated in a takeover of the Statue of Liberty by the Young Lords. Perhaps further research in the NYPD organization files will yield additional documentation.
Yuri Kochiyama moved to Oakland, California in 1993. She continued her activism, strongly condemning the rise in Islamophobia after the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. Yuri Kochiyama died on June 1, 2014, at the age of 93.