February marks a coincidence of anniversaries in Kochiyama’s incredible life: 66 years ago, on Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the mass internment of Japanese-Americans. Then there is Feb. 21, 1965, the day Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in
Kochiyama was a young woman living with her parents in
“[The FBI agents] said, ‘Is there a Seichi Nakahara living here?’ I said, ‘He just came home from ulcer surgery.’ And they went in and got him—it was done so quickly, it didn’t even take a half of a minute, I don’t think. And I didn’t dare ask a question. They were going out the door immediately. And then, I just called my mother, who was right down the street to say, ‘Come home quick. The FBI just came and took Pop.’ ”
He was taken to the
He was released six weeks later, returned home in a state of extreme illness. Kochiyama recalls: “He came home, it was around dinnertime, 5:30. And they had a nurse come with him. And by the next morning, she woke us up and said, ‘He’s gone.’ ” Her father had died.
Yuri and the rest of her family were rounded up and sent to Rohwer Camp in
Yuri was a changed woman. Her experience made her aware of the lack of justice suffered not only by Asian-Americans, but by African-Americans and Latinos as well. She met Malcolm X in 1963. They became friends and allies. He sent her postcards from his transformative trip to
She ran up onto the stage: “Malcolm had fallen straight back, and he was on his back. And so I just went there and picked up his head and just put it on my lap. People ask, ‘What did he say?’ He didn’t say anything. He was just having a difficult time breathing. I said, ‘Please, Malcolm, please, Malcolm, stay alive.’ But he was hit so many times.”
Malcolm X’s assassination propelled Kochiyama further into a life committed to the struggle for social justice, human rights, racial equality and prisoner rights. She is a staunch supporter of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has lived on death row in
As the Bush administration asserts its authority to detain “enemy combatants” without charge, and zealots in Congress hatch plans to round up 12 million people accused of being “illegal aliens” (100 times the number of Japanese-Americans interned), we all have timely lessons to learn from Yuri Kochiyama.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in
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