Bringing the Marginalized into Conversations about American Raciality - Erin Kane - Keely Gaeta - Emily Norris

“Concentration Camps and a Growing Awareness of Race" Diane Fujino

Yuri Kochiyama

Yuri Kochiyama was an Asian-American activist who tirelessly worked for justice and equality. Early on in her life, Yuri was forced to deal with displacement and racismwith the passing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942 which resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans. Yuri viewed the world and her hostile environment with “a youthful simplicity” which enabled her to avoid her feelings of abandonment and betrayal of America. In the Santa Anita Assembly Center, she was forced to realize her own racial identity and see that America looked at her with suspicion in their eyes. Being a Japanese America, She faced dialectical tensions that produced conflict and contradiction; America is supposed to offer freedom and liberty to individuals, yet her reality is opposite.

Later on in Yuri’s life she was a strong symbol of Asian-Black solidarity. She developed a friendship with activist Macolm X and acted as a facilitator for young people to learn from him. She not only advocated for Japanese American rights but for Black Americans and for any group that was experiencing injustice from the U.S. government which further exemplifies the globality of race that Du Bois recognized

11