Yuri Kochiyama

Yuri Kochiyama born Mary Yuriko Nakahara, was a second generation Japanese American civil rights activist born in San Pedro, California (1921) to Japanese immigrants. When she was 20 years old, her father was arrested by the FBI as a suspected threat to national security due to his ties with Japan. Her father was detained for six weeks, which likely aggravated existing health issues. He passed away the day after his release.

Shortly after his death, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which forced people of Japanese descent into internment camps, including Kochiyama and her family. They spent three years at the War Relocation Authority internment camp at Jerome, Arkansas. During her time there, Kochiyama met her future husband, William Kochiyama, and after their release, they married and moved to New York City where they lived in public housing for the next 12 years.

In 1963, Kochiyama met African American activist Malcolm X and developed a “boundary breaking “ friendship with him. She was with him when he was assassinated, the powerful moment of her cradling his head in her lap was captured and later published in Life Magazine. These formative events and relationships shaped Kochiyama’s career as a civil rights activist which included successfully advocating on behalf of Japanese American internees for reparations and a formal apology from the US government signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

On June 6, 2014, shortly after her death on June 1, the White House honored Kochiyama for her dedication and commitment to social justice, “not only for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, but all communities of color.”