Kazu Iijima
Kazu Iijima (1918 - August 26, 2007) was a Japanese American activist and community organizer who co-founded Asian Americans for Action and the United Asian Communities Center. Born Kazuko Ikeda in California, she grew up in Oakland and attended college at UC Berkeley. Her involvement in radical politics began through encounters with Marxist critiques of racism, introduced by her older sister and the Young Communist League at Berkeley.
By 1938, Ikeda helped form the Oakland Nisei Democratic Club, encouraging Niseis to adopt radical responses to working-class issues and racism. During World War II, she was forcibly relocated under Executive Order 9066, first to the Tanforan Assembly Center and then to the Topaz concentration camp in Utah. While at Topaz, she married Tak Iijima, who had been drafted into the US Army just before Pearl Harbor. Shortly after their marriage, they were released and moved to Mississippi.
After the war, the couple settled in New York City and began raising a family. Iijima joined the Japanese American Committee for Democracy, but it wasn't until the late 1960s that she returned to active organizing by founding Asian Americans for Action (AAA) with other Japanese American radicals like Yuri Kochiyama and Shizu "Minn" Matsuda. AAA was significant as the first group to define itself as pan-Asian, multigenerational, and politically progressive, focusing on opposing the Vietnam War and nurturing grassroots Asian American solidarity. One of their first actions in 1969 was to challenge the Japanese American Citizens League to take a stand against the Vietnam War. The organization later evolved, changing its name in 1976 to Union of Activists to emphasize political struggle rather than identity, before disbanding in 1980 due to internal differences.
Kazu Iijima’s counterpart, born in Seattle, Washington on May 29, 1914, was also a Japanese American activist and community leader. As the second of six children to Japanese immigrant parents who operated a small grocery store, he grew up facing discrimination and racism. Determined to make a positive impact, he attended the University of Washington and became involved in student government and other extracurricular activities. After graduation, he worked for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), advocating for the rights of Japanese Americans.
During World War II, Iijima was forcibly removed to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. Despite these hardships, he continued working for the JACL, establishing a chapter at the camp, and serving as a teacher and mentor, providing education and leadership skills to fellow inmates. After the war, he moved to New York City and became involved in the labor movement, working for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and participating in the civil rights movement to advocate for minority workers' rights.
In the 1970s, Iijima engaged in the Asian American arts movement as a member of the Yellow Pearl theater company, producing plays that explored Asian American experiences. He also wrote and performed music to raise awareness of social justice issues. His lifelong commitment to community, justice, and equality left a lasting legacy. Iijima passed away on August 4, 2005, at the age of 91, remembered for his unwavering dedication to activism and service.