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Mamy Kochiyama Analysis

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Mary Yuri Kochiyama (later taking her middle name “Yuri” in the 1960s) was born on May 19th, 1921, in San Pedro, CA. San Pedro is a port town lying southbound of Los Angeles; in the 1920s, it consisted of predominantly working-class Italian and Yugoslavian immigrants. However, the Nakaharas never experienced the ostracization other Asian Americans did, for most residents shared the centripetal immigrant experience. Kochiyama and her brothers lived an expressedly American existence in their early years, in essence bleeding red, white, and blue. Mary Kochiyama volunteered for the YWCA (a nonprofit advocating for peace, justice, racial equality, and female empowerment) and the Girl Scouts, taught Sunday school, and attended every football game …show more content…

In October 1963, she befriended Malcolm X whilst being arraigned inside a Brooklyn courthouse; her arrest had stemmed from her participance in a Brooklyn protest at the Downstate Medical Center, where she and hundreds of other protesters blocked a construction site entrance, demanding jobs for black and Puerto Rican workers. She felt apprehensive when she first saw Malcolm, as he was encircled by a circle of black men, and she didn’t know if she could approach him because she wasn’t black. Despite this, she introduced herself to him, and “boldly inquired if he might support integration,” (“Yuri Kochiyama”, Densho Encyclopedia). Malcolm and Kochiyama began to foster a friendship that would drastically change Kochiyama, both ideologically and politically. Later in 1964, Malcolm broke with the Nation of Islam, founding the Organization for Afro-American Unity, which Kochiyama quickly became a part of. She was incredibly drawn to Malcolm’s political beliefs. She began inviting him to her many apartment gatherings. Kochiyama regarded Malcolm as both fellow colleague and exemplar to follow. He instilled in her a fervent politic of racism’s hold in U.S. as well as world policies and actions. She took a marked respect for Malcolm: his adherence to his principles, as well as a supplicatory respect to grow as a person, bonded the two strongly. Kochiyama’s friendship with Malcolm further radicalized her and she joined the most militant of black nationalist organizations, including the Republic of New

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