Remembering Kazu Iijima
September 14, 2007
The Asian Pacific American movement has been blessed with a large number of dynamic and visionary women leaders, including Kazuko Ikeda Iijima, who passed away at age 89 on August 26.
Kazuko Ikeda was born in California in 1918. She was one of the few nisei who held a civil service job in pre-war Oakland, at the social welfare department. After Pearl Harbor, she and 110,000 other Japanese Americans were forcibly moved to American concentration camps.
Kazu’s fiancé, Tak Iijima, was one of the young Japanese Americans who was drafted to fight for the United States Army, eventually being assigned to the 442 nd Regimental Combat Team. Kazu joined him in Salt Lake City, where he had been sent to get a pre-induction physical exam, and they were married there. She stayed a short time at the Topaz concentration camp in central Utah until she was able to join Tak in Mississippi.
Fast forward to New York City in the 1960s, where the Iijimas were raising son Chris and daughter Lynne. In the fall of 1968, Kazu and fellow nisei Min Matsuda were having lunch on a park bench. While admiring the ethnic pride in the growing Black Power movement, they decided that they should create an organization that could help their Japanese American children develop pride in their own heritage. Kazu’s son, Chris, convinced them to broaden the group to include other Asian-derived Americans, and the first community-based East Coast APA organization was born: Asian Americans for Action (Triple-A).
In April 1969, the first meeting of Triple-A was attended by students from Columbia and City College of New York, as well as community activists Kazu had met by going up to Asian faces in the crowd at anti-Vietnam war protests. This intergenerational, grassroots approach to organizing was Kazu’s trademark, as were her friendly smile, raspy voice and deep commitment to ending racism, sexism, and other forms of injustice and intolerance. She and Min were glad when the group decided that other groups were available to focus on culture and identity issues, so that Triple-A could focus on political issues such as stopping the Vietnam War.
Kazu and Tak also were instrumental in the formation of the United Asian Communities Center, which opened its doors in New York in December 1972. Bill and Yuri Kochiyama and other community activists also played a part in this family affair that became the incubator for a movement. While sectarian strife and internecine struggles were widely seen in the Asian American movement at the time, an entire generation of young activists got to see something more than that at the Center. The Iijimas, the Kochiyamas and others of their parents’ generation, were living meaningful lives that were based on social justice, not personal enrichment.
The Center ultimately closed for lack of resources, and Triple-A changed its name in 1976 to the Union of Activists, but Kazu kept up her activism. She marched on picket lines to support the Chinese Staff and Worker’s Union, attended meetings to support third-party politics, served on the board of directors of groups such as the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, and wrote countless articles for community papers. Her thoughts were captured in Glenn Omatsu’s 1986 article in Amerasia Journal, “Always a Rebel: An Interview With Kazu Iijima,” and her own article, “There Was a Genuine Movement in Every Sense of the Word,” in Amerasia Journal’s “Salute to the 1960s and ’70s: San Francisco State Strike.”
Kazu’s nurturing of a movement also happened indirectly. Her daughter, Lynne, is a leading progressive educator at the Manhattan Country School. Son Chris was a writer, musician, teacher and lawyer, whose contributions included A Grain of Sand, the seminal APA album recorded with Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin in 1973.
In 2001, Chris wrote in UCLA’s Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment that, “While I’m still enough of an idealist to believe that one’s contribution to others is ultimately measured by what one does for love rather than what one does for recognition, I’m enough of a realist to know that what one does for love is rarely ‘recognized.’”
In the case of his own mother, however, her love for her community was indeed recognized with a “Justice in Action” award by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, as well as many other honors. And while she herself is now deceased, the many, many people she inspired will continue to draw strength from her loving example as they confront the injustice and intolerance that remains.
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Donations in Kazu’s memory will be distributed to Manhattan Country School, and a scholarship fund for grandsons Alan and Christopher via “Friends of Chris” can be sent to: Sandy Maeshiro, 10916 Pickford Way, Culver City, CA 90230.
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3 Responses to “Remembering Kazu Iijima”
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Hi Friends,
I met Kazu at a David Wong Support Committee meeting http://freedavidwong.org/ . She along with Yuri Kochiyama were the driving force to free the Chinese/ Fukinese/ undocumented/wrongly convicted person incarcerated at one of New York State infamous Iron House. I was inspired/shocked/jolted/moved by her activism and faith in our ability in changing the unjust system.
Blessing to my fearless warrior sister! Till we meet again!
“Grandmother Kazu” (a title of honor in the Native American tradition) reminded me of my late Aunt Lydia, with her raspy voice, fire and determination. The day Kazu made her transition, the candle holder on my altar exploded and the flame went out.
Until we meet again, Kazu.
I was so lucky to know Kazu and benefited tremendously from her compassion, kindness and unwavering determination for justice. She, along with Yuri Kochiyama and other my Support Committee Members worked tirelessly for more than decade to free me from the wrongful murder conviction in New York State and successed. Thanks to Kazu’s and others’ tireless efforts I were able to enjoying my live in Hong Kong now since 2005. Kazu is always so kind and considerate. She will be greatly missed and she will always be in my heart.