Historical/Biographical Note
Karl Ichiro Akiya (1909 - 2001) was born in San Francisco, but at the age of six his parents sent him to live in Japan with his aunt and uncle so he could go to school in a country free of anti-Japanese prejudice. In 1927 he entered in Kansei Gakuin College, a Methodist Christian school, to prepare for a career in secondary school teaching. Around this time he became a Methodist. Akiya enrolled in the literary department where he studied Japanese and English language literature. He was elected class chairman. He became involved in the movement in opposition to compulsory military training for college students. Akiya became associated with the student movement that was opposing the increasing militarization of Japan. His political activities brought him into association with the union movement and the Socialist and Communist Parties of Japan. He soon joined the Communist Party and changed his first name to Karl after Karl Marx.
In 1932, after graduating college Akiya returned to the United States since he realized that if he stayed in Japan he would be drafted into the Japanese Army. Akiya moved to San Francisco where is father operated a hotel. His first job was as a staff writer for the Japanese North American Daily. He then went to work for the San Francisco branch of the Sumitomo Bank. Akiya became active in the Japanese American Citizens League that was becoming active in the fight against racial discrimination. In the late 1930s he worked as an organizer for the Congress of Industrial Organizations and National Maritime Union. Akiya's assignment was to bring Asian Americans into the CIO and the NMU. He also was associated with a number of anti-Fascist organizations that were organizing in the Japanese community and joined the Communist Party of the United States. After Pearl Harbor Karl Akiya was interned at Camp Topaz in Utah. He was soon released from the camp and became an instructor at the University of Michigan's Japanese language school that was being run by the U.S. Army. After several months, he then joined the Office of Strategic Services. Akiya married Satoko Murakami on June 6, 1944. His daughter Elizabeth was born in October 1945.
In 1946 the Akiya family moved to the Lower East Side. On February 20, 1947 his second child Fred was born. Karl Akiya became a furniture finisher and joined the Furniture Workers Union while becoming increasingly active in the Communist Party. In the 1950s Akiya was part of the group that began publishing the Left wing Japanese language newspaper the New York Bungei. From 1954 until 1980 Akiya worked for the Bank of Tokyo in New York City. During these years he maintained his Communist Party affiliation and was very active in the civil rights and peace movements. During these years he maintained a close association with the Communist Party of Japan. In 1987 Akiya received the Martin Luther King, Jr. medal that recognized his civil rights work. In his later years he became involved in New York City's Democratic Party politics and played an important role in David Dinkins' campaign for mayor.
Return to topScope and Content Note
Series 1. Subject Files, contains correspondence, manuscript material and newspaper clippings documenting Karl Akiya's life and work both in the United States and Japan. They have been arranged alphabetically by key word. There are files describing his education at Kansei Gauguin University, his internment at CampTopaz, and his work in World War II for the United States government at the University of Michigan and with the Office of Strategic Services. His association with the Communist parties of the United States and Japan are well described and his political work in the civil rights and anti-war movement is fully documented. As one would expect there is considerable documentation relating to his involvement in the campaign for nuclear disarmament and his efforts to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are also files documenting Akiya's ongoing interest in Japanese language and literature, his work for the Japanese American Press (the Nichbei Times and New York Bungie), and materials relating to the Hokubei Shimpo, a Japanese newspaper published in the U.S. Also included in this series are personal files relating to his family (wife and children), account books, address notes, personal identification, and medical records).
Series 2. Writings, includes Karl Akiya's 1994 autobiography (in Japanese and English), his 1942 diaries, a weekly journal written in elementary school, college essays on religion, short novels written in the 1950s; articles for the New York Bungei including an essay on his experience in the Topaz Relocation Camp, and miscellaneous essays on the labor and student movements.
Series 3. Non Print Materials, includes photographs and videotapes relating to the movement to ban the atomic bomb, the Topaz Relocation Camp, and Kansei Gakuin University. There are also some examples of Akiya calligraphy and his glasses that were broken in the 1949 Peekskill riot that disrupted a concert by Paul Robeson.
Return to top
Arrangement |
||
| Series one and two are arranged alphabetically, series three is arranged by form and genre. | ||
| The files are grouped into 3 series: | ||
| Series 1. Subject Files | ||
| Series 2. Writings | ||
| Series 3. Non Print Materials | ||
Separated Material
About one hundred books and serials have separated from the collection.
Return to topRestrictions
Access Restrictions
Open for research without restrictions.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the:
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 998-2630
Fax: (212) 995-4225
E-mail: gail.malmgreen@nyu.edu
Return to top
Administrative Information
Provenance
Gift of Elizabeth Chestnut and Frederick Akiya, 2002.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); The Karl Ichiro Akiya Papers; Tamiment 236; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Container List
[The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.]