Shigeki Oka

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Shigeki Oka (岡 繁樹 Oka Shigeki, 1878 – 1959[1]) was an issei socialist, printer, and newspaper publisher based in San Francisco.[2] He was a member of the Sekai Rodo Domeikai (World Labour League), and the San Francisco branch of the Meiji Era Heimin-sha (Society of Commoners), which used the anti-war Heimin Shimbun (English: The Commoner's News) as a mouthpiece.[3][4] Oka was formerly employed at the Yorozu Choho. He was friends with Toshihiko Sakai, who started the Heimin Shimbun along with Kotoku Shusui, a Japanese anti-Imperialist, and an anti-nationalist who introduced anarchism to Japan. Oka welcomed Shusui Kotoku, when he arrived in Oakland. Oka was just in his 20s at the time.[5] Like him, Kotoku was born in Kōchi Prefecture, the former feudal domain of Tosa.[6] Thanks to Oka, Kotoku was able to make contact with socialists, and anarchists in America.[7]

On Kotoku's ship back to Japan, Oka told Kotoku that the first step in starting a revolution in Japan was overthrowing the Emperor. Oka even suggested Kotoku to volunteer as a guard in the House of Peers as a way of gaining access to the Emperor. A few years later, Kotoku would end up being executed, one of 12, for being involved in the High Treason Incident, a failed assassination attempt on Emperor Meiji. It occurred six years after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, which would give Japan control of Korea and much of South Manchuria, including Port Arthur and the railway that connected it with the rest of the region, along with the southern half of Sakhalin Island.[4]

At the outbreak of World War II, Oka was interned at Heart Mountain Internment Camp.[2]

In 1943, he joined the British Armed Forces in propaganda operations in Kolkata, India, which was to the East of Japanese occupied Burma, and just 780 miles from the Japanese occupied Andaman Islands, against the Empire of Japan. He was in his 60s at the time. Socialism, and other leftist ideologies were also completely suppressed in Japan by the Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu when Oka joined the Allies against the Empire of Japan.[8]

Oka's younger brother, Naoki Oka, also joined the Allied war effort against the Empire of Japan.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Oka Shigeki". Nihon jinmei daijiten+Plus (in Japanese). Kōdansha. Retrieved 24 January 2014. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Before Internment: Essays in Prewar Japanese American History By Yuji Ichioka Page 300
  3. ↑ The Origins of Socialist Thought in Japan By John Crump Page 195
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 By Donald Keene Page 689
  5. ↑ Kōtoku Shūsui, Portrait of a Japanese Radical By F. G. Notehelfer Page 121
  6. ↑ Japan and the High Treason Incident edited by Masako Gavin, Ben Middleton Page 20
  7. ↑ The Japanese Conspiracy: The Oahu Sugar Strike of 1920 Page 23
  8. ↑ Nisei linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service ... By James C. McNaughton page 289
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