Passing It On

by Yuri Kochiyama

Passing It On is the account of an extraordinary Asian American woman who spoke out and fought shoulder-to-shoulder with African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Whites for social justice, civil rights, and prisoners and women's rights in the U.S. and internationally for over half a century. A prolific writer and speaker on human rights, Kochiyama has spoken at over 100 colleges and universities and high schools in the U.S. and Canada.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Activism, Race, Biography

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2004

About the author

Yuri Kochiyama was an American civil rights activist. Influenced by her Japanese-American family's experience in an American internment camp, her association with Malcolm X, and her Maoist beliefs, she advocated for many causes, including black separatism, the anti-war movement, reparations for Japanese-American internees, and the rights of political prisoners.

Reviews

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part memoir, part scrapbook thanks to Yuri’s skills in keeping detailed track of people and causes—and her family offering up their Harlem apartment as watering hole, crash pad and crossroads for countless activists and movements. The memoir draws from Yuri’s firsthand accounts and records the Kochiyama Family donated to UCLA via Asian American Studies; it is edited by Daughter Audee Kochiyama-Holman, Granddaughter Akemi Kochiyama-Sardinha, and Scholar Marjorie Lee.

Yuri covers the arc of her and Husband Bill’s transformations from birth to concentration camp and 442nd Infantry days, then on to participation in movements for civil rights, self-determination, peace and justice, as well as family developments. Co-editor Akemi does a good job in the foreword advising readers. Expect Yuri to make strong pitches for movements, campaigns, and political prisoners. Expect babies to be born, pictured and hustled along in the tide of humanity, with occasional pangs of maternal guilt. Expect Yuri to focus on her shortcomings and to deflect recognition of her contributions.

That said, if readers search between the lines of these primary source documents, they can figure out why Yuri, Bill, and the Kochiyama Family are held in high esteem in diverse communities. Fierce and compassionate. Family centered. Welcoming and loving. Loyal to the point of corny. Not afraid to take on the hardest causes, no matter how harsh the consequences. Day after day. Year after decade.

Yuri was a concentration camp survivor. Sunday school teacher. Republic of New Africa member. Elder who visited Cuba and Peru, talking “Third World unity” deep into her grannyhood. She inspires. Many thanks to the Kochiyama Family for making her and Bill’s words available.

[Mars]

she's hella scrappy and disagreeable and utterly charming.

[Chalida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yuri really wrote this book for her children and grandchildren and things like the family Xmas letter are included as well as all the names of her teddy bears and who gifted them in her K-bear collection. But throughout these stories for her offspring, you see how Kochiyama was an activist from the beginning. She has deep humility to listen the the people around her, to see injustice and to act on it. I loved reading how her Christmas Cheer newsletter became a political editorial, and how her anti-racist views in the 50s and 60s alienated so many. I loved her constant and explicit fight for Black people. I loved reading her 6 kids' essays and editorials about their experiences in Mississippi, on road trips and at protests. They, like their mother, listen and learn from the world around them and love unconditionally. I loved how they left prestigious specialized schools on their own choosing and how growing up in Harlem was their real education. I loved how Yuri and her family of 8 took in everyone and while people were sleeping in the bathtub and on the floor, the family was only grateful for the experience of their visitors. Yuri's love for Malcolm X is strong throughout. She talks about his strong relationship with the Asian American community and I definitely appreciated her succinct history of Black and Asian solidarity at the end. What a fascinating woman so ahead of her time. I'm so glad Liam and I read this book.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is inspiring as a memoir of the activist struggles that Yuri Kochiyama participated in, a reminder that we can and should be fighting more--especially for black liberation, decolonization, and anti-imperialism around the world.

However, Yuri Kochiyama is not at all critical (at least in this book) of "Communist" dictators such as Mao and Castro. These dictators violated their people's freedoms, which is something that activists for black liberation and indigenous rights HAVEN'T done, so glorifying the dictators makes Yuri seem unnecessarily bad/propagandistic. But, I guess this was normal for black liberation movements of the past (and Mao and Castro did liberate the poor in their countries and condemn racism).

[JC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was a really fascinating and intimate glimpse into the life of a remarkable radical. There are lovely accounts of family life, childhood memories of church, horrifying family experiences of Japanese interment camps in the U.S., a really interesting family Christmas newsletter that slowly evolved into a sometimes alienating publication of radical thought, stories about seeing Castro at the May Day march through Jose Marti Revolution Square, very interesting memories of meeting and working with Malcolm X, and accounts of so many really interesting radicals Kochiyama had the chance to meet and work with from so many different racialized groups including Puerto Rican independence fighters, Black Power and Indigenous radicals, and other Asian activists. I especially loved learning about radicals in the Asian American movement and her descriptions of the Asian American Political Alliance, Asian Americans for Action, Red Guards, I Wor Kuen, Van Troi Brigade, Manila Town Filipino Activists, and their solidarity with the Young Lords, Brown Berets, Black Panthers, SNCC, and Wounded Knee activists. One of my favourite things I’ve discovered after reading this book was East Wind Magazine (which has since been revived). Some older issues are available online, and I hope to work through some of them some time.

I don’t agree with Kochiyama on everything. I don’t know enough about Peru and Shining Path, but I know many communists distance themselves from that particular strain of Maoism, as Kochiyama recognizes and complains about in this book. I’m not sure she she argues her case for Shining Path very convincingly in this book, though her recounting of her trip to Peru was very interesting to read about. She is a Maoist and her views are consistent with other Maoists, some of whom I have a lot of respect for, and I don’t know enough to have a proper opinion about such political history. However, elsewhere Kochiyama has said some pretty tasteless things about bin Laden. I wouldn’t attempt to defend her on those grounds. However, I’m not interested in reading about saints nor autohagiography. I am interested in people who worked tirelessly for the poor, organized workers, and fought against imperialism, fascism, and white supremacy. And Kochiyama was undoubtedly such a person, and this was a wonderful memoir that provides a glimpse into a very remarkable life.

Postscript: This entire book is up on archive.org (which is how I read it) and doesn't even require an account to flip through it as many books do.

[Brit · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a single book to read on Yuri Kochiyama, I wouldn't pick this one. Yuri's memoir while interesting and scrapbook-like also isn't reflective of the large amount of impact and importance that Yuri had. It carries Yuri's humble voice and tells more the stories of those around her than her own. I read it simultaneously with Diane Fujino's biography on Yuri and I found it to add a little bit more to the experience!

[La · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an aspiring memoir on activism.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yuri led an incredible life. The book read almost more like a scrapbook/diary.

[Janelle Hopkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. It wasn’t what I expected or hoped for.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though some may not enjoy this book, for it is not climactic at all, I personally found this to be a great pleasure to read! I enjoyed learning more about the Asian American experience during WWII and during the Civil Rights Movement. My favorite aspect of this book is Yuri's account of her close friendship with Malcolm X, although I wish she had expanded on that more. All the same, it was fabulously interesting. I would definitely recommend this educational, well-written, and enjoyable book.

[lynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Yuri's kind of amazing and has led a fascinating life, she's clearly too humble about it all to write a good autobiography. It reads more like a cursory history of the movement.