Thursday, May 19 1921: Civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama was born
1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, May 19 Civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama was born in San Pedro, California. Her father is Seiichi Nakahara, a fish merchant who immigrated from Japan, and her mother is Tsuyako Sawaguchi Nakahara, a piano teacher who graduated from university. The family was relatively wealthy, and Yuri grew up in an area with a lot of white people. However, when the Pacific War started, the family was detained for the incarceration of Japanese-Americans, and their lives changed completely. He loses his father, Seiichi, in custody. In 1946, she married Bill Kochiyama, a second-generation Japanese-American military man whom she met during her detention, and had 6 children. In...