Yuji Ichioka

Yuji Ichioka (, June 23, 1936 – September 1, 2002) was a Japanese American historian and civil rights activist who was a pioneer in the field of Asian American Studies and a leading figure in the Asian American movement. Alongside his wife Emma Gee, he is credited for coining the term "Asian American" and founding the Asian American Political Alliance to help unify different Asian ethnic groups under one shared identity.

Early life and education Yuji Ichioka was born in 1936 in San Francisco, California. As a child, he and his family were interned at Utah's Topaz War Relocation Center following the 1942 signing of Executive Order 9066, which ordered the internment of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. After release, Ichioka's family moved to Berkeley in search of a new start. Ichioka finished grade school there, graduating from Berkeley High School in 1954. He hypothesized that Asian American advocacy lacked efficacy due to the absence of a common identity or "banner" that the group could band together behind. Therefore, in a time when many social movements like the Black Power Movement, American Indian Movement, and anti-war movement had begun to make great strides, Ichioka founded the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) with his partner Emma Gee to unite Asian Americans under one shared identity. In doing so, Ichioka and Gee were also the first to coin the term "Asian American" and use it to mobilize people of Asian descent on a national level,

The AAPA's focus on pan-Asian unity and political activism set it apart from other Asian cultural groups. By searching for students with Asian surnames on the directories of on-campus political groups, As a scholar, Ichioka made efforts to understand migrant experience from a holistic and transnational lens, aiming to identify how broader forces of history like war, racism, nationalism, and imperialism influenced Issei perspectives, decisions, and behaviors. His dedication to preserving authentic immigrant experiences through his work reflects his belief that they are central to our understanding of history:"Our ignorance of the history of Japanese immigrants and their descendants is due not to a lack of historical sources, but to the failure of past and present researchers to study existing Japanese-language sources." Ichioka was known not only for his work, but also his mentorship and willingness to share archive resources/materials. To this day, many Asian Studies scholars rely on his work on these archives due to a lack of Japanese language proficiency.

Ichioka's role as a trailblazer in the field of Asian studies also extends into the classroom. In 1969, Ichioka taught the first Asian American Studies course at UCLA, and he was named associate director of the university's newly formed Asian American Studies Center (AASC). Ichioka later served as a senior research associate at the AASC and worked as an adjunct professor of history at UCLA up until his death.

Legacy Ichioka died due to cancer on September 1, 2002. He was survived by Gee, his wife of over 25 years.

The Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee Endowment in Social Justice and Immigration Studies was established in their name at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

Selected publications