Sen Katayama born Yabuki Sugataro (藪木 菅太郎 Yabuki Sugatarō), was an early member of the American Communist Party and co-founder, in 1922, of the Japan Communist Party.

Early life and education

Sugataro Yabuki was the second son born to Kunizo and Kichi Yabuki in 1859 in the Hadeki district of what would later become Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's Okayama prefecture. He was adopted by the Katayama family at nineteen and adopted the name Sen Katayama, becoming the Katayama's "first son," after his birth mother was deserted by her husband. The adoption avoided Katayama's conscription and allowed him to continue his education. In his autobiography, Jiden (自伝）, Katayama admitted that he was fortunate not to have been the first born in his birth family, as it saved him from some of the responsibilities that burdened some of his acquaintances.

In 1878 Katayama travelled to Tokyo to apprentice as a printer while he studied at a small preparatory school, the Oka Juku, where he formed a friendship with Iwasaki Seikichi (岩崎 清七), nephew of one of the founders of Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

. Iwasaki's departure for Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 inspired Katayama to work his way to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Katayama attended Grinnell College

Grinnell College

Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....

, from which he graduated in 1892, proceeding to the Andover Theological Seminary and then to Yale Divinity School. During this period Katayama became a Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 and a socialist. Before attending Grinnell, Katayama attended Maryville College

Maryville College

Maryville College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Maryville, Tennessee, near Knoxville. It was founded in 1819 by Presbyterian minister Isaac L. Anderson for the purpose of furthering education and enlightenment into the West. The College is one of the fifty oldest colleges in the...

.

Career

Katayama returned to Japan in 1896 and from 1897 to 1901 edited Labour World (労働世界）, the organ of the Iron Workers' Union （鉄工組合）and Trade Unions' Federation　（労働組合期成会）. He returned to America in 1903 at the urging of Iwasaki to look into rice-farming opportunities. During this trip he attended the Second International

Second International

The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...

 Socialist Congress in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

  where he gained recognition for shaking hands with the Russian delegate, G.V. Plekhanov, in a gesture of amity between the Russian and Japanese peoples, despite the ongoing Russo-Japanese War. In 1904 he attended an American Socialist Party convention in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. He settled in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 and his main business became rice farming. When his rice crop failed he became employed by a Japanese restaurant owner in Houston, Tsunekichi Okasaki, who bought 10202 acres (41.3 km²) of land in Texas with the plan that Katayama farm it. In late 1905 Okasaki and Katayama borrowed $100,000 from Iwasaki to fund the rice harvest, and together they formed a "Nippon Kono Kabushiki Kaisha" (Japan Farming Company) to develop the Texas project, and Katayama was made managing director. However, the company quickly dissolved, reputedly over Katayama's socialist leanings, and he returned to Japan in 1907, rejoined the Socialist movement, and pursued a career in journalism.

Katayama's was arrested and jailed for his participation in the Tokyo Streetcar Strike of 1912, and after his release he left Japan for California. Attracted by the success of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917-18, Katayama became an active communist and an officer for Comintern

Comintern

The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...

. He travelled to Mexico and later to Moscow, where he was hailed as a leader of the Japanese Communist movement. He remained in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 until his death on November 5, 1933 and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis

Kremlin Wall Necropolis

Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves on Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930...

.

Katayama had two children by his first wife, Fude, who died in 1903, and another daughter by his second wife, Hari Tama, whom he married in 1907.

External links

• Sen Katayama Archive at Marxists Internet Archive