BRIEF
12 July 1943.
JAPANESE-INSPIRED AGITATION AMONG THE AMERICAN NEGROES.
The undercover exploitation of minority races has long been recognized as an established technique of the Japanese program of conquest. The pattern of Japanese activity in this field within the United States has been the use of a few agents to develop prevailing Negro discontent into pro-Japanese channels and to set up organizations under Negro leadership for the further propagation of the idea that the liberation of the Negro must come from Japan.
Just how keenly interested the Japanese have been in our Negro problem is manifested, not only by the numerous references in their radio broadcasts to the discord in the United States caused by increased Negro activities in industry and the Armed Forces, but also by special surveys of this problem conducted by Japanese consulates in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of open hostilities. In 1941, in the course of an extensive tour of inspection of the United States, Major Itizi Sugita, Chief of the American Section of the Japanese General Staff, is known to have contacted Dr. K.K. Furuichi and Naka Nakane, two leaders in the field of Negro agitation.
It is noteworthy that many of the Negro and Japanese leaders of pro-Japanese organizations have had an unusual amount of money to carry on their work, though few of them are known to have had gainful employment.
The propaganda theme of Japan's role as the liberator of the oppressed non-white races of the world is, of course, by no means new. The Japanese themselves have long proclaimed this self-appointed mission and have practiced its benevolent principles by the fostering of various revolutionary movements in neighboring Asiatic countries. For such activities, the JAPANESE PATRIOTIC SOCIETY, Kokuryu Kai (or BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY) is notorious.
An echo of this Japanese propaganda appeared in the meetings of the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION, organized in 1918 by Marcus Garvey, a British subject from Jamaica. In that year, before a mass meeting of his organization in New York City, Garvey stated: "If the American Negro does not get his rights, the next war will be between the Negro and the White man, and with Japan to help the Negro, they will win the war..." Garvey, in a letter to the NEGRO WORLD (organ of the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION), 18 July 1919, wrote as follows: "The UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION realizes that the war of 1914-1918 is over, but all Negroes must prepare for the next world war."
The UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION was highly influential among the American Negroes shortly after the first World War, and is the parent organization from which are descended most of the pro-Japanese Negro organizations active at the present time. Its prime objective was a "Back-to-Africa" movement. Following the deportation of Garvey in 1922, various ambitious members of his organization strove to create their own organizations along this line, most of them, apparently, for the money in it and not from any sincere devotion to the cause.
The original slogan of "Back-to-Africa," transposed to the Japanese theme of "Asia for the Asiatics" and promoted by the Japanese, along with propaganda which identified themselves with the Negro as a kindred Negroid people oppressed by the white race, was well received by the leaders of these new Negro organizations. These two propaganda themes became the vehicle for Japanese exploitation of such groups.
One of the earlier manifestations of the Japanese interest in the American Negro was the activity, noted as early as 1933, of one Naka Nakane, promoter of a Negro organization known as the ONWARD MOVEMENT OF AMERICA and the ETHIOPIAN INTELLIGENCE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF SCIENCE. Nakane, an alien Japanese, represented himself to be Satakata Takahashi, a major in the Japanese Army and a representative of the BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY in the United States. Nakane visited various Negro churches in Detroit, Michigan, and through these channels, formed the movement, DEVELOPMENT OF OUR OWN, which advocated the union of the dark races of the world, in cooperation with Japan, for the overthrow of white supremacy.
Nakane is said to have promised arms and money to the Negroes for a war against the white race and further told them that Japanese agents were active throughout the United States in conjunction with the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.
Nakane was deported to Japan on 20 April 1934, but on 29 August of the same year, reappeared at Vancouver, Canada, possessed of unaccountable financial prosperity. From various Canadian cities, he continued to direct his organization through his wife, a Negress named Pearl Sherrod Takahashi.
In 1939, Nakane illegally reentered the United States and reorganized the Negroes of his following into another organization of the type similar to the DEVELOPMENT OF OUR OWN. The new organization was known as the ONWARD MOVEMENT OF AMERICA. Nakane was arrested on 22 June 1939 and is presently interned as a dangerous enemy alien.
His organization has claimed, in its earlier period, to have possessed 60,000 members in the state of Michigan; 20,000 members in St. Louis, Missouri; and smaller numbers in other cities. These claims probably are exaggerated.
Other than Nakane's own statement, there is nothing to substantiate any connection between the DEVELOPMENT OF OUR OWN and the Japanese organization, Kokuryu Kai (BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY).
Following the conviction of Nakane in 1939, the ONWARD MOVEMENT OF AMERICA appears to have gradually died out, though small chapters survive in Detroit, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois.
Nakane was active also in promoting another pro-Japanese Negro organization, the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD. For this purpose he used the office of a Filipino, Policarpio Manansala, more commonly known by the names of Mimo De Guzman and Ashima Takis, an organizer for the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION. Nakane, once again representing himself as Major Satakata Takahashi, solicited the services of De Guzman in organizing colored people into pro-Japanese groups, repeating his claims of affiliation with the BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY and also claiming the support of the Japanese Consulate at San Francisco, California.
De Guzman made a number of pro-Japanese speeches at meetings of the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION and in 1932, in cooperation with a Chinese named Liang, organized in Chicago, Illinois, a group of Negroes known as the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD. De Guzman claims to have secured the membership of 20,000 persons in Chicago after working among the Negroes there for about two years. Representing himself as a Japanese, De Guzman later continued his work in other cities, promoting chapters of the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD in St. Louis, Missouri; Kansas City, Missouri; Cincinnati, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and New York City.
The by-laws of this movement provided for a military unit, which was accustomed to drill with wooden guns.
Negro leaders of the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD are said to have assisted members in evading the Selective Service Law and to have asserted that the lives and property of members of the organization would not be molested by the Japanese when they invade this country.
There is evidence that members of the PACIFIC MOVEMENT in East St. Louis, Illinois, had collected stores of weapons and were making efforts to obtain ammunition. There is further evidence that the organization published a pro-Japanese newspaper known as PACIFIC TOPICS.
Negro leaders of the PACIFIC MOVEMENT agitated, with no great success, among the Negroes of Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Arizona.
De Guzman was arrested on July 1942 for a violation of the Selective Training and Service Act. On 1 October 1942, he was sentenced under an indictment for violation of the Postal Laws to a
On 16 June 1943, the two Negro leaders of the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD, General Lee Butler and David D. Erwin, were found guilty by a Federal Court of conspiracy to violate the Wartime Sedition Act and the Selective Service Law.
The PEACE MOVEMENT OF ETHIOPIA, another pro-Japanese organization of Negroes, owes its origin to substantially the same circumstances as the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD, beginning as a Chicago, Illinois, chapter of the UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION and continuing, under the leadership of one Madam Mittie Maud Lena Gordon, first as a chapter of the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD, and later as a new organization of substantially the same anti-white, pro-Japanese principles. Madam Gordon's organization emphasized the "Back-to-Africa" aspirations of the present group.
It is notable that De Guzman, allegedly claiming that he was financed by the Japanese Consul at Chicago, was very active in the earlier stages of the PEACE MOVEMENT OF ETHIOPIA about1932.
The PEACE MOVEMENT OF ETHIOPIA ostensibly embraces Mohammedanism, but its members did not adopt "Moslem" names, as did the members of other Negro cults such as the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE OF AMERICA and the NATION OF ISLAM. Leaders of the organizations have admitted telling the members that they are not Americans, despite their birth in this country, but citizens of Africa, and as such, not subject to military service. At various meetings of the movement, Madam Gordon harangued her followers with such statements as "on 7 December 1941, one billion black people struck for freedom .... the Japanese are going to redeem the Negroes from the white men in this country."
There are indications that Madam Gordon had corresponded with various high-ranking officials of the Japanese Government, soliciting a secret alliance between her group and the Japanese. The membership list of the PEACE MOVEMENT OF ETHIOPIA contained about 4,100 names. Leaders of the society conducted extensive agitation among the Negroes of Mississippi and Florida, but apparently with indifferent success.
On 23 October 1942, a Federal Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Madam Gordon, under eight counts, with violation of Sections 33 and 34, Title 50, U.S. Code, and several of her assistant leaders with conspiring to violate Section 33 of this statute.
The ETHIOPIAN PEACE MOVEMENT previously has been mentioned in connection with the organizational activities of Mimo De Guzman. It has capitalized, as have other organizations in this network, on
The ETHIOPIAN PACIFIC MOVEMENT was organized in 1935 by Leonard Robert Jordan, assisted by Mimo De Guzman, in New York City, where its activities have centered since that date. De Guzman associated with Jordan for about six months in the formation of this movement. It is notable that, while De Guzman, has admitted receiving money from Naka Nakane and presumably from the Japanese Government for his efforts in the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD, he claims that he was not in the employ of the Japanese at the time of the organization of the ETHIOPIAN PACIFIC MOVEMENT, although he represented himself as being a Japanese at that time. Later, Jordan, accompanied by several Japanese, exposed De Guzman's fraudulent self-representation. These Japanese allegedly were attached to the Japan Institute in New York City, and one was identified as a translator formerly employed by the Japanese Consul in New York.
At this time, the Japanese allegedly were eager to engage the services of persons to work among the Negroes, and there is some probability that Jordan was affiliated directly with the Japanese. Jordan is said to have stated that he was able to secure financial backing from Japanese sources and also is stated to have displayed letters from Japanese, one of them bearing the letterhead of the Japanese Consulate at New York.
Jordan is a Negro alien, born in the British West Indies. At regular weekly meetings of the ETHIOPIAN PACIFIC MOVEMENT, held in New York City and attended by approximately 100 to 150 persons, chiefly colored, Jordan, as did other speakers, made numerous seditious statements, such as: "I am for the Japanese, as I am one of them" and "Any Negro who fights for this (American) flag .... is a fool."
The ETHIOPIAN PACIFIC MOVEMENT discontinued its meetings on 9 August 1942, apparently through fear of the investigations which were being conducted of organizations of a similar type. On 14 January 1943, Robert Leonard Jordan was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and $5,000 fine on each of two indictments: conspiracy to commit sedition and the utterance of seditious sentiments. On the same date, several other leaders of the movement received lesser sentences on similar indictments.
Another Negro organization which has allegedly fallen under Japanese influence is the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE OF AMERICA, which is said to have been organized in 1913 at Newark, New Jersey, by Noble Drew Ali (a Negro), who headed the organization from 1913 until his death in 1929. At that time the organization allegedly had temples in seventeen different cities of the United States, including Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Baltimore, Richmond, and Norfolk.
The MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE teaches a curious pseudo-Mohammedanism with a primary doctrine that the Negro is closely akin to the Japanese and Chinese and is one of the "Asiatics of America who were of Moorish descent." According to this doctrine, its members have adopted "Moorish" names and claim to adhere to the Mohammedan faith.
Headquarters of the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE OF AMERICA are said to be at 3603 Indiana Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Though estimates as to the size of its membership vary widely, there can be little question that the organization is spread widely throughout the Eastern and Middle Western United States.
One report concerning the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE organization indicates that it is a branch of the EASTERN PACIFIC MOVEMENT, originally formed by Satakata Takahashi (Naka Nakane). Mimo De Guzman, whose promotional activities seem to be a common factor in the pro-Japanese Negro groups of the United States, has stated that while the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE is not Japanese-sponsored, it is identical in philosophy and purpose with such pro-Japanese groups as the PACIFIC MOVEMENT OF THE EASTERN WORLD, the ONWARD MOVEMENT OF AMERICA, and the ETHIOPIAN PACIFIC MOVEMENT. At present, the organization is said to be split into several rival sects, the new branches in Chicago working in close touch with C. Bates Bay, leader of the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE in Detroit, Michigan, and believed to have been formerly active as an adjutant to Satakata Takahashi.
Another "Moslem" Negro organization in which the ubiquitous Takahashi is reported to have had a hand is the NATION OF ISLAM group, known as the ALLAH TEMPLE OF ISLAM and the UNIVERSITY OF ISLAM.
This organization recently has shown great activity in Detroit, Michigan, where it reportedly has taught that Japan will overthrow the United States; that after the United States and Japan go to war, the Negroes will not be attacked, provided that they surrender to the Japanese; that America should arm the Negro and then the Negro should surrender to the Japanese. Between the years 1928, the year of its founding, and 1937, the "Islam" group was the leading Negro cult in Detroit. Various branches also have been established in Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Washington, D.C.
Like the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE OF AMERICA, the NATION OF ISLAM has taught that the dark race is the superior race, not Negroid but Asiatic in origin, and kept in ignorance by the white man of its true racial history. Like the MOORISH SCIENCE TEMPLE "Moslems," its members have disowned their "slave" names and taken instead pseudo-Islamic ones. Some of the doctrines of this cult have been extremely virulent in character, proclaiming of the Japanese as the future liberators of the Negro from bondage. One of the teachings of the cult has been that its members should refuse to participate in the present "white man's" war, and for this reason, various leaders and members of the organization have been apprehended for failure to register
Other Negro organizations, such as the BROTHERHOOD OF LIBERTY FOR THE BLACK MAN in Chicago, Illinois, without the apparent affiliation with Japanese sources, are known to have preached pro-Japanese propaganda.
Extensive investigation has revealed many instances of expressed pro-Japanese sentiment among the American Negroes, although this is a minor opinion in a prevailingly patriotic American group.
The "Japanese kinship" propaganda, in general, owes its potency not to the direct instigation of Japanese agents or even of their American tools, but rather to its essential congeniality to the American Negro. It appeals to the smarting discontent of a long underprivileged race, offering a psychological compensation for the Negro's present inferior status, and as such, being good propaganda, is capable of propagating itself without the stimulus of direct foreign agitation. It has made its best headway in the larger industrial centers, where its influence, combined with Communist agitation and the legitimate, if ill-timed, protests of loyal American Negroes against discrimination and segregation, has contributed to the bi-racial struggle of revolutionary change and forceful reaction, which is known as the Negro Problem.