Biography
Tetsuji Horiuchi was a Trade Union Unity League organizer and leader of Japanese workers in the Imperial Valley farm workers strike. Tetsuji Horiuchi received a three- to thirty-three-year prison sentence for violating the California Criminal Syndicalism Act and served in Folsom State Prison from June 1930 to January 1932. (Also see the entry for Lawrence Emery.) Upon Horiuchi's release from prison the U.S. Department of Labor withdrew its deportation order and allowed him to depart "voluntarily" for the Soviet Union. He left the United States on August 17, 1932.
Western Worker, July 15, 1932, page 2: The Imperial Valley defense report announced parole for July 18, 1932, and discussed deportation conditions for Sklar and Horiuchi. It demanded Sklar’s release on his own recognizance and permission for Horiuchi to choose voluntary departure. This is a prospective announcement; it does not override separately documented later physical release or departure dates. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/westernworker/1932/v1n14-jul-15-1932.pdf
The report prints S. T. Horiutchi among Japanese workers persecuted after the Imperial Valley strike. This is retained as an attributed spelling in the context of the already recorded January 1930 episode, without replacing the established full name or adding a second January case. Daily Worker, January 30, 1930, page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n281-NY-jan-30-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The El Centro trial report lists the Imperial Valley defendants in custody in the criminal-syndicalism prosecution and describes $40,000 bonds. It identifies them by surname or shortened spelling. The June 14 report says the jury was still deliberating June 13; the forty-two-year figure is possible exposure at that point, not a verdict or served duration. Daily Worker, June 11, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n140-NY-jun-11-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The December 31, 1931 Daily Worker lists Sklar, the prisoner printed Tatsuji Horiuchi and Eduardo Herara for deportation in the Imperial Valley defense account. Horiuchi’s July 1932 removal was prospective, and obstacles arising from lack of U.S.-Soviet relations were discussed for Sklar. The article’s collective sentence and parole figures are not individual completed terms or proof that these three had physically left the United States. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n314-NY-dec-31-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The April 11, 1932 Imperial Valley defense account distinguishes parole terms from physical freedom. It explicitly says Sklar remained in Folsom while immigration arrangements blocked release; projected eighteen-month consequences were not completed service. Horiuchi’s proposed removal to Japan, Herrera’s to Colombia and Emery’s announced February 18, 1933 freedom were future plans, not accomplished events. The source prints Tsuji/T. Horiuchi and Terrera/Herrera; the existing cohort identities are retained. Its proposed reduction of parole terms from fourteen to five years is not five years actually imprisoned. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n086-NY-apr-11-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Tsuji Horiuchi, a term of 3–42 years, the year 1930 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location Folsom Prison, Represa, California. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
The March 11 Fresno dispatch published March 12, 1931 reports a fifty-person labor delegation attending the Fourth State District Court of Appeals the previous day to demand release of the Imperial Valley prisoners. It describes the eight organizers as in California state prisons and says an appellate decision was expected in twenty days. The account supplies advocacy and pending appeal, not an accomplished release or new sentence. Its collective three-to-forty-two and two-to-twenty-eight-year terms are reported nominal ranges, not time actually served; spelling and chronology discrepancies do not override independently recorded individual facts. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n062-NY-mar-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed page 149 (PDF page 10): Martin Bank's Palm-Treed Paradise names Sklar, Oscar Erikson, Lawrence Emory, Tetsuji Horiuchi and Danny Roxas in the Imperial Valley criminal-syndicalism defense and gives a collective three-to-forty-two-year term. It places these five at Folsom and Eduardo Herra and Braulio Orosco at San Quentin under two-to-twenty-eight-year terms. These printed location and spelling variants are preserved as a contemporary collective account; conflicting individual prison evidence is not silently overwritten. Nominal ranges do not state actual service, and no precise admission, parole or discharge day is given. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed pages 172-173 (PDF 12-13), Frank Spector's California's Parole Racket, distinguishes the announced July 18, 1932 release from continued custody because of employment-approval and immigration barriers. It describes revised terms of two years in prison plus eighteen months parole for Erickson, Roxas, Sklar and Horiuchi, and thirty months prison plus one year parole for Emery. The editor's later update expressly reports Erickson and Roxas actually released, Horiuchi sailing for the USSR on August 17 after permission for voluntary departure, and Sklar's physical release still awaited despite a regular-parole agreement; Emery's release was still sought. These are separate individual outcomes, not a collective July 18 discharge. The article's June 1931 and aggregate forty-two-year wording conflicts with earlier case chronologies and is not used to overwrite independently documented initial sentencing. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Yushi Yamazaki (2020), printed pp. 90–96, 103 and notes 20–25, identifies Horiuchi as a Japanese Workers Association founder, editor of Kaikyusen and organizer of multiracial agricultural labor. It places the Imperial Valley meeting raid on April 14, 1930 and describes confinement at Folsom followed by choosing deportation after over two years served. This approximate service account supports the later 1932 departure evidence and does not restore the superseded January 1932 custody endpoint. The article's collective six-to-forty-two-year range is not Horiuchi's individual sentence. Notes cite Yoneda's papers at UCLA and contemporary defense leaflets. Source: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/view/prepareDownload?contentNo=1&itemId=info%3Andljp%2Fpid%2F11638381
Pages 1 and 5 report the Los Angeles unemployment-demonstration retrial before Judge Wood. Sklar's county-jail letter describes challenges to class/race exclusion in the jury, the judge dispensing with a stenographer and threatening note-takers, and actual dismissal of Sklar and Spector from this separate prosecution. Horiuchi was expressly retained despite the same reported forty-two-year Imperial Valley term; that aggregate characterization does not replace differing documented sentence ranges or become time served. Horiuchi and Kreitzberg obtained self-representation; Kiosz faced a threatened contempt penalty for smiling, not an imposed new term. The remaining seven included Horiuchi, A. Yamaguchi, Hoxie, Rose Becker, Kiosz, Joe Holub and Kreitzberg. July disagreement and Martin's acquittal precede this retrial; exact personal custody endpoints remain unknown. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n221-NAT-sep-13-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The August 18 Los Angeles dispatch identifies Sklar, the prisoner printed as Tsuji Horiuchi, and Spector as Imperial Valley defendants brought back to Los Angeles jail for a retrial arising from the April 26 unemployment demonstration and a trial concerning Paris Commune meetings. It reports Sklar was ill and frequently in the prison hospital and quotes the three prisoners’ request for the Daily Worker and their collective defense greetings. The printed three-to-forty-two-year wording is not substituted for differing individual sentence records. This documents a Los Angeles custody phase and pending proceedings; neither an exact transfer day nor an actual release is given.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under Folsom State Prison, California, with three to forty-two years, 1930. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, September 13, 1930; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Foster’s California speech calls for defense of the ImperialValley prisoner printed Hariuchi, whose term was expected to end within days and who faced immediate deportation to Japan. This is a prospective release and removal forecast; the later documented sailing to the USSR is not replaced by an asserted deportation to Japan.
Named as a signer of the Imperial Valley prisoners’ greeting, datelined San Francisco November 6, from confinement following agricultural organizing. The accompanying text places the group in San Quentin and Folsom without assigning every individual prison. Its group-wide forty-two-year wording is not substituted for individual sentences or actual served totals.
