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Yuri Kochiyama

AKA: Mary Yuriko Nakahara
Released
Date of birth:19. 05. 1921
Date of death:01. 06. 2014
Age:93† Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:Asian
Era:1970s
State:New York
Support
Black Liberation Anti-Imperialism Prison Abolition Republic of New Afrika
Yuri Kochiyama

Biography

Yuri Kochiyama (born Mary Yuriko Nakahara) was a Japanese American human-rights activist based in Harlem, interned at the Jerome camp in Arkansas during World War II, an associate of Malcolm X (she was present at his 1965 assassination), and a tireless advocate for Black liberation, Puerto Rican independence, Asian American movements, and political prisoners. She is listed among grand jury resisters (1974–75) on the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee's 1984 "Stop the Grand Jury" roster; her documented role in that movement, however, was as a leading supporter and defender of grand jury resisters and political prisoners rather than as a subpoenaed witness herself. She and her husband Bill were also active in the Japanese American redress movement, and she took part in 1960s–70s direct actions including the 1977 occupation of the Statue of Liberty demanding freedom for Puerto Rican Nationalist prisoners.

The November 13, 1981 Revolutionary Worker lists Yuri Kochiyama, identified as a Japanese American activist, among endorsers of the Mass Proletarian War Crimes Tribunal of U.S. Imperialism. The endorsement supplies political activity and contemporary identification; it does not establish a new custody admission or release. Source: https://bannedthought.net/USA/RCP/RW/1981/RW130-English-OCR-sm.pdf#page=14

Custody research — September 2026

The family chronology documents her October 25, 1977 arrest during the Statue of Liberty occupation. This new case records the arrest without inventing a detention duration.

Case

Charges: Statue of Liberty occupation demanding release of Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners; individual charge unverified
Arrested: Oct 25, 1977
Sentence: Arrest documented in family chronology; duration of detention and release date unresolved.