Kazuo Aoyama

Kazuo Aoyama
Occupation	political activist (communism)

Kazuo Aoyama (靑山 和夫, Aoyama Kazuo)(real name Kuroda Zenji)^[1] was a Japanese communist who joined the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Childhood

According to journalist Edgar Snow, Aoyama was born an Orphan. He was eventually adopted by a family who put him to work at age five. At age 16 he went to work in a factory.^[2]

Political Activity in Japan and flight to China

At some point Kazuo served in the "rank and file" of the labor movement in Japan, organizing unions in Japan's heavy industries. Before the war broke out he was sent to Shanghai on a "Special Mission." He then attached himself to the Chinese Army. In Nanjing, he worked in the political department. In Hankow, he was a political advisor for a Korean Volunteer force. By age 40 he was described to have become a leader in the "Japanese revolutionary movement" while operating in wartime China.^[3]

Kazuo aimed to organize an international volunteer army modeled after the antifascist international volunteer army in Spain. In 1938, he established the Gokutō hanfassho dōmei [Far East Antifascist League] and met Kaji Wataru, and Kim Yaksan (Kim Won-bong, 1898–1958), leader of the Korean Volunteer Army, to discuss the formation of a popular front organization.^[4]

Life in Chongqing

Aoyama was on good terms with the anti-communist Kuomintang, despite openly labeling himself a Communist himself. In contrast to Kaji Wataru, a fellow left wing dissident in Chongqing who founded the Japanese People's Anti-War League. Aoyama could freely operate in Chongqing, unlike Kaji who was closely monitored by the Dai Li secret service. The relationship between Kaji, and Aoyama deteriorated by the time the U.S. Army arrived in Chongqing. Koji Ariyoshi, a nisei soldier in the U.S. Army was personally approached by Kaji Wataru to help mend the relationship back together, but ultimately ended in failure.^[5] Aoyama would eventually replace Wataru Kaji as a "psychological advisor", re-educating captured Japanese soldiers,^[6] following Kaji's fallout with the Kuomintang government.^[7] While Aoyama was in Chongqing, he successfully sold a printing plant to the Office of War Information (OWI).^[8]

See also

• Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period
• Japanese in the Chinese resistance to the Empire of Japan
• Japanese People's Emancipation League

References

1. "Fighting Fascism with 'Verbal Bullets': Kaji Wataru and the Antifascist Struggle in Wartime East Asia". Brill.
2. Snow, Edgar (1941). The Battle for Asia. New York, Random House. p. [1].
3. Snow, Edgar (1941). The Battle for Asia. New York, Random House. p. [2].
4. "Fighting Fascism with 'Verbal Bullets': Kaji Wataru and the Antifascist Struggle in Wartime East Asia". Brill.
5. Ariyoshi, Koji (2000). From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 105–108.
6. Roth, Andrew (1945). Dilemma in Japan. Little, Brown. p. 168.
7. Ariyoshi, Koji (2000). From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 105–108.
8. Ariyoshi, Koji (2000). From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 105–108.

Further reading

• Kuroda, Zenji, (1972). 反戦政略 中国からみた日本戦前・戦中・戦後. Misaki Shobō Publishing. OCLC 44418352.
• 青山和夫, (1957). 謀略熟練工. 妙義出版株式会社.