Amerasia Forum: The Legendary Richard Aoki

SKU: AJV392
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Contributors: Mary Uyematsu Kao, Douglas Henry Daniels, Harvey Dong & Wayie Ly;

Amerasia Journal (Volume 39, No 2; 2013)

SKU: JV392; ISBN: 9770044747001

Condition: New

Format: Paperback


Description

Amerasia Journal: “Asian American Folklore: Passages and Practices” 


This issue includes a roundtable on the controversial charges that Richard Aoki was a FBI informant. Richard Aoki was a longtime activist who was a founding member of the Black Panther Party, Asian American Political Alliance ( AAPA ) and the Third World Liberation Front ( TWLF ) at UC Berkeley.


Organized by long-time UCLA Asian American Studies Center Publications Coordinator and Asian American Movement veteran Mary Uyematsu Kao, the forum on this complex affair brings together insights from Aoki’s old and new compatriots: Douglas Daniels, Harvey Dong, and Wayie Ly.


Published by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center since 1971, Amerasia Journal is regarded as the core journal in the field of Asian American Studies.

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This issue includes a forum on “The Legendary Richard Aoki.” Amerasia editors Arnold Pan and David Yoo note in their “To Our Readers”: “The way folklore is told and passed down might be relevant for any consideration of Aoki’s legacy as an activist who bridged Asian American and African American communities, in that the accusations meant to tarnish the memory of his deeds may have only extended Aoki’s legend further into the future…the case with any folklore that grows stronger over time.”

Amerasia’s Publications Coordinator Mary Uyematsu Kao’s introduction to the forum states: “These pieces critically explore the charges that Richard Aoki was an FBI informant, raising the questions of WHY and what does it take to destroy a legend?” All the contributors to the forum were personal friends of Richard Aoki, offering insights that reflect careful scrutiny of their comrade’s life.

Douglas Henry Daniels, professor emeritus of Black Studies and History at UC Santa Barbara, in his article ”I Remember Richard” gives a thoughtful account of Aoki’s military service, which is intertwined with his alleged FBI connection during the McCarthy era. Daniels asserts: “It is also puzzling why he [Aoki] identified himself as Korean, and even more astounding that. . .it took the FBI years to discover his true ethnicity.”

In his article “Richard Aoki’s Legacy and Dilemna: Who Do You Serve?” Harvey Dong, lecturer in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program at UC Berkeley, gives a careful examination of the motives in Seth Rosenfeld’s allegations and evidence real or false in the FBI Freedom of Information Act documents (FOIA). Dong contends: “My reading of the files shows that Richard Aoki’s relationship with the FBI after 1964 was not one of cooperation…”

Finally, media producer Wayie Ly, a generation X activist who interviewed Aoki extensively in 2006, contributed her article “Still Flying on Broken Wings”. She spoke with Aoki in his last week of life and asks, “Who are we to judge if we haven’t walked a day in Richard’s shoes?”