Samurai among Panthers: Richard Aoki on Race, Resistance, and a Paradoxical Life

Acknowledgments

The writing of a book, while solitary, is never an individual act. On the contrary, research, teaching, and knowledge production come through the sharing of ideas and resources, the creation of a social good. A great number of people, too many to acknowledge here, made the research for and writing of this book not only possible but joyful and deeply satisfying. My first acknowledgment goes to the activists of the Asian American Political Alliance , the Black Panther Party, and the Third World Liberation Front, whose efforts to create a just world enabled Richard Aoki’s political contributions and historic significance. My gratitude goes to Richard Aoki, for placing trust in me to write his story. To Fred Ho for introducing me to Richard in the late s while working on Legacy to Liberation: Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America. To Dolly Veale, who successfully gained Richard’s participation in his first lengthy interview (published in Legacy to Liberation) and who accompanied me to my first interview with Richard. To Douglas Daniels, whose positive endorsement got me through Richard’s security procedures. To Yuri Kochiyama, whose life and biography inspired Richard to invite me to write his story. I am grateful to all those who shared stories and insights about Richard through interviews and extended conversations, many of whom graciously opened their homes to me: Debbie Aoki, James T. Aoki, Anne Aoki, Brenda Wong Aoki, Shoshana Arai, Pam Lee Burnett, Kathleen Cleaver, Douglas Daniels, Liz Del Sol, Lillian Fabros Bando, Alan Fong, Bryant Fong, Sherwin Forte, Patrick Hayashi, Carol (Shelly) Hayden, David Hilliard, Alex Hing, Elbert “Big Man” Howard, Floyd Huen, Mark Izu, Lee Lew-Lee, Earl Napper, Mo Nishida, Leo Saito, Tom Sanders, Bill Sato, Bobby Seale, Mike Tagawa, Paul Takagi, Dolly Veale, LaNada (Means) War Jack, and Kenn Waters. Others shared valuable archival and other materials, including James T. Aoki, Mike Cheng, Patrick Hayashi, Jeffrey Heyman, and Ben Wang. I especially Acknowledgments  thank Harvey Dong, whose interviews, documents, and many discussions were indispensable and whose scholarship on Asian American activism illuminated my own work. I thank the librarians and archivists, whose magnificent work, often under the radar, was invaluable to this project, including those at the Special Collections and Ethnic Studies Collections at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Gary Colmenar, Sal Guerrena); Ethnic Studies Library and Bancroft Special Collections of the University of California, Berkeley (Wei-Chi Poon); Asian American Studies Library at the University of California, Los Angeles (Marjorie Lee); Oakland Public Library (Steven Lavoie); Berkeley Public Library; Merritt College; College of Alameda; Berkeley High School; the Moorland–Spingarn Research Center of Howard University; It’s About Time/BPP archives (Billy X Jennings); and the Hirasaki National Resource Center of the Japanese American National Museum. Funding from Melvin Oliver of the Division of Social Sciences, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, the Academic Senate, and the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research as well as California taxpayers and (ever increasing) student fees enabled this research. My appreciation goes to George Lipsitz and Douglas Daniels for reviewing the entire manuscript and for multiple stimulating discussions. George is a foremost model of a committed activist–scholar, brilliant, intellectually generous, and politically engaged. Douglas offers his unique and witty insights and critical feedback. James T. Aoki, Shoshana Arai, Harvey Dong, Fred Ho, Mo Nishida, and two anonymous reviewers for the Press provided feedback that pushed me to produce a better manuscript. My work draws from a wealth of incredible scholars, including Nikhil Singh, Robin Kelley, Bill Mullen, Laura Pulido, Jeanne Theoharis, Komozi Woodard, James Smethurst, Barbara Ransby, Timothy Tyson, Peniel Joseph, and Glenda Gilmore. I am particularly grateful to scholars and activists engaged in the study of the Asian American Movement, including Fred Ho, Mo Nishida, Daryl Maeda, May Fu, Harvey Dong, Glenn Omatsu, Steve Louie, Estella Habal, Michael Liu, Kim Geron, Tracy Lai, Judy Wu, Jason Ferreira, Mary Gao, Karen Ishizuka, Karen Umemoto, Susie Ling, and Megan White. For providing a generative and supportive place to work, I thank my colleagues in the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara: Xiaojian Zhao, John Park, erin Ninh, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Sameer Pandya, Ben Zulueta, Ambi Harsha, Jeff Sheng, Arlene Phillips, Elizabeth Guerrero,  Acknowledgments James Lee, Jon Cruz, and Sucheng Chan. I further benefited in multiple ways from conversations with Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, Jeffrey Stewart...