Isaku Kida (1905-1996) immigrated to the United States from Japan in 1930 as a student of theology. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, he fell under the suspicion of the FBI for his growing interest in Communism. Arrested and interned at Ellis Island, he was subsequently released to work as a language instructor for the Office of Strategic Services. Nearing the end of WWII, Isaku became a business manager, and later, president of the Hokubei Shimpo (renamed New York Nichibei in 1945). During its run from 1945 through 1993, the paper documented the life of New York’s postwar Japanese American community, serving not only as a place to obtain community news but also as an important outlet for Asian American writers. A range of progressive causes from civil rights to women’s and gay rights found expression within its pages. In addition, the paper regularly documented developments in the Asian American Movement born in Chinatown in the late 1960s and 1970s, the Asian American arts movement, and the redress movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Emi Kida (1908-2001) was born in Gifu prefecture, and attended Doshisha Women’s Senmon School, where she studied the traditional women’s arts of embroidery, ikebana (flower arranging), and cooking. In 1958, she immigrated to New York to join her husband. Through the work she performed in helping to run the New York Nichibei (reporting in the field, manually setting the type of the Japanese language section, editing, keeping the books, organizing mailings), Emi became intimately familiar with the city’s cultural and political life.
From the guide to the Isaku Kida and Emi Kida Papers, undated, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
