Ishigaki, Ayako, 1903-1996

Ayako Ishigaki, born Tanaka Ayako (1903 – 1996) in Tokyo, Japan. She first came to the United States in 1926. In 1931 she married the painter Eitaro Ishigaki. Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Ishigaki became outspoken in protesting the Japanese military aggression in China, and reported on Japan for the left-wing magazine The New Masses. Her articles emphasized the negative impact of imperialism and industrialism on Japanese workers, particularly women. She used the pseudonym Haru Matsui and pen name May Tanaka. Ishigaki's memoir Restless Wave: A Life in Two Worlds, published as Haru Matsui in January 1940. In 1941, Ayako and her husband were forced to register as enemy aliens; they were not incarcerated due to their residence on the East Coast. In 1942, she began working for the Office of War Information. In the late 1940s, as the Cold War took hold and anti-communism became dominant in the U.S., Ayako and Eitaro were placed under government surveillance due to their left-wing activism. In 1951, Eitaro was arrested and deported by the American government, and Ayako returned to Japan with him. Following her return to Japan, Ayako continued to work extensively as a journalist, lecturer, and translator.