Yuji Ichioka (, June 23, 1936 – September 1, 2002) was a Japanese American historian and civil rights activist who was a pioneer in the field of Asian American Studies and a leading figure in the Asian American movement. Alongside his wife Emma Gee, he is credited for coining the term "Asian American" and founding the Asian American Political Alliance to help unify different Asian ethnic groups under one shared identity.
Early life and education
Yuji Ichioka was born in 1936 in San Francisco, California. As a child, he and his family were interned at Utah's Topaz War Relocation Center following the 1942 signing of Executive Order 9066, which ordered the internment of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. After release, Ichioka's family moved to Berkeley in search of a new start. Ichioka finished grade school there, graduating from Berkeley High School in 1954. He hypothesized that Asian American advocacy lacked efficacy due to the absence of a common identity or "banner" that the group could band together behind. Therefore, in a time when many social movements like the Black Power Movement, American Indian Movement, and anti-war movement had begun to make great strides, Ichioka founded the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) with his partner Emma Gee to unite Asian Americans under one shared identity. In doing so, Ichioka and Gee were also the first to coin the term "Asian American" and use it to mobilize people of Asian descent on a national level,
The AAPA's focus on pan-Asian unity and political activism set it apart from other Asian cultural groups. By searching for students with Asian surnames on the directories of on-campus political groups, As a scholar, Ichioka made efforts to understand migrant experience from a holistic and transnational lens, aiming to identify how broader forces of history like war, racism, nationalism, and imperialism influenced Issei perspectives, decisions, and behaviors.