Yoshitora Kawai
Born18 July 1902
Japan
Died4 September 1923

Yoshitora Kawai (1902–1923) was a Japanese communist activist involved with many Tokyo-based political groups.

He attended Honzan hospital's nurse training school, but moved to Tokyo's Kameido district in September 1920 after being exposed to socialism from a professor, Oka Sensei. He was a member of Gyōminkai (Enlightened People's Society), a communist study group, and joined the Nankatsu Labor Union alongside Tanno Setsu. In March 1923, Kawai created the Tokyo Communist Youth League, the first instance of a group openly labeling themselves as Communists.[1] During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Kawai was reported as having rescued three children who had been trapped under a collapsed house.[2] Amidst the chaos of the earthquake's aftermath, he was captured on 2 September 1923, and a few days later, was killed by police in prison during the Kameido Incident.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 Hane, Mikiso (1988). Reflections on the Way to the Gallows. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0520084216.
  2. ↑ "Hidden history behind 1923 quake: communists killed by power". Japan Press Weekly. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  3. ↑ Andrew Gordon (21 January 1991). Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan. University of California Press.
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