Likely written by Takeshi Takahashi, an appeal in the aftermath of the Hawaiian sugar strike for Japanese workers in the U.S. to join the I.W.W. from the short-lived, bi-lingual Proletarian newspaper.

‘Open Letter to Japanese Workers in America’ by the Japanese Members of the Industrial Workers of the World from The Proletarian/プロレタリア(Chicago). No. 2. August 25, 1909.

The Japanese Union Headquarters,

921 F Street. Fresno, Cal.

Fellow Workers and Brothers:

We believe that in your veins the red and hot blood streams; that in your heart the fire of revolt against the present unjust society, burning. A spirit that descends from the cherry blossoms; that is born from fairy Fuji Mountain; a spirit that is not proud of the patriotism of a nation, a spirit to dare to die for justice and liberty in the cause of humanity.

We are however parted from each other by thousands of miles, yet our hearts are beating in unison of one impulse.

We workingmen of the world are being robbed and duped of what we are entitled to by the captains of industry and the lords of commerce.

So we hear and see the misery of life; the bitterness of poverty and starvation.

Do we not experience it ourselves? Indeed what would it be worth to live in our age?

“Workers of the World Unite! you have nothing to lose but your chains, and you haven world to gain”.

A voice of strong prophecy from the wild, swept the field like a thunder cloud. As its ozone does, so were we revived and inspired. See: there on the horizon yonder, the new aspiration and humanity are raising.

Where do we Japanese workers in this country stand today? We abide in bitterest condition of all–Almost unbearable contempt is bestowed upon us. Our rights as humans are denied; the immigration law restrictions are particularly for the Japanese workers, because we are called a yellow detriment to American public. The using of ballot by us has been defied even though we do not wish to chew rotten rags given by American capitalists.

The exclusion completely accomplished, moreover every day of our life, like that of ancient pastoral people who with their cattle followed the water and grass, we wander in this continent east to west and west to east seeking merely the mercy of the exploiting class.

Fellow workers! are you working with a heavy pick, in the dark of a mine or the wilds where the climate is the worst? Pale face, are you working in the store basement without sunshine and breathing the dust of packings? Is your life not menaced in the factory and the mills by accident? You domestic and hotel worker! are you eating the “Oamari” in the corner of the kitchen?

It is so terrible; “consumption” “debility”, “exhausted”, “killed”, “suicide”, this is the only fate awaiting you as reward for your sacrifice to a few idiots.

Unless we realize our own interests as a class, we Japanese will soon meet the precipice–precipice of shame and starvation.

We welcome the organization that is known as the Japanese Workers Union, a strong sign of the awakening of the “inferior race” of America, but we Japanese members of the Industrial Workers of the World urge and invite you to join the Industrial Workers of the World, which organization is the only workers union in America that stands for uniting the world of workers in the interest of the working class alone.

It stands for the Industrial unionism, instead of the craft system of scabbery in the warfare against the employing class.

One Union! One Label! One enemy! is the I.W.W. motto. Organizing workers into one union no matter as to color of skin or difference in flags, the I.W.W. recognizes only one enemy, the capitalists class.

Why should we need stand by a nation, when the Japanese capitalist and official disregards all boundary lines and nations whenever their interests demand it.

This fact was clearly proved during the time of the recent strike of the Japanese plantation workers in the Hawaiian Islands.

Now is the time to leave your old shell to regenerate.

When the Japanese Workers Union affiliate with the I.W.W. as an industrial union or a language branch according to the constitution of the I.W.W., you will feel your power strengthened.

No longer shall we be accused as scabs by the yellow scabbing A.F.L., nor shall we isolate from the labor movement of America.

There is apt to come great fighting in the near future as a result of the recent strike in Hawaii. A victory or a bitter defeat depend on us deciding whether to take part in the world movement of the workers or remaining as a nationality wrangling over petty sentiment.

Fellow Workers:

Remember we have nothing in common with the army of millions, and the thousands ton battle ships of the Japanese government, never in the past or in the future will they be our friends, they are always an enemy to us and humanity.

There is only one strong weapon left for us that is “Industrial Unionism”. Organize the workers into one union against one enemy.

This is what the I.W.W. stands for and advocates.

The I.W.W. is the revolutionary economic organization out of the domain of any political party. Fellow Workers:

A Union of Japanese workers 4000 strong! The union is of such influence that no employer can touch it at all. A splendid weekly organ: “The Labor” in which revolutionary methods are taught such as general strike and other direct actions.

Why then should you not come one step forward? The I.W.W. is the only workers organization in America.

Fellow workers:

The time is rapidly approaching now. The two great hostile armies, namely capitalists class and working class will clash soon in a fierce battle at Waterloo or Sekiga-Hara. A day which will define our fate.

Hear! A sound, slight but distinct calling you Forward “Forward”, to gain the world into our hand.

“Oh you youths, Western youths”, “So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and Friendship” “Plain I see you Western youths, See you tramping with the foremost. Pioneers! oh Pioneers!”, (Whitman)

We urgently invite you to affiliate with the Japanese members of I.W.W.

The Proletarian, a bilingual paper published in Chicago by Takeshi Takahashi for ‘Japanese members of the Industrial Workers of the World’, lasted on briefly with a few issues produced in 1909 and 1910. Takeshi came to America as a teenage anarchist, a “disciple of Denjiro Kotoku,” in 1906, and attempted to build a branch of Kotoku’s Socialist Revolutionary Party, established that year in San Francisco. The SRP and the Bay Area I.W.W. held meetings and exchanged papers and by June, 1907 the San Francisco I.W.W. was producing leaflets in Japanese. At the same time, the Socialist Party had passed anti-Asian resolutions in California and nationally. While in Chicago Takahashi’s anarchism developed into anarcho-syndicalism and he joined the I.W.W. in 1907, writing articles about Japanese labor in Hawaii and Japan. With the encouragement of Emma Goldman, Josephine Conger Kaneko and others, he launched The Proletariat in 1909. However it was only to last a year for lack of financial support.

PDF of full issue: https://files.libcom.org/files/The%20Proletarian%20Chicago%20No%202%20August%2025%201909%20English%20Japanese%20Bilingual_1.pdf