After several years failing at Texas rice farming, Katayama returned to Japan in 1907 writing this letter to comrades in the U.S. on the Socialist movement as he found it.

‘Our Special Letter from Japan’ from Sen Katayama from St. Louis Labor. Vol. 4 No. 329. May 25, 1907.

Comrade Katayama Writes About the Oriental Labor and Socialist Movements…Socialist and Labor Publications Suppressed, Editors Imprisoned, the Socialist Party Dissolved, Strikes Broken Up by the Military and Strike Leaders Thrown Into Dungeon…Yet, the Masses Are Waking Up and the Movement Is Bound to Grow.

Kingsley Hall, Misabicho, Kanda, Tokyo, Japan, April 30th, 1907.

Mr. G. A. Hoehn, Editor St. Louis Labor:

Dear Comrade–I returned two months ago from your country. Since then many things have happened that will mark the progress of Socialism in Japan. During two months our Socialist Daily fought the bravest battle against the government and the capitalist class.

Japan’s working classes are awakening to a class-conscious solidarity. They have been compelled to resist their oppressive employers. They are yet unorganized, but acted repeatedly like one body and have won many a strike. Some labor troubles caused the capitalist government to order out for active service its army and to shoot down the poor strikers. But the labor movement in Japan has been spreading like wildfire and is gaining ground every day. Some of the strikers are now in prison, also some of the Socialist leaders, awaiting trial. The government, however, keeps them in prison as long as it suits its purposes. This the government does willfully in order to keep the Socialist agitators out of the field of propaganda. Our Socialist Daily was suppressed two weeks ago. Three of our editors went to prison to suffer for what they said or wrote, i.e., the truth in behalf of the workingman! We have at present no organization and no organ. Many of our workers are tired out. Comrade Kotoku’s new book was prohibited from circulation and all the books found were confiscated. Our comrades are compelled to starve. We are not allowed to write and publish a Socialist book or publish a paper. Our Socialist Party was also suppressed a month ago. United action, therefore, is impossible at present. But, in spite of all this oppression and persecution the government can not stop the people from waking up and becoming Socialistic. Our members have been increasing steadily.

Ten days ago we organized a labor club in Tokyo and we are going to have the first social meeting tomorrow, May 1. I am sure that this club will soon be a powerful organization. As to myself, I am going to give my entire time for the cause of labor and Socialism from now on. Workers of the land ask me to start a movement distinctly social and economic, so that they can get a stronger organization. By suppressing the Socialist movement and its papers and other literature the government simply attests to the fact that it is much afraid of the working class movement. In the government arsenals, navy yards and the government railroad they have promulgated accident and life insurance, though it is meager, indeed. This is no doubt a result of our movement and propaganda.

I am trying to start a weekly paper soon. But it will be a very difficult task to get it widely circulated. Our police prohibit and try to prevent the workers from reading labor papers. Post officers advise them not to read the Socialist papers. Moreover, the government is hunting after every little thing supposed to have a tendency towards endangering “law and order.” It confiscates papers, machinery, type and other printing material and sends the editors to prison. However, we are hopeful, and the prospects for the growth of our movement are good throughout the Empire, even in China and Corea.

Finally, I like to say a few words about the Japanese in the United States, and the anti-Japanese movement on the Pacific coast. I am sorry that this movement has been growing so rapidly along the coasts. We, who are acquainted with things in the United States, know full well that the large majority of the Americans do not hate the Japanese. But our people at home feel their brothers ill-treated, insulted and discriminated against, and these rather unpleasant feelings against the Americans has been steadily growing among the masses of our people in Japan, in spite of the flowery and exaggerated assurances of President Roosevelt. Yet, our children at San Francisco are examined in order to enter the grammar school, and our workers are discriminated against by Europeans. These things the Japanese at home think should not be. The feeling against the Americans is growing. Our people speak about the American injustice and prejudice toward the Japanese. Our people as a whole, however, do not express themselves openly, because they still feel indebted to the United States for past sympathy and kindness, in various ways expressed or implied.

I am glad that Comrade Lee submitted a resolution on the matter. I sincerely hope that a mutual understanding of the two nations will stop the anti-Japanese and the anti-American movements and establish relations of international peace and harmony for the good of all. Yours truly,

S.J. KATAYAMA.

long-running socialist paper begun in 1901 as the Missouri Socialist published by the Labor Publishing Company, this was the paper of the Social Democratic Party of St. Louis and the region’s labor movement. The paper became St. Louis Labor, and the official record of the St. Louis Socialist Party, then simply Labor, running until 1925. The SP in St. Louis was particularly strong, with the socialist and working class radical tradition in the city dating to before the Civil War. The paper holds a wealth of information on the St Louis workers movement, particularly its German working class.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/missouri-socialist/070525-stlouislabor-v06n329.pdf