Yoshio Shiga (communist)

Yoshio Shiga was born in Hagi, Yamaguchi, on 1 January 1901. His father was one of the first steamship captains in Japan. He was highly interested in the French Revolution in high school and became engaged with socialism after the Rice riots of 1918. After entering a college-preparatory school in 1919, he started to read Marxist literature. He attended Tokyo Imperial University from 1922 to 1925.{{sfn|Swearingen|Langer|1968|pp=115-116}}

After graduating from college Shiga joined Sanzō Nosaka's Industrial Labor Research Institute and enlisted into the army for one year. He was the editor of the magazine Marxism until his arrest in March 1928,{{sfn|Swearingen|Langer|1968|p=116}} remained in prison until 1945. The JCP selected Shiga to be editor-in-chief of the party's newspaper, Akahata.{{sfn|Swearingen|Langer|1968|p=116}}

Shiga served in the House of Representatives from May 1946 to April 1947, and February 1949 to 6 June 1950.{{sfn|Swearingen|Langer|1968|p=116}} During his tenure Shiga was in favour of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He was also the leader of those in the JCP who supported the treaty. Because of his support for the treaty, he and {{ill|Ichizo Suzuki|jp|鈴木市蔵}}, another member of the JCP who supported the test ban, were expelled from the party. They later established a pro-Soviet Communist Party known as the Voice of Japan.{{cite book|last=Alexander|first=Robert Jackson|title=Maoism in the Developed World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjM-4ZG9iuMC&pg=PA171|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-96148-0|page=171}} Shiga died in 1989.{{cite book|title=Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan|author=Prof J A A Stockwin|publisher=Routledge|date=Aug 27, 2003|isbn=0415151708 }}

Yoshio Shiga appears in the docu-drama "Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Natsu" (“Japan’s Longest Summer”). Shiga is played by Soichiro Tahara.{{cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2010/07/30/films/film-reviews/nihon-no-ichiban-nagai-natsu-japans-longest-summerishii-teruo-eiga-tamashi-teruo-ishii-the-soul-of-film/#.VpeGu1mJ3IX |title='Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Natsu (Japan's Longest Summer)'/'Ishii Teruo: Eiga Tamashi (Teruo Ishii: The Soul of Film)' |publisher=The Japan Times}}

• Appeal to the People
• Eighteen Years in Prison (Gokuchu juhachi-nen) by Kyuichi Tokuda and Yoshio Shiga. Published by the Japanese Communist Party Party in 1948.

• Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Swearingen |first1=Rodger |last2=Langer |first2=Paul |title=Red Flag In Japan: International Communism In Action 1919-1951 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1968 |url=https://archive.org/details/redflaginjapanin00swea |isbn=0837168805}}

• {{cite book |title= Japan Diary|last=Gayn|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Gayn|publisher= Tuttle Publishing|date= Dec 15, 1989 }}
• William D. Hoover (2011). Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan. Scarecrow Pres.

• {{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812407,00.html|title=Japan: Red Schism |magazine=Time |date=May 8, 1950 }}
• {{cite news |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212286159?searchTerm=communist%201928%20japan&searchLimits=|title=Communists Say Blood Will Flow in Japan |newspaper=The Evening Advocate |date= October 4, 1945 }}
• {{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19451015&id=2mlIAAAAIBAJ&pg=4990,6441156&hl=en|title= Military Oblivion Is Japs' Fate |newspaper=The Evening Independent |date=October 15, 1945}}
• {{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19460105&id=uXcbAAAAIBAJ&pg=2429,946248&hl=en |title=Japs Tested Bubonic Plague On Yanks, Communist Says |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |date= January 5, 1946}}
• {{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19451113&id=vHNWAAAAIBAJ&pg=6840,3177812&hl=en|title=Communists Out to Get Hirohito |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |date=November 13, 1945}}
• {{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19451113&id=3y8rAAAAIBAJ&pg=5239,1892627&hl=en |title=Exile Hirohito Jap Reds Insist |newspaper=Montreal Gazette |date=November 13, 1945}}
• {{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19451005&id=Le4-AAAAIBAJ&pg=6294,2955372&hl=en |title=Japanese Diet Called Farce |newspaper=The Tuscaloosa News |date= October 5, 1945}}
• {{cite web |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50200359?searchTerm=yoshio%20shiga%20prison&searchLimits= |title=Reds Seek Trial Of Hirohito |newspaper=The Advertiser |date=February 3, 1950}}
• {{cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_japan-times_1964-10-04_23607/page/n7/mode/1up?view=theater |title=The JCP vs. the Intellectuals: Attempt to Form New Force of Red Splinter Groups Seen |work=The Japan Times |date=October 4, 1964}}

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Category:1901 births

Category:1989 deaths

Category:People from Yamaguchi Prefecture

Category:University of Tokyo alumni

Category:Japanese Communist Party politicians

Category:Japanese revolutionaries

Category:Japanese prisoners and detainees

Category:Prisoners and detainees of Japan