Satokata Takahashi

Satokata Takahashi, born Naka Nakane (中根 中, Nakane Naka, 1870–1954^[1]) was also known as Satokata Takahishi, Satokata Takahashiin, Taka Ashe, and his first name was sometimes rendered as Satakata. Takahashi was a self-described major of the Imperial Japanese Army and affiliate of the Black Dragon Society. According to FBI reports he was the instigator of the Pacific Movement of the Eastern World, working through Ashima Takis.^[2]

When Mimo De Guzman was arrested by the FBI on July 30, 1942, he revealed that Takahashi was "a Japanese National" that was "the real power behind such groups as the Pacific Movement of the Eastern World, the Onward Movement of America and the Ethiopian Pacific Movement.^[3] Elijah Muhammad was friends with Takahashi, and Takahashi's wife, Pearl Sherrod was formerly a member of the Nation of Islam.^[4]

Early life and career

Takahashi was born Naka Nakane in Kitsuki, Empire of Japan in 1870. He was a member of a relatively prosperous former Samurai family, and was educated by American Methodist missionary Samuel Wainwright in his youth. He graduated from Kwansei Gakuin University as a member of its inaugural class, and initially was a pastor, founding a church in his hometown. However, possibly due to sexual impropriety, he was expelled from the parish he founded, and became an English teacher at a junior high school in the city. An affair with a local woman which bore two children may have contributed to his decision to emigrate to Canada in 1904.

After arriving in Victoria, he moved to Moose Jaw, then the largest city in Saskatchewan, and joined its burgeoning East Asian community. He became a naturalised British subject a and married an English woman, Annie Craddock, in Saint John in 1910. The marriage would produce four children. Nakane was proprietor of the Carlton Cafe in 1912 and La Hale Lodge in 1918.

In 1912, Saskatchewan Legislature voted to forbid “any Japanese, Chinaman or other Oriental person” from employing white females. Prior to the passage of the bill, Nakane wrote a letter to Saskatchewan Attorney General William Turgeon stating that the bill's passage "would be a great dishonour to our nation in general”. Nakata's complaints to the Saskatchewan and Japanese governments are believed to have contributed to a meeting between Turgeon and Japanese consul to Vancouver, Chonosuke Yada, in turn ensuring the exemption of Japanese businessmen from the law in 1913.

In 1920, Nakane moved to Tacoma, Washington, where his brother had lived since 1911. In Tacoma, he worked as a life insurance agent and had another child with Annie. He abruptly left the city in 1926, leaving behind his family and massive debts. He reemerged as Satokata Takahashi in Detroit, Michigan six years later; he would later claim to FBI interviewers that he had been sent to Detroit to preach by a black Tacoma pastor, Reverend White. In Detroit, he began making speaking appearances at black Churches, writing articles in black papers, and eventually became affiliated with the Nation of Islam.^[5]

Pro-Japanese activism

In the 1940s Selective Service registrars noticed African Americans in Chicago, Detroit, and several other large cities were refusing to register under religious grounds and described themselves as Muslim. They also were not seeking an exemption as conscientious objectors. Around this same time the FBI was receiving reports that Japan was funding African American groups that were radical and wanted a racial revolution. In April 1942, the FBI used undercover officers to infiltrate a group.^[6]

Black Dragon society

Through Takahashi, the Black Dragon society channeled financial aid to Black Muslim groups in the US.^[7]

Society for the Development of Our Own

Takahashi's Society for the Development of Our Own was a major organization in Black America responsible for the dissemination of pro-Japanese propaganda.^[4] He recruited several thousand members to the Pan-Asian cause, most of them of African-American, Filipino, or East Asian descent. The "Five Guiding Principles" of the group were "Freedom, Justice, Equality, Liberty, and Honour."^[8]

Nation of Islam

In 1939 the FBI charged that Nakane had been an influential presence in the Nation of Islam.^[9] He spoke as a guest at the NOI temples in Detroit and Chicago. He also influenced Elijah Muhammad's attitude towards the Japanese government. The FBI had a copy of a speech from 1933 where Mohammad proclaimed that the Japanese would kill the White man.

FBI informants noted that NOI's flag of a white crescent and white moon with a red background was similar to Japan's flag of a red sun with white rays on a red background. They also noted that the flag was similar to Turkey, whose population is mostly Muslim, and that the flag was similar to Soviet Union's whose flag is red with a single star and sickle.

Nakane was deported and moved to Canada. When he tried to return, he was charged with attempting to bribe an immigration officer and illegal entry. He received a 3-year sentence on this charge. Upon his release, he was interned for the duration of the war.^[10][11]

In an interview with the FBI Elijah Mohammad claimed he met Takahashi at a woman’s house, but could not recall who the woman was. He went there to pick up Brother Abdul Mohammad. Mohammad also claimed that Takahashi stayed at Abdul's house for several weeks because he was recovering from an illness. Additionally, Mohammad claimed that he and Takahashi discussed NOI and that Takahashi approved of his teachings.^[6]

The poster was of a map of the United States with Fard in the center, and was entitled "Calling the Four Winds." From each of the four directions there were guns that said "Asia" aimed at the US. Takahashi’s poster was almost identical, except Takahashi was in the center. "Calling the Four Winds" is a speech written by Cheaber McIntyre, Takahashi's mistress.^[6]

Internment and later life

In 1939, Nakane was arrested by immigration agents. He was charged with illegal entry (pertaining to his initial 1934 deportation), and was fined $4,500 and sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary. Before he was due to be released, authorities linked his agitation to the 1943 Detroit race riot. He was interned at FCI Leavenworth, and later, as the nearly 70-year-old Nakane's health failed, to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. He spent time in several Japanese Internment Camps and was paroled from a in Crystal City, Texas in 1946. He lived with Pearl Sherrod, a black romantic partner he met in Detroit, until his death on March 2, 1954.^[12]

See also

• 1943 Detroit race riot