Yuri Kochiyama Quotes

#1. The United States of America is a nation where people are not united because of those three glaring frailties: racism, injustices and inequities.

Yuri Kochiyama

#2. I didn't wake up and decide to become an activist. But you couldn't help notice the inequities, the injustices. It was all around you.

Yuri Kochiyama

#3. We are all part of one another.

Yuri Kochiyama

#4. People have a right to violence, to rebel, to fight back.

Yuri Kochiyama

#5. The most important thing today is to stop US wars.

Yuri Kochiyama

#6. I lived in San Pedro, California, which is, you know, on the west side of California, and it's where many, many Japanese lived.

Yuri Kochiyama

#7. Don't become too narrow. Live fully. Meet all kinds of people. You'll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart.

Yuri Kochiyama

#8. Our ultimate objective in learning about anything is to try to create and develop a more just society.

Yuri Kochiyama

#9. The movement is contagious, and the people in it are the ones who pass on the spirit.

Yuri Kochiyama

#10. I don't think there will ever be a time when people will stop wanting to bring about change.

Yuri Kochiyama

#11. When you're in a black group, you have to keep in mind you're not black. You just have to be sensitive. We have to be appreciative that the black nationalist struggle is a nationalist struggle.

Yuri Kochiyama

#12. Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another.

Yuri Kochiyama

#13. I tell you, in this country, you don't get much of an education. Throughout high school, through junior college, which is all I went, I didn't know anything about the annihilation of all the Indian nations that were here.

Yuri Kochiyama

#14. Projects meant living with blacks and Puerto Ricans, but that's what we wanted. Living in the projects, we've met so many wonderful, wonderful people.

Yuri Kochiyama

#15. So, transform yourself first ... Because you are young and have dreams and want to do something meaningful, that in itself, makes you our future and our hope. Keep expanding your horizon, decolonize your mind, and cross borders.

Yuri Kochiyama