The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-30
By d. UCHIDA
Japanese Workers Association of
America.)

May Day!-labor's only holiday
yet one that is celebrated in an in
ternational scale. Down with tools
and into the street. Militant work
ers all over the world join, on this
day, in mass demonstration to show
the capitalist class their determin-
alton to fight to the last.
Just as it is celebrated in the
United States, France and Germany,
not to speak of the U. S. S. R., so in
Japan, too, this day is celebrated
as labor's day by the Japanese work
ers. To glance over its history in
Japan.
The first May Day celebration in
Japan was held in small upstairs
room of certain comrades home
twenty-four years ago, in 1905-the
year the Japanese militarists
emerged victorious from the strug-
gle against the giant tsarist Rus
STA, at the expense of the lives of
tens of thousands of Japanese work
ers and peasants. 1t was quiet
May Day, nevertheless a significant
beginning.
The intervening years from 1906
to 1920 saw almost no celebrations
or mass demonstrations on the
streets of Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, etc.,
on May first. This, however, did not
mean that the Japanese workers
were indifferent to this day. 1t was
only because the strong hand OF the
rising Japanese bourgeoisie which,
together with the rich land-owning
class the remnant of feudalism-
practically controlled political power,
suppressed every effort of the class
conscious workers to make this day
the day of international labor solid
arity. Another factor was the pros
perity prevalent.
With the close of the World War,
however, great crisis came over
Japanese industrialism, as over the
industries of the nations of the rest
of the world. Wage-cut followe.
wage-cut. Unemployment increased.
At the same time, the small tenant
farmers, who number some three
million in all, were pushed down to
extreme poverty.
However, combating the strong
suppressing hand of the bourgeoisie,
the workers and peasants of Japan
rose up once again, determined to re-
new their old fight against the cap.
italist class. Thus, in 1920, a mass
May Day celebration was resumed.
Thousands of workers participated
in the demonstrations held in big in.
dustrial cities like Tokyo, Osaka,
Kobe, etc. Among the slogans then
carried were the "Eight-hour day."
and immediate recognition of Soviet
Russia" not to speak of some more
specific demands of Japanese work.
ers. Of these demands the first has
not yet been realized. However, the
second, recognition of Soviet Russia,
was achieved not long afterward.
The class struggle in Japan to-
day is very acute. And the history
of the fight of the Japanese work
ers and peasants against the bour-
geoisie in the past few years is one
of the most valiant in the history
of the modern world. 1t is full of
sacrifice and bloodshed on the part
of the workers and peasants. The
arrest of 1000 most militant fight
ers, both Communists and non-Com-
munists, in single nights raid,
last spring; the murder of Comrade
Watanabe by police in Formosa last
summer; and the political assassin
alton of Comrade Yamamoto, the
only labor member of the Japanese
parliament who belonged to the
"Labor-Farmer Party" dissolved last
month, on the very day of the pass
ing of an important bill against
which he fought to his last minute
and which provided the worst for
capital punishment or life imprison-
ment for every Communist worker