Shoichi Ichikawa

Born Mar. 20, 1892; died Mar. 15, 1945. Activist in the working-class movement of Japan.

Ichikawa graduated from the department of literature atWaseda University in 1916 and became involved in the working-class movement. When the Communist Party of Japan was es-tablished in 1922, he joined it and edited the journal Musankaikyu (The Indigent Class). In 1923 he was imprisoned. In1928 he represented the Communist Party of Japan at the sixthcongress of the Comintern in Moscow, where he was elected amember of the organization’s Executive Committee. Upon re-turning to Japan he headed the party’s Central Committee. Hewas arrested in April 1929. At his trial in 1931 he defended theprogram and tactics of the party. He was sentenced to life impris-onment. In his absence the seventh congress of the Comintern(1935) elected him a member of its Executive Committee. Hewas tortured to death in Miyagi prison.