Yoshio Shiga (communist)

Yoshio Shiga (志賀 義雄) was a member of the Japanese Communist Party.

Biography
Yoshio Shiga was born in Yamaguchi in 1901. He became involved with left-wing movements while attending Tokyo Imperial University. He was arrested in 1928 and remained in prison until 1945. He was editor of the Red Flag (Akahata) and a member of the House of Representatives. During his time in the National Diet, 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 Ichizo Suzuki, 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. Shiga died in 1989.

Popular culture
Yoshio Shiga appears in the docu-drama "Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Natsu" (“Japan’s Longest Summer”). Shiga is played by Soichiro Tahara.

Works

 * 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.