Editor’s note: This article tells the life story of Jack Shirai, a Japanese internationalist fighter who participated in the Spanish Anti-Fascist International Brigades. A Japanese person, traveling a long distance, came to the land of Spain and regarded the Spanish people’s anti-fascist cause as his own, embodying the spirit of internationalism. He once participated in Japanese workers’ unions in the United States, opposing Japanese imperialist invasion of China and U.S. imperialist support for Japanese imperialist activities in China, and after the outbreak of the Spanish Anti-Fascist War, he resolutely volunteered to go to Spain as a member of the Anti-Fascist International Brigades to fight against Franco’s fascist rebels. His life proved that the Japanese people’s hearts are closely connected with the people of the world; they oppose Japanese imperialist aggression and all fascists. This exposes the so-called chauvinist fallacy spread by the Chinese revisionists that Japanese people support Japanese invasion of China, and is a strong blow to chauvinists in China.
Japanese in the International Brigades—Jack Shirai
Jack Shirai was born in 1900 in Hakodate City, Hokkaido. It is said that he was abandoned by his parents shortly after birth, and around the age of five, he was sent to an orphanage.
He left the orphanage at age 11 and was employed as a sailor on a cargo ship on the Kamchatka route, but at 17 he went to the Americas on a fishing boat. At 29, he stayed in the United States and worked as a baker and chef in New York City. Relying on his culinary skills, he changed jobs several times, and later worked as a chef at a Japanese restaurant. Although he had little political awareness, he had seen firsthand the harsh working conditions faced by Japanese immigrants and refugees escaping Japanese fascism, earning only a very meager salary. He was furious! He participated in Washington’s anti-hunger march and a demonstration at the San Francisco port, protesting against the U.S. shipment of scrap iron to Japan, which was used to manufacture weapons for invading China and East Asia. At the same time, he joined the Japanese Workers’ Union “Japanese Immigrant Labour Union,” dedicating himself to the workers’ movement. At that time, there were three Japanese groups in New York: the “Japanese Association,” composed of businessmen and diplomats and other elites supporting Japan’s policy towards China; the nationalist group “Atsukoku-dan” supporting Japan’s policies in China; and the working-class Japanese immigrant labour union.
On July 17, 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out. Although at that time the Japanese fascist government provided informal military support to Franco’s forces, he still went to France on December 26 with 96 American volunteers to join the International Brigades. They did not tell anyone where they were going, so they had no family or friends to see them off. On the night of January 6, 1937, they crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, traveling through Barcelona to the town of Albacete for military training. He was assigned to the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, 17th Regiment, 15th International Brigade. Appointed as a cook, Shirai was very dissatisfied with this assignment. He protested, “I won’t do kitchen work. I have a good Soviet rifle, I came here to fight fascists, I want to stay on the front lines! Who can fight fascists in the kitchen, to hell with the kitchen!” Later, after being persuaded by his political commissar, he was allowed to cook normally in the kitchen, but in case of front-line combat, he could join the front lines. He reluctantly accepted and became a gun-toting cook in the machine gun company.
In the following months, the Lincoln Battalion participated in the winter Yamala Valley campaign. During this period, Shirai developed deep friendships with comrades in the Lincoln Battalion, especially with Mel Offsink and Max Krauthamer.
Harry Fisher recalled some of their conversations: “After the war, they would open a restaurant, and anyone who participated in the Spanish Civil War wouldn’t have to pay. Shirai was also excited to describe the upcoming dishes to them.”
On July 11, 1937, during the Brunete campaign of the Madrid Defense, Shirai was allowed to leave the kitchen and go to the front line to fight, according to an earlier agreement with his political commissar. At that time, Franco’s forces, who had been ambushed, reoccupied and controlled the airspace. Near dusk, someone brought food, but it couldn’t be delivered to the trenches across an 18-meter open space. Shirai confidently said, “I’ll deliver it!” People told him to wait until night, but he jumped out of the trench. Gunfire rang out, and an enemy machine gun shot hit his neck, killing him instantly. That night, his comrades buried him under an olive tree in Cañada. His tombstone reads: “Jack Shirai, Japanese Anti-Fascist Warrior, Erected in Honor of His Courage, July 11, 1937.”
On October 4, 1937, the magazine of the 15th International Brigade, “Volunteers for the Fight for Freedom,” published a poem in his memory titled “The Fall of Jack Shirai.”
In 1966, Shirai’s comrades in the United States, Kamezō Sekiguchi, erected a monument for Shirai at the Unknown Soldiers’ Cemetery in Tokyo, with his name clearly engraved on the bronze plaque of the tombstone.
The Fall of Jack Shirai
I hear that Comrade Shirai fell.
我听说了白井同志的陨落
Who did not know him?
谁不知晓他
His funny pidgin English,
他那有趣的洋泾浜英语
His smiling eyes,
他那微笑的眼眸
And his brave heart,
和他那有力的心脏
Made him loved as a brother
让他像兄弟一样和蔼可亲
In the Abraham Lincoln Battalion,
在亚伯拉罕·林肯营
Jack Shirai of Hakodate,
函馆的杰克·白井
Son of Japanese earth.
日本大地的儿子
He went to America
他来到美国
Because at home there was no bread;
因为这里的家庭没有面包
Became a cook in Frisco.
来到弗里斯科当厨师
His art tickled the palates
他的食物像艺术一样使人垂涎三尺
Of the richest playboys of the city.
对于这里最富有的花花公子
In the summer of nineteen hundred thirty-six,
在1936年的夏天
As the newspaper wrote,
像报纸上说的一样
In Europe, in Spain,
在欧洲，在西班牙,
The Fascist wolf had come out to murder.
法西斯恶狼出来屠杀
Jack Shirai packed his few things
杰克·白井收拾了他仅有的东西
And was among the first
加入到第一批
To come from America
去美国的队伍里
Helping the Spanish people in their fight
帮助西班牙人民
For human rights.
争夺人权
When the bullets whistled
当子弹呼啸而过
And the tearing shells burst,
撕裂的外壳爆炸
Then the boys of the Lincoln Battalion
林肯营的战士们
Watched Jack Shirai.
看到了杰克·白井
He had a laughing heart!
他有一颗乐观的心
Once (in June on the Jarama)
有一次（在6月的加拉玛）
He was sent as a cook
他被派去当厨师
Behind the lines to a hospital.
在后方医院
They liked him there –the sick,
他们喜欢他-病人们
The wounded, everybody.
受伤的人，所有人
And the village farmers talked often
就连种地的村民也时常与他聊天
Of the Japanese who had come so far for them.
这个为他们做了这么多的日本人
Bout one day he ran away,
大约有一天，他走了
Back to the lines—to the front.
回到了前线
In the North, when we cracked
在北方，我们被击溃的时候
The ring around Madrid,
在马德里防线
He was there as we stormed Brunete,
当我们进攻布鲁内特的时候，他与我们并肩作战
And Villanueva de la Cañada.
但在维拉努埃瓦·德拉卡尼亚达
As the night was bright
当夜晚被黎明划破时
With the shine of the burning towns,
与房屋的燃烧
Torn by exploding bombs
被炸弹撕裂
And the voices of the great guns,
还有大炮的声音
Jack Shirai fell.
杰克·白井已经陨落
The Abraham Lincoln Battalion
亚伯拉罕·林肯营
Of the People’s Army of Freedom,
一支为人民之自由而战的军队
And the Japanese proletariat,
与日本的无产阶级
Will not forget him.
我们永远不会忘记他
October 4, 1937, published in the magazine "Volunteers for Freedom" of the 15th International Brigade of the International Brigades
Full text of the poem “The Fall of Jack Bai”