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Kyuichi Tokuda

Japanese politician, Communist, lawyer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ3265573
Source-derived summary

Kyuichi Tokuda (徳田 球一, Tokuda Kyūichi; September 12, 1894 – October 14, 1953) was a Japanese politician and first chairman of the Japanese Communist Party from 1945 until his death in 1953.

Biography

Kyuichi Tokuda was born in Nago, a village on Okinawa Island, on 12 September 1894. Tokuda stated that his father was the son of a trader from Kagoshima who impregnated his mistress and that his mother had a similar background as well. He was given a copy of Kōtoku Shūsui's Essence of Socialism at age 16.

After receiving a higher education in Tokyo and Kagoshima, Tokuda returned to Okinawa in 1913, and worked as a substitute elementary school teacher. Returning to Tokyo in 1917, he entered Nihon University in 1918, and graduated with a law degree three years later. He was one of the founding members of the Japanese Communist Party in 1922, and later became a member of its Central Committee. The Labour-Farmer Party ran him as a candidate in the 1928 election.

Tokuda was briefly imprisoned in 1923 and 1926, for participation in subversive movements. He visited the Soviet Union in both 1925 and 1927.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Kyuichi Tokuda” as japanese politician, Communist, lawyer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kyuichi, Tokuda and Japanese.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1894, 1953, 1945, 1913—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1894-09-12. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Kyuichi, Tokuda and Japanese providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kyuichi Tokuda”, the useful work is to connect “japanese politician, Communist, lawyer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3265573. VIAF identifies the subject as 50551238. The Library of Congress control number is n81092386. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1894, 1953, 1945 and 1913.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kyuichi Tokuda”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kyuichi Tokuda primary sources, Kyuichi Tokuda archive and Kyuichi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kyuichi Tokuda”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Kyuichi Tokuda” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.