Background
Miyagi was born in Okinawa in 1903.
宮城 与徳
Miyagi was born in Okinawa in 1903.
When he was sixteen, he came to California after contracting tuberculosis. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1926, where he worked as an artist and ran the Owl Restaurant. Miyagi was aware of the exploitation of Okinawan farmers by the Japanese, and witnessed similar treatment of Japanese by Euro-Americans.
In 1932, he was asked to return to Japan on a mission for the Communist International.
On October 24, 1933, he left San Pedro on the Buenos Aires Maru, bound for Yokohama. He expected to return to the United States.
While in Japan, Miyagi established a diverse network of informants, which included a secretary to an Imperial Army general. Miyagi translated Japanese reports and newspaper articles into English for Richard Sorge.
Miyagi died in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo in the middle of his trial in 1943.
He was 40 years old. The Order of the Patriotic War (Second Class) was posthumously awarded to Yotoku Miyagi in 1964.
In 1931 Miyagi became a member of the Japanese Section of the CPUSA, but was never an active party member. By 1941, all the members of Sorge"s spy ring had been rounded up, and they had all made confessions.