Career
A labor activist in both the United States and Japan, Akiya was also an intellectual figure in the Japanese-American community. Born in 1909 in San Francisco, California, Akiya spent the early years of his life in Japan, where he was first sent to receive an education at the age of six. Politically conscious since his student years, the staunchly leftist Akiya immigrated to the United States out of opposition to Japanese militarism in the decades preceding World World War World War II During World World War II, he was interned at Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.
His essays, fiction, and an autobiography were published in The New York Bungei, a Japanese-language magazine Akiya helped found in 1959.