Mitsuye Yamada

Masami Usui (Doshisha University)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège)

Dates

Born 5 Jul 1923
Activity 1976-ongoing

Places

Born in Japan
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Poet
Revolutionary, Activist
Story-writer

Resources

Yamada's Works

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Mitsuye Yamada was born in Fukuoka in Kyushu Japan as a Nisei or second-generation Japanese American while her Issei, or first generation Japanese American, mother was visiting Japan. Yamada emigrated to the United States in 1926 and spent her childhood and adolescent days with her family in Seattle. Her father, Jack Kaichiro Yasutake, worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Immigration Service and founded the

Senryu

Society in Seattle.

At the outbreak of World War II, her father was arrested for espionage by the FBI, and in 1942 Yamada was interned with her family in Camp Minidoka, Idaho. Yamada and her brother, Seiichi Yasutake, were allowed to leave the concentration camp to work and attend college. Yamada first went to the University of Cincinnati in 1944. In 1947 she received her B.A.

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763 words

Citation: Usui, Masami. "Mitsuye Yamada". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4825, accessed 24 November 2024.]