Yamada, Mitsuye

Biography

Mitsuye Yamada was born Mitsuye May Yasutake in Kyushu, Japan on July 5, 1923. When she was three years of age, her parents immigrated with their young family to the United States. Although she was sent back to Japan to live with her grandmother for eighteen months when she was 11-12 years old, Yamada spent most of her formative years in Seattle, Washington.

On December 7, 1941, immediately following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mitsuye's father, Jack K. Yasutake was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Lewis, Washington. The rest of the Yasutake family was sent to the Minidoka Relocation Center in Hunt, Idaho. This experience made a deep impression on Yamada and informed much of her later literary and political career. After the war, she completed a B.A. at New York University and an M.A. at the University of Chicago, both in English literature. In 1950 she married Yoshikasu Yamada. The couple lived in New York for some years prior to moving to Orange County, California in the 1960s. In 1966 Yamada began teaching English at Fullerton Junior College. Her teaching career later included Cypress Junior College and a visiting professorships at campuses within the University of California system.

In the mid-1970s Yamada began publishing her poetry and editing the poetry of others, and was soon actively involved in the Orange County literary scene. According to her own accounts, she moved away from the formalist training she received at NYU and later at the University of Chicago and embraced a style of poetry that emphasized "substance." In 1975 she co-edited an anthology written by like-minded poets, and in 1976 her own book, Camp Notes and Other Poems, was published by the Shameless Hussy Press. These publications were followed in 1986 by The Webs We Weave: Orange County Poetry Anthology, which she co-edited, and in 1988 by a new book of her own poems, Desert Run: Poems and Stories, published by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Her books reflect themes from her Japanese American heritage and her experiences in the internment camp. From the 1970s until well into the 1990s, Yamada engaged in an increasingly busy schedule of public readings, which became more and more focused on the political ideas underlying her poetry and often served as platforms for calls to political action.

In part due to her camp experience, Yamada has been sensitive to issues involving ethnic diversity and women's rights. By 1975 she was a member of the Irvine chapter of Amnesty International (AI) and has since continued to support AI's goals and objectives, at times serving in national offices for the organization. She was also actively involved in supporting the redress movement, a political and legal campaign by Japanese Americans to receive financial and moral recompense for their treatment by the United States government during World War II. Her teaching career has reflected her political interests, and she was a strong early proponent of using lower-division English courses as an introduction to multiculturalism. She was a major participant in the successful movement to establish an Asian American Studies Program at the University of California, Irvine.

Biographical/Historical note

• 1923 July 5: Born Mitsuye May Yasutake in Kyushu, Japan to Jack Kaichire and Hide Yasutake.
• 1926 or 1927: Immigrates with her family to the United States.
• circa 1934 - 1936 : Returns to Japan to live with her grandmother for 18 months.
• 1942 - 1943 : Interned with her family at Minidoka Relocation Center in Hunt, Idaho.
• 1943 - 1945 : Permitted to leave Minidoka to work and study at the University of Cincinnati.
• 1947: Receives B.A., New York University.
• 1950: Marries Yoshikadzu Yamada, research chemist and watercolor artist.
• 1951 November 28: Daughter Jeni Ellen Yamada born.
• 1953: Receives M.A., University of Chicago.
• 1955: Becomes a United States citizen.
• 1957 December 4: Son Stephen Matthew Yamada born.
• 1957: Studies at the Graduate School of Linguistics at Columbia University.
• 1959 August 25: Son Douglas Kai Yamada born.
• 1961 September 29: Daughter Hedi Louise Yamada born.
• 1966 - 1969 : Instructor, Humanities Division, Fullerton College.
• 1969 - 1989 : Instructor of English Literature and Composition and Coordinator of Women's Program, Cypress College.
• 1975: Noon, Joins Irvine Urgent Action Group of Amnesty International.
• 1976: Camp Notes and Other Poems
• 1979: Receives Pacific Asian-American Center Award for service to the Asian American community.
• 1980: Receives Orange County Arts Alliance Literary Arts Award. Founds Multicultural Women's Writers (MCWW) and serves as Coordinator.
• 1981: Mitsuye and Nellie: Two American Poets.
• 1981 - 1982 : Lecturer, Women's Studies, CSU Long Beach.
• 1982: Receives Vesta Award for Writing, Woman's Building of Los Angeles.
• 1983: Serves as Resource Scholar, Multicultural Women's Institute, University of Chicago.
• 1984: Receives Writer's Fellowship, Yaddo Artist Colony, Saratoga Springs, New York. Receives Award for Contribution to the Status of Women from the organization Women For: Orange County.
• 1985: Receives Women's Network Alert Literature Award.
• 1986: The Webs We Weave: Orange County Poetry Anthology
• 1987: Visiting Poet, Pitzer College, Claremont, California. Receives Women of Distinction Award from Soroptomist International of the Americas. Begins service on Amnesty International U.S.A. Committee on International Development.
• 1987 - 1991 : Serves on Board of Directors for Amnesty International U.S.A.
• 1988: Desert Run: Poems and Stories
• 1989: Receives Distinguished Teacher Award from North Orange County Community College District upon retiring from Cypress College. Receives award for contributions to ethnic studies from MELUS.
• 1990: Sowing Ti Leaves: Writings by Multicultural Women
• 1990 - 1991 : Visiting professor, M.F.A. Creative Writing Program, San Diego State University.
• 1991: Participates in First Amnesty International Intersectional Meeting on Women and Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland. Serves as member of the U.S. delegation to Amnesty International council meetings in Yokohama, Japan. Receives Woman of Achievement Award from the Santiago Ranch Foundation.
• 1991 - 1992 : Visiting associate professor, University of California, Los Angeles.
• 1992: Receives the Jesse Bernard Wise Women Award from the Center for Women's Policy Studies, Washington, D.C. Commencement speaker at CSU Northridge.
• 1992 - 1995 : Serves on the Board of Directors of the California Council for the Humanities.
• 1993 - 1994 : Visiting professor, M.F.A. Creative Writing Program, San Diego State University.
• 1995: Receives "Write On, Women!" award from the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research.
• 1997: Receives Give Women Voice Award during International Women's Day, U.S.A. Appointed adjunct assistant professor in Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

From the guide to the Mitsuye Yamada papers, 1940-2005, (University of California, Irvine. Libraries. Special Collections and Archives.)

Mitsuye Yamada is an acclaimed poet and human rights activist whose published poems deal chiefly with her family's internment, along with all Japanese Americans living along the western U.S. coast, by the United States government from 1942-1945.

From the description of Mitsuye Yamada papers, 1942-1998 (bulk 1975-1991). (University of California, Irvine). WorldCat record id: 44097814