Mitsuye yamada biography examples
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Mitsuye Yamada
Japanese-American poet and activist (born )
Mitsuye Yamada (born July 5, ) is a Japanese American poet, essayist, and feminist and human rights activist. She fryst vatten one of the first and most vocal Asian American women writers to write about the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Early life
[edit]Mitsuye Yamada was born as Mitsuye Mei Yasutake in Fukuoka, Japan on July 5, [1] Her parents were Jack Kaichiro Yasutake and Hide Shiraki Yasutake, both first-generationJapanese Americans (Issei) residing in Seattle, Washington. Her mother was visiting relatives in Japan when she was born, but had to return to Seattle to care for one of her brothers.[2] Mitsuye was left in the care of a neighboring family in Fukuoka until she was 3+1&#;2 years old, when her father's friend brought her back to Seattle.
At age 9, she returned to Japan to live with her paternal grandparents for 18 months. Upon returning, she spent the remainder of her ch
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By SHARON YAMATO
A wise man once said that to achieve greatness, one should live as if you will never die. At age 96, poet Mitsuye Yamada breathes life into those words.
Take, for example, in when she was told she had ankomsthall emphysema. Instead of succumbing to the diagnosis she became more determined than ever to continue with her work of writing and teaching. By , she had published her first book, “Camp Notes and Other Poems,” a volume of work written largely while she was incarcerated as a young woman at the bleak and desolate place called Minidoka.
“Camp Notes” has since become a classic in Asian American literature and an inspiration for poets, writers, survivors, feminists, and social activists alike to tackle the subject of incarceration through the written word.
I first met Mitsu (as she fryst vatten known by those who love her) last year when inom had the honor of interviewing her for I admit inom was a little apprehensive about conducting a video interview with an icon, much less o
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Yamada, Mitsuye
Born 5 July , Fukuoka, Japan
Daughter of Jack K. and Hide Shirake Yasutake; married Yoshikazu Yamada, ; children: Jeni, Stephen, Douglas, Hedi
Mitsuye Yamada was born in Japan of naturalized Japanese American parents and lived in Seattle, Washington, until the outbreak of World War II, when her family was relocated to the concentration camp at Minidoka, Iowa. Yamada left the camp to attend school at the University of Cincinnati and New York University (B.A., ). She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago in and did further graduate study at the University of California at Irvine. A professor of English, Yamada taught in California at Fullerton College () and at Cypress College from until her retirement in She has received several awards, including the Vesta award for writing from the Woman's Building of Los Angeles () and the Women of Achievement award from the Rancho Santiago Foundation ().
Yamada's poetry, essays, and short fiction have appeared