[2] Yamagiwa attended the University of Washington, then later transferred to Bates College, located in Maine.
He completed his studies in 1942, with a treatise entitled The Older Inflected Forms of Surviving in the Modern Japanese Written Language.
[2] From 1942–1946, Yamagiwa held the position of Director of the Army Military Intelligence Japanese school located at Ann Arbor and the position of Supervisor of the Language Program for the Army Specialized Training Program and the Civil Affairs Training School from 1943 until 1945.
He accepted the role of Chairman of the Department of Far Eastern Languages and Literature and was employed in that position until 1964.
He was appointed the Fulbright Lecturer in Japanese literature, language, and thought at Oxford University.