Mitsuye Yamada (born July 5, 1923) is a Japanese American poet, essayist, and feminist and human rights activist.
[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.
[4] When World War II broke out, Mitsuye's father Jack Yasutake was branded an enemy alien and arrested on suspicion of espionage.
[5] Jack worked as a translator for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and was also the founder of the local Senryū club whose members would read their poems at the family home in Seattle.
Mike was soon expelled because the U.S. Air Force was conducting "sensitive wartime research on campus and requested his removal" but Mitsuye was allowed to continue studying at the university (Yamada, 1981).
During the time of Mitsuye's upbringing, Japanese society did not offer women much freedom; they were unable to obtain higher education or choose a husband on their own accord.
Yamada's personal and familiar ordeals throughout World War II and observations of her mother's way of life bring anti-racist and feminist attitudes to her works.
Yamada recognizes that Asian American women have not been fully represented as "sites of complex intersections of race, gender, and national identity."
"Cincinnati" illustrates the visible racial violence and "The Question of Loyalty" shows the invisible humiliation of the Japanese during World War II.
She wrote the book to promote public awareness surrounding the discrimination against the Japanese during the war and to prompt deeper discussion of these issues.
Some poems, especially "The Club," indicate that Yamada expanded her point of view to include feminist as well as racist issues because they recount sexual and domestic violence against women.
At 96 years old, Yamada has released her latest work, Full Circle: New and Selected Poems Publisher: University of California at Santa Barbara Department of Asian American Studies.