Hisaye Yamamoto was an American writer, most renowned for her short story collection Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories, published in 1988. Although she was Japanese-American, her work reflected the plight of many other minorities in the “melting pot” that is the United States. This piece looks at the origins of Yamamoto’s identity as an African-American. Read on to find out more about this important woman in American history.
Hisaye Yamamoto was a Japanese American writer
Hisaye Yamamoto was born in Redondo Beach, California, the daughter of Japanese immigrants. She began writing at an early age and published her first story at age 14. As a teenager, she attended Compton College in Los Angeles and studied foreign languages. During World War II, she wrote under the pen name Napoleon and published stories in Japanese American newspapers. During her time in the internment camps, she continued to write for a prison newspaper.
After World War II, Yamamoto returned to Los Angeles and began working as a columnist for the Los Angeles Tribune. The newspaper, which was Black-owned, also sought to bring together the Japanese and the Asian communities. The discrimination she experienced during this period inspired her to write about racism in the camps, and she began publishing short stories about her experiences there. After a few years in journalism, Yamamoto turned to writing full-time. She became one of the first Asian American writers to receive a literary honor.
She was interned during World War II
Hisaye Yamamoto was an internee during World War II. The Japanese American population was forced to live in internment camps during the war. Yamamoto wrote about her experience in a camp newspaper. Her work exposed the physical and mental devastation of internment. After the war, Yamamoto returned to Southern California. She worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Tribune, which served the Black community. As an internee, she was forced to work in camps that forced them to be separated from their families.
During her time at Poston, Yamamoto met and worked as a newspaper editor and columnist. She met several notable writers and became the editor-in-chief of the Poston Chronicle. Her stories about the internment camp were titled “Small Talks.” Yamamoto’s first novel, Surely I Must Be Dreaming, was published the following year. During her time in the camp, her brother died in combat and she was forced to become a reporter.
Her work illuminated the struggles of many minorities in the “melting pot” of the United States
Hisaye Yamamoto is a Japanese American writer who defined a generation of Japanese Americans through her work. Born in the United States to Japanese immigrants, Yamamoto’s works exposed injustices and gave voice to the voiceless. She was one of the first Japanese Americans to live in the United States. In this country, Japanese immigrants are called “Issei,” or first-generation. Hisaye’s parents immigrated from the Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.
The novel illuminates tensions that exist between dominant cultures and the struggles of many minorities, including Asian Americans. It shows how dominant cultures often try to assimilate people of color, while holding them at arm’s length. Yamamoto also shows the price paid by many second-generation Asian Americans. The Korean American protagonist, for example, tries to achieve an illusory sense of wholeness by alienating himself from his parents’ culture.
Her identity as an African American comes out of a hate crime
Hisaye Yamamoto’s life and work illustrate the problems facing Japanese immigrants and other minorities in the United States. Through his words and actions, he inspired many. In 1988, Tom Jacobson wrote a play about Hisaye Yamamoto. Yamamoto’s work was fictionalized, but many Japanese American writers have drawn inspiration from it.
When Hisaye Yamamoto was hired by the Los Angeles Tribune in 1945, the paper was looking for an Asian-American journalist. He was hired to write a column about Japanese American issues, but he soon branched out to write about other topics. In particular, he wrote about the Nisei’s prejudice toward blacks. He also grew to identify with an African-American couple that had been the victims of a hate crime.
Her stories explore cultural tensions between first generation Japanese immigrants and those of the second generation
Hisaye Yamamoto was a writer of short stories and essays who developed her multicultural consciousness through her contributions to the Los Angeles Tribune, a major literary journal in the 1950s. . Several of her stories were published in acclaimed anthologies.
Hisaye Yamamoto’s stories explored the tensions between first and second-generation Japanese Americans. Her writing often referred to the Japanese internment camps where she and other Japanese citizens were detained by the Japanese government. She also wrote newspaper columns about these experiences. The writer was interned during WWII and contributed to an African-American newspaper afterward. Yamamoto died of a stroke on Jan. 30. Yamamoto was the last member of the Nisei generation to become an American writer.
