Mitsuye Yamada
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Mitsuye Yamada (born July 5, 1923) is a Japanese-American activist, feminist, essayist, poet, story writer, editor, and former professor of English.
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[edit] Early and personal life
Mitsuye Yamada was born as Mitsuye Yasutake in Fukuoka, Japan. Her parents were Jack Kaichiro Yasutake and Hide Shiraki Yasutake, both first-generation Japanese-American immigrants to the U.S. (Issei) who were visiting Japan when she was born. Her older brother, Seiichi Yasutake (known as "Mike") was born in the US. Her family returned to the U.S. in 1926 and settled in Seattle, Washington.
Mitsuye's father was arrested by the FBI for espionage after the U.S joined the Second World War. In 1942, Mitsuye and her family were interned at Camp Mindoka, Idaho. Mitsuye and her brother were allowed to leave the camp in order to attend college and work (Usui, 2002), and both attended the University of Cincinnati. Mike was soon expelled because the U.S. Air Force was conducting "sensitive wartime research on campus and requested his removal" which was thought to be incompatible with his status as an Japanese-American male and a pacifist, but Mitsuye was allowed to continue studying at the University (Yamada, 1981).
Mitsuye married Yoshikazu Yamada in 1950. They had four children: Jeni, Stephen, Douglas, and Hedi. As of 2006, Mitsuye has five grandchildren.
Mitsuye became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1955. She considers herself Nisei (second-generation Japanese-American).
[edit] Career
Yamada began her studies at the University of Cincinnati. She left in 1945 to attend New York University, where she received a B.A. in English and Art in 1947. She earned an M.A. in English Literature and Research from the University of Chicago in 1953. She began teaching at Cypress College in 1968, and retired in 1989 as a Professor of English.
She wrote her first book, Camp Notes and Other Poems, during and just after her internment during the Second World War, but it remained unpublished until 1976. In this collection, the "wartime conflicts of Japanese-Americans are traced back to the injustice of Executive Order 9066 and to visible and invisible racism against Japanese and Americans of Japanese ancestry both inside and outside the camp." (Usui, 2002). Yamada's professed purpose for writing is to encourage Asian American women to speak out and defy the cultural codes that encourage Asian American women to be silent. (Sheffer, 2003). Yamada recognizes that Asian American women have not been fully represented as "sites of complex intersections of race, gender, and national identity." (Yamamoto, 2000). Yamada once said, "Asian Pacific women need to affirm our culture while working within to change it." (Geok-Lin, 1993).
[edit] Works
- 1976 - Camp notes and other poems
- 1976 - Anthologized in Poetry from Violence
- 1976 - Lighthouse
- 1976 - The Japanese-American Anthology
- 1981 - Mitsuye and Nellie: Two Asian-American Woman Poets
- 1989 - Desert Run: Poems and stories
- 1992 - Camp notes and other poems [2nd edition]
- 2003 - Three Asian American Writers Speak Out on Feminism
[edit] Quotations
- "I have thought of myself as a feminist first, but my ethnicity cannot be separated from my feminism."(Kolmar, 319).
- "A movement that fights sexism in the social structure must deal with racism, and we had hoped the leaders in the women’s movement would be able to see the parallels in the lives of the women of color and themselves, and would ‘join’ us in our struggle and give us ‘input’." (Kolmar, 319).
- "White sisters should be able to see that political views held by women of color are often misconstrued as being personal rather than ideological. Views critical of the system held by a person in an out-group are often seen as expressions of personal angers against the dominant society." (Kolmar, 319).
- "I find myself, as I get older, assuming a more political stance in my writings. I have moved from writing intensely personal poetry to writing essays on social and political issues. The reason for this progression in my writings is that my identity as an Asian American and my identity as a woman is just beginning to merge within me as a singular identity and I am feeling a missionary zeal to let others know about it." (Yamada)
- "Being a feminist activist is more dangerous for women of color." (Geok-Lin, 571).
[edit] References
- Geok-Lin, S.L. (1993, Fall). Feminist and ethnic literary theories in Asian American literature. Feminist Studies, 19, 571.
- Kolmar, W., & Bartkowski, F. (Eds.). (1999). Feminist theory: A reader. California: Mayfield Publishing company.
- Sheffer, J. (2003). Three Asian American writers speak out on feminism. Iris, 47, 91.
- Usui, M. The Literary Encyclopedia [Online Database] Yamada, Mitsuye. (March 21, 2002). Retrieved November 14, 2005, from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4825
- Wong, N., Woo, M., Yamada, M. Three Asian American Writers Speak Out on Feminism, Radical Women Publications, 2003.
- Yamada, M. (1981). Invisibility is an unnatural disaster: Reflections of an Asian American woman. In C. McCann, & S. Kim (eds.), Feminist theory reader: Local and global perspectives (pp.174- 178). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.
- Yamamoto, T. (January 31, 2000). In/Visible difference:Asian American women and the politics of spectacle. Race, Gender, & Class,1, 43.
