Mitsuye Yamada

Japanese American Mitsuye Yamada was born July 5, 1923 in Fukuoka, Japan.  She lived in Seattle, Washington until 1942 when she and her family were interned in Minidoka, a US concentration camp for Japanese American citizens and resident aliens.  She was allowed to leave the camp to attend the University of Cincinnati.  In 1953 she obtained her M.A. from the University of Chicago and began her teaching career.

She is a writer and editor and an activist in the areas of women’s rights—specifically with women of color, and women prisoners.  She has said, “Being a feminist activist is more dangerous for women of color.” Among her writings are: Camp Notes and Other Poems; Desert Run: Poems and Stories; Three Asian American Writers Speak Out on Feminism (with Nellie Wong and Merle Woo).

Much has been written about Mitsuye, and her papers reside in the archives of the University of California at Irvine, documents of her career as writer, teacher and human rights spokesperson, including involvement with Amnesty International and the struggle by Japanese Americans to redress treatment during World War II.

The Making of the Documentary Film: Mitsuye and Nellie – as recollected by Allie Light

In the mid-seventies my friend, Lynn Lonidier, and I decided to launch a festival of films about women writers.  Searching out films was great fun.  We found a film in the UC archives about Virginia Woolf that actually had interviews with Leonard Woolf and Virginia’s housekeeper.  The French Consulate in San Francisco yielded a film about Colette—with Colette and Sartre--no English subtitles, but the film was a rare find.  We discovered filmed interviews and readings by Tony Morrison, Ann Sexton, Eudora Welty, and Denise Levertov.  There were others but I no longer remember them.  We could not find films about Asian American women writers and so we decided to invite Asian American poets to read at the halfway mark of the festival—from noon to 1 PM.  The night before our event Lynn had a small reception for the poets who would present their work the next day.  She said, “Allie, I want you to meet Mitsuye Yamada.”

We had publicized the festival well and women came from all over California, filling San Francisco State University’s largest auditorium from 9 A.M to 6 P.M to watch and hear women writers.  It was my honor to welcome the audience and to introduce the poets who would read.
I couldn’t believe I was hearing myself say that today there were no films about Asian American women writers, but there would be because I was going to make one.  Whether bravado or naiveté on my part, a promise was a promise.  In my estimation the two most gifted writers to read that day were Mitsuye Yamada and Nellie Wong.  More than thirty years later Mitsuye and Nellie, Asian American Poets is a documentary that continues to be loved by many viewers.

Honored by Allie Light