Wakako Yamauchi facts for kids

Wakako Yamauchi (山内 若子) was an important Japanese American writer. She was born on October 23, 1924, and passed away on August 16, 2018. Her plays were some of the first to tell stories about Asian Americans in theater.

Her Life Story

Wakako Yamauchi was born in Westmorland, California. Her parents were Issei, which means they were first-generation Japanese immigrants. They worked as farmers in California's Imperial Valley. Many of Wakako's stories and plays, like And the Soul Shall Dance and The Music Lessons, take place in these same dusty, quiet farming areas.

Life During World War II

Her plays and stories often show the difficulties Japanese Americans faced. This included life in farming towns and in internment camps during World War II. In 1942, when Wakako was 17, she and her family were sent to the Poston, Arizona camp. The name of her play 12-1-A comes from her family's address in that camp. While at Poston, she worked on the camp newspaper, the Poston Chronicle. She worked alongside another writer, Hisaye Yamamoto, and they became lifelong friends.

After the War

After about a year and a half in Poston, Yamauchi moved out of the camp. She lived in Utah first, then in Chicago. In Chicago, she became interested in theater. In 1948, she married Chester Yamauchi. They had one child before they divorced.

She later moved back to the Los Angeles area. There, she studied painting at Otis Art Institute, which is now called Otis College of Art and Design. She also kept writing.

Becoming a Published Writer

Her first published story, And the Soul Shall Dance, appeared in a book called Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers. A director named Mako from East West Players encouraged her. Soon after, she turned her story into a play.

The play version of And the Soul Shall Dance was first performed in Los Angeles in 1974. It won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award in 1977 for best new play. Later, it was even shown on public television.

Later Works

In 2010, a collection of her stories called Rosebud and Other Stories was published. She wrote these stories when she was in her seventies and eighties. Another collection of her plays and stories, Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays and Memoir, came out in 1994.

Wakako Yamauchi passed away in Gardena, California, in 2018. She was 93 years old.

Her Writings

Many of Yamauchi's well-known short stories show the challenges faced by Issei women. They often struggled with their dreams and the traditional rules of their culture. Stories like And the Soul Shall Dance and Songs My Mother Taught Me show Issei women trying to achieve goals that went against traditional gender roles. And the Soul Shall Dance clearly shows an Issei woman's rebellion. By showing the complex relationships between female characters, Yamauchi explored how Issei women resisted and were sometimes held back.

See also

• List of Asian American writers
• Japanese American internment