Hisaye Yamamoto: A Master of the Short Story and Voice of Japanese-American Experience
Hisaye Yamamoto (August 23, 1921 – January 30, 2011) was a groundbreaking Japanese-American writer and poet, best known for her acclaimed short story collection Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories. With her roots in Southern California and a terrible, yet powerful, connection to Arizona through her imprisonment at the Poston Internment Camp during World War II. Her writing illuminates the silent spaces between generations, cultures, and identities—particularly among Japanese Americans navigating life during and after internment.
A fierce literary voice marked by precision, subtlety, and emotional clarity, Yamamoto is celebrated on AZPoetry.com for her influence on American literature, as well as her profound survival and meaningful exploration of identity, language, and resilience.
From Strawberry Fields to the Written Word
Born in Redondo Beach, California, Hisaye Yamamoto was the daughter of Issei (first-generation Japanese) parents who worked as strawberry farmers amid oil fields. As a young girl, she developed a passion for reading and writing. By the age of 14, she was already publishing under the pen name “Napoleon.” Her early love for language became a foundation for her storytelling, rooted in the tension between her Japanese heritage and her American upbringing as a Nisei (second-generation Japanese American).
Yamamoto’s youthful voice flourished in the English-language sections of Japanese-American newspapers, foreshadowing the themes that would later define her career: generational conflict, gender roles, and cultural dislocation.
Life at Poston: Arizona’s Impact on Yamamoto’s Work
At age 20, Yamamoto and her family were imprisoned at the Poston War Relocation Center in southern Arizona following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This internment camp experience, filled with loss and hardship—including the death of her brother Johnny, who was killed in action while serving in the U.S. Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team—profoundly shaped her worldview and creative voice.
While incarcerated at Poston, Yamamoto worked for the Poston Chronicle, the camp’s newspaper, where she published fiction and reported on daily life. One of her earliest fictional works, the serialized mystery Death Rides the Rails to Poston, originated here and would later be included in her collected stories. These formative years at Poston solidified her role as both witness and chronicler of a dark chapter in American history.
Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories: An American Literary Classic
Yamamoto’s most famous work, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories, was first published in 1988 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and later expanded by Rutgers University Press. These stories, written over four decades, explore the emotional terrain of Japanese-American families, especially the women, whose voices were often silenced or ignored.
Among the best-known stories are:
- “Seventeen Syllables” – exploring a Nisei girl’s romantic awakening alongside her mother’s struggle for artistic expression through haiku, and the oppression she faces at the hands of her husband.
- “Yoneko’s Earthquake” – portraying a daughter’s discovery of her mother’s hidden relationship with a Filipino farmworker.
- “The Legend of Miss Sasagawara” – set in the Poston internment camp, this story reveals the misunderstood inner life of a Buddhist priest’s daughter who appears mentally ill.
- “The High-Heeled Shoes” – a memoir-style exploration of sexual harassment and gendered violence in mid-century America.
These stories center on the unspoken—on silences within families, internalized trauma, cultural estrangement, and the roles women are forced to play in both Japanese and American societies. Her style, often likened to haiku, is compressed, poetic, and powerfully understated.
Life Beyond the Page: Catholic Worker, Family, and Perseverance
After the war, Yamamoto wrote for the Los Angeles Tribune, an African-American newspaper, where she gained firsthand insight into the complex racial dynamics of postwar America. Her memoir “Fire in Fontana” recounts the Fontana Ku Klux Klan firebombing of a Black family’s home—another example of her commitment to social justice and racial equity.
In 1953, she declined a writing fellowship at Stanford to live and volunteer at a Catholic Worker rehabilitation farm in Staten Island, practicing the philosophy of voluntary poverty and activism. She married Anthony DeSoto in 1955 and raised five children in Los Angeles while continuing to write, despite struggling to find time as a full-time homemaker. She once remarked, “Very little time is spent writing. But if somebody told me I couldn’t write, it would probably grieve me very much.”
Recognition and Awards
Yamamoto’s writing gained national and international acclaim, though she often shied away from fame. Among her honors:
- Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement (1986)
- Association for Asian American Studies Award for Literature (1988)
- Asian American Writers’ Workshop Lifetime Achievement Award (2010)
- Best American Short Stories (1952) for “Yoneko’s Earthquake”
Her work has been widely anthologized and adapted, including the American Playhouse special Hot Summer Winds (1991), which brought her stories to a national television audience.
Legacy: A Voice for the Silenced
Hisaye Yamamoto’s work continues to resonate with readers exploring race, gender, and the immigrant experience. Her influence is felt not only in Asian American literature but across the broader landscape of American letters. Her stories are frequently taught in university courses on literature, ethnic studies, and women’s studies.
Her time at the Poston camp connects her to Arizona’s historical and literary legacy, and her influence can be felt in the poetry and prose of Arizona writers today, including tributes in programs like the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project and other works celebrating her contribution to memory, resilience, and voice.
Explore More from Hisaye Yamamoto
Hisaye Yamamoto’s life and work are a vital part of Arizona’s literary heritage. Visit her AZPoetry.com poet bio page to learn more about her stories, internment-era writing, and her indelible impact on American literature.