Hisaye Yamamoto was an American author who wrote short stories and other works. She is perhaps best known for her short story collection Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories. Her short stories are both uplifting and scathing, tackling themes of love, loss, and the human condition. In this interview, she shares some of her writings. Read on to learn more about this talented writer. She also discusses her family and her career.
aEURoeSeventeen Syllables
Hisaye Yamamoto was born in 1921 in Redondo Beach, California, to Japanese immigrants. The author drew from her experiences growing up in a rural area to create a vivid rural ambiance in her novel Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories. Since the early age of fourteen, Yamamoto has been writing. She began her career as a journalist and eventually moved on to other writing projects, including “The Girl Who Stopped in Poston.”
Yamamoto’s novel is an exploration of intergenerational communication and the ethnic divide in Japan. Her story is told from the point of view of an Issei mother, focusing on her emotional growth and conflict with her Nisei daughter. The book also explores the psychological origins of these conflicts. This book is a must-read for those who enjoy fiction and cultural history.
The author’s style matches the haiku’s verbal economy, as all the meaning is contained within seventeen syllables. Yamamoto’s characterizations create an affecting story about a young girl’s transformation. The casebook also contains an essay by the editor, an interview with the author, and authoritative versions of “Seventeen Syllables.” In addition to the two main texts, the book features numerous essays and introductions by leading literary critics.
Another intriguing novel by Hisaye Yamamoto is “The Legend of Miss Sasagawara,” a novel about an elusive woman incarcerated during World War II. Her absorption in haiku causes a rift with her husband, which escalates into a tragic event. Yamamoto’s work is often reprinted in the United States.
Other stories
Hisaye Yamamoto’s Other story is a reprinted classic that captures generational and cultural conflicts through the lens of an adolescent’s perspective. In its story, a woman’s desire for a male companion and the consequences of that desire are examined. This novella is one of the few works by a modern Japanese writer that deals with the topic of sexuality in Japan.
Unlike many contemporary Japanese women’s stories, Hisaye Yamamoto’s Other story features complex women with varying needs.
Hisaye’s Other stories are based on the traditional Japanese form of poetry, “kodansha.” Hisaye’s writing style is extremely expressive and packs a lot of emotion into a few lines.
The stories of Hisaye Yamamoto are largely based on her life. These stories were first published in 1988 in an anthology of her most popular works. Yamamoto explores the conflicting viewpoints of immigrants as they make their way in a new country. The stories reflect the experiences of the Issei and Nisei populations and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Hisaye Yamamoto’s Other tales explore a culture of assimilation and the struggles of a Japanese-American community in America. As a Japanese-American, Yamamoto’s stories reflect the struggles of a culture that was largely wiped out during the war. Throughout the stories, women experience a variety of experiences that include cultural as well as racial discrimination.
Family
The young woman went on to write short stories for the internment camp newspaper, the Poston Chronicle. When the war ended, she moved to Los Angeles and married Anthony DeSoto, an attorney. She later wrote books about her experiences at the internment camp.
Hisaye Yamamoto’s parents were Japanese farmers. The family had to relocate in order to escape the race-focused laws of the day. In her teens, she discovered her comfort in writing and contributed letters under the pen name Napoleon to various newspapers serving the Japanese American community.
The short story “Napoleon’s Last Stand” was the most popular of Hisaye Yamamoto’s. She had published other short stories and articles as well. At fourteen, she had begun writing a regular column titled “Small Talk.” She had dialogue with her brothers, and her first piece was a mock feud between two of them. Later, Kenny Murase, the father of distinguished educator Kenji Yamamoto, also contributed two pieces to the newspaper.
After a series of embarrassing incidents in her early adulthood, Yamamoto turned her attention to writing. She began contributing letters to the English section of Japanese newspapers. In 1941, she received her first rejection slip from a magazine. In the following years, Yamamoto and her adopted son migrated to Los Angeles.
During the war, the United States government forced many Japanese Americans to relocate to concentration camps. Hisaye Yamamoto and her family were among those placed in the Poston internment camp. While in the camp, Yamamoto met fellow incarcerated Wakako Yamauchi, who would later become a famous playwright.
Career
She was born in San Francisco, and spent her early years as a journalist at the Los Angeles Tribune. After a stint in internment, she went on to write about race and racism in the local community. This led to the publication of her first short story, “The High-Heeled Shoes.
Her short stories explored the division between first-generation immigrants and their American counterparts. She remained an activist against racism and war and received several awards.
The internment she spent at Poston impacted her writing career in many ways. After a period of internment, she returned to her native Los Angeles with her family. In 1946, she started working at the Los Angeles tribune, a weekly newspaper with an African American readership. Her work on the tribune broadened her writing and influenced the direction of her career. The publication also gave her the opportunity to travel to other parts of the country and explore racial issues.
After her initial publication of Seventeen Syllables, Yamamoto continued to have her stories anthologized. The collection won the American Book Award for fiction, re-launching her career. His health eventually began to deteriorate and her work became limited. Nevertheless, she continued to write and speak in films like “Rabbit in the Moon” and “The Long Dark.”
Hisaye Yamamoto started writing fiction at the age of 14 and eventually received her first literary magazine acceptance. She later published several short story collections and journals, and became famous with her most popular work, “Napoleon’s Last Stand.” She passed away at the age of 89 in 2014, and her writing has inspired many Japanese Americans.
