Mitsuye Yamada was born in Fukuoka in Kyushu Japan as a Nisei or second-generation Japanese American while her Issei, or first generation Japanese American, mother was visiting Japan. Yamada emigrated to the United States in 1926 and spent her childhood and adolescent days with her family in Seattle. Her father, Jack Kaichiro Yasutake, worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Immigration Service and founded the Senryu Society in Seattle.

At the outbreak of World War II, her father was arrested for espionage by the FBI, and in 1942 Yamada was interned with her family in Camp Minidoka, Idaho. Yamada and her brother, Seiichi Yasutake, were allowed to leave the concentration camp to work and attend college. Yamada first went t

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First published 21 March 2002

Citation: Usui, Masami. "Mitsuye Yamada". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4825, accessed 9 February 2010.]