Uchida, Yoshiko 1921–1992

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced "Oo-chee-dah"; born November 24, 1921, in Alameda, CA; died after a stroke, June 21, 1992, in Berkeley, CA; daughter of Dwight Takashi (a businessman) and Iku (Umegaki) Uchida. Education: University of California—Berkeley, A.B. (cum laude), 1942; Smith College, M.Ed., 1944. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Protestant. Hobbies and other interests: Fine arts, folk crafts.

CAREER: Elementary school teacher in Japanese relocation center in Utah, 1942–43; Frankford Friends' School, Philadelphia, PA, teacher, 1944–45; Institute of Pacific Relations, membership secretary, 1946–47; United Student Christian Council, secretary, 1947–52; full-time writer, 1952–57; University of California—Berkeley, secretary, 1957–62; full-time writer, 1962–92.

AWARDS, HONORS: Ford Foundation research fellow in Japan, 1952; Children's Spring Book Festival honor award, New York Herald Tribune, 1955, for The Magic Listening Cap; Notable Book citation, American Library Association, 1972, for Journey to Topaz; medal for best juvenile book by a California author, Commonwealth Club of California, 1972, for Samurai of Gold Hill; Award of Merit, California Association of Teachers of English, 1973; citation, Contra Costa chapter of Japanese American Citizens League, 1976, for outstanding contribution to the cultural development of society; Morris S. Rosenblatt Award, Utah State Historical Society, 1981, for article, "Topaz, City of Dust"; Distinguished Service Award, University of Oregon, 1981; Commonwealth Club of California medal, 1982, for A Jar of Dreams; award from Berkeley Chapter of Japanese American Citizens League, 1983; School Library Journal, Best Book of the Year citation, 1983, for The Best Bad Thing; New York Public Library, Best Book of the Year citation, 1983, for The Best Bad Thing; Best Book of 1985 citation, Bay Area Book Reviewers, 1985, for The Happiest Ending; Child Study Association of America, Children's Book of the Year citation, 1985, for The Happiest Ending; San Mateo and San Francisco Reading Associations, Young Authors' Hall of Fame award, 1985, for The Happiest Ending; Friends of Children and Literature award, 1987, for A Jar of Dreams; Japanese American of the Biennium award, Japanese American Citizens Leagues, 1988, for outstanding achievement.

WRITINGS:

JUVENILES

The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales, illustrations by Richard C. Jones, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1949, reprinted, Creative Arts Book Co., 1986.

New Friends for Susan, illustrations by Henry Sugimoto, Scribner (New York, NY), 1951.

(Self-illustrated) The Magic Listening Cap—More Folk Tales from Japan, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1955, reprinted, Creative Arts Book Co., 1987.

(Self-illustrated) The Full Circle (junior high school study book), Friendship, 1957.

Takao and Grandfather's Sword, illustrations by William M. Hutchinson, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1958.

The Promised Year, illustrations by William M. Hutchinson, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1959.

Mik and the Prowler, illustrations by William M. Hutchinson, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1960.

Rokubei and the Thousand Rice Bowls, illustrations by Kazue Mizumura, Scribner (New York, NY), 1962.

The Forever Christmas Tree, illustrations by Kazue Mizumura, Scribner (New York, NY), 1963.

Sumi's Prize, illustrations by Kazue Mizumura, Scribner (New York, NY), 1964.

The Sea of Gold, and Other Tales from Japan, illustrations by Marianne Yamaguchi, Scribner (New York, NY), 1965.

Sumi's Special Happening, illustrations by Kazue Mizumura, Scribner (New York, NY), 1966.

In-Between Miya, illustrations by Susan Bennett, Scribner (New York, NY), 1967.

Hisako's Mysteries, illustrations by Susan Bennett, Scribner (New York, NY), 1969.

Sumi and the Goat and the Tokyo Express, illustrations by Kazue Mizumura, Scribner (New York, NY), 1969.

Makoto, the Smallest Boy: A Story of Japan, illustrations by Akihito Shirawaka, Crowell (New York, NY), 1970.

Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation, illustrations by Donald Carrick, Scribner (New York, NY), 1971.

Samurai of Gold Hill, illustrations by Ati Forberg, Scribner (New York, NY), 1972.

The Old Man with the Bump (cassette based on story from The Dancing Kettle), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1973.

The Birthday Visitor, illustrations by Charles Robinson, Scribner (New York, NY), 1975.

The Rooster Who Understood Japanese, illustrations by Charles Robinson, Scribner (New York, NY), 1976.

The Two Foolish Cats (filmstrip with cassette based on a story from The Sea of Gold), Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational, 1977.

Journey Home (sequel to Journey to Topaz), illustrations by Charles Robinson, McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1978.

The Fox and the Bear (cassette based on a story from The Magic Listening Cap), Science Research Associates, 1979.

A Jar of Dreams, McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1981.

The Best Bad Thing (sequel to A Jar of Dreams), McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Tabi: Journey through Time, Stories of the Japanese in America, United Methodist Publishing House, 1984.

The Happiest Ending (sequel to The Best Bad Thing), McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1985.

The Two Foolish Cats, illustrations by Margot Zemach, McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1987.

The Terrible Leak, Creative Education (Mankato, MN), 1990.

The Invisible Thread (autobiography), J. Messner (New York, NY), 1991.

The Magic Purse, illustrations by Keiko Narahashi, McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1993.

The Bracelet, illustrations by Joanna Yardley, Philomel (New York, NY), 1993.

The Wise Old Woman, illustrations by Martin Springett, McElderry Books (New York, NY), 1994.

FOR ADULTS

We Do Not Work Alone: The Thoughts of Kanjiro Kawai, Folk Art Society (Japan), 1953.

(Translator of English portions) Soetsu Yanagi, editor, Shoji Hamada, Asahi Shimbun Publishing, 1961.

The History of Sycamore Church, Sycamore Congregational Church, 1974.

Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family, University of Washington Press (Seattle, WA), 1982.

Picture Bride (novel), Northland Press, 1987.

Contributor to books, including Flight Near and Far, Holt, 1970; Scribner Anthology for Young People, Scribner, 1976; Literature and Life, Scott, Foresman, 1979; Fairy Tales of the Sea, Harper, 1981; Anthology of Children's Literature, Scott, Foresman, 1984; and Explorations, Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Author of regular column, "Letter from San Francisco," in Craft Horizons, 1958–61. Contributor to exhibit catalogue of Oakland Museum, 1976. Contributor of stories and articles to newspapers and periodicals, including Woman's Day, Gourmet, Utah Historical Quarterly, Far East, and California Monthly.

Uchida's manuscripts are housed at the Kerlan Collection, University of Oregon Library, Eugene, and Bancroft Library, University of California—Berkeley.

SIDELIGHTS: Yoshiko Uchida's appreciation for her Japanese heritage inspired her to become the author of many books on Japanese culture for readers of all ages. "In fiction, the graceful and lively books of Yoshiko Uchida have drawn upon the author's own childhood to document the Japanese-American experience for middle-grade readers," Patty Campbell commented in the New York Times Book Review. Among Uchida's nonfiction works for adults are studies of Japanese folk artists such as We Do Not Work Alone: The Thoughts of Kanjiro Kawai, as well as a memoir of wartime imprisonment, Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Americans of Japanese descent were incarcerated by order of the U.S. government. Uchida was a senior at the University of California—Berkeley, when her family was sent to Tanforan Racetracks, where thousands of Japanese-Americans lived in stables and barracks. After five months at Tanforan, they were moved to Topaz, a guarded camp in the Utah desert. Uchida taught in the elementary schools there until the spring of 1943, when she was released to accept a fellowship for graduate study at Smith College. Her parents were also released that year.

Uchida earned a master's degree in education, but because teaching limited her time for writing, she found a secretarial job that allowed her to write in the evenings. As she once explained in her contribution to Something about the Author Autobiography Series, "I was writing short stories at the time, sending them to the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's—and routinely receiving printed rejection slips. After a time, however, the slips contained encouraging penciled notes and a New Yorker editor even met with me to suggest that I write about my concentration camp experiences…. And many of the short stories I wrote during those days were published eventually in literature anthologies for young people."

By the time Woman's Day accepted one of her stories, Uchida had discovered that writing for children promised more success. Her first book, The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales, was well received, and when a Ford Foundation grant enabled Uchida to visit Japan, she collected more traditional tales. In addition, she became fascinated with Japanese arts and crafts, and learned more about them from philosopher Soetsu Yanagi and other founders of the Folk Art Movement in Japan. But her most important gain from the visit, she later explained, was the awareness "of a new dimension of myself as a Japanese-American and [a] deepened … respect and admiration for the culture that had made my parents what they were."

The final children's books Uchida wrote before her death in 1992 reflect her interests not only in Japan but also in her Japanese-American heritage. The Magic Purse, for instance, offers a tale with many mythical Japanese elements. In the book, a poor farmer journeying through a swamp encounters a beautiful maiden held captive by the lord of the swamp. She persuades him to carry a letter for her to her parents in another swamp, giving him a magic purse as a reward for his efforts. The purse contains gold coins that forever multiply, and the coins make the farmer a rich man, even as he returns year after year to the swamp to make peace with the swamp lord and to remember the maiden. The Bracelet, meanwhile, is set in California during World War II and features a seven-year-old Japanese-American girl, Emi, who is being shipped off to an internment camp with her mother and sister; her father has already been taken to another camp. Once at the camp (Tanfo-ran Racetracks, the same camp that the author lived in as a girl), Emi realizes that she has lost the gold bracelet that her best friend Laurie gave to her as a parting gift. Despite being despondent over the loss of the bracelet, Emi comes to understand that her memory of Laurie is something more precious than the bracelet, because the memory will stay with her forever. In The Wise Old Woman, Uchida's final children's book, the author tells the story of a small village in medieval Japan in which the cruel young village lord has decreed that any person reaching seventy years of age must be taken into the mountains and left to die. A young farmer, unable to bear the thought of taking his mother away and letting her die, instead builds a secret room where she can hide. Later, a neighboring ruler comes to the village and declares that the village will be destroyed unless its citizens can carry out three seemingly impossible tasks. When the farmer's mother proves to be the only one capable of figuring out how to complete the tasks, the cruel young lord realizes the error of his age decree and revokes it, leaving the old woman—and others like her—free to remain with their families.

The death of the author's mother in 1966 prompted Uchida to write a book for her parents "and the other first-generation Japanese (the Issei), who had endured so much." The result was Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation. Based on her own experiences in the camps during the war, the book marks the author's shift in emphasis from Japanese culture to the Japanese-American experience in the United States. Every book Uchida wrote following Journey to Topaz responded to the growing need for identity among third generation Japanese Americans. As Uchida once explained, "Through my books I hope to give young Asian-Americans a sense of their past and to reinforce their self-esteem and self-knowledge. At the same time, I want to dispel the stereotypic image still held by many non-Asians about the Japanese and write about them as real people. I hope to convey the strength of spirit and the sense of hope and purpose I have observed in many first-generation Japanese. Beyond that, I write to celebrate our common humanity, for the basic elements of humanity are present in all our strivings."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Children's Literature Review, Volume 6, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1984.

Something about the Author Autobiography Series, Volume 1, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1986.

Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1989.

PERIODICALS

Children's Book World, November 5, 1967.

Five Owls, January-February, 1994.

New York Times Book Review, February 9, 1986; November 14, 1993, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, October 24, 1994, p. 61.

School Library Journal, November, 1993, p. 103; December, 1993, p. 95; July, 1995, p. 75.

Young Readers' Review, January, 1967.