About the Author

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Wakako Yamauchi was born in Westmoreland, California, in 1924, to parents who had immigrated from Japan. While growing up on the family farm, Yamauchi spent every minute of leisure reading voraciously, imagining herself as part of the varied worlds created in the books she read. In 1942, Yamauchi and her family were interned in Arizona as a result of the United States government's World War II policy to "relocate" West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry. Although she met and became friends with the Japanese-American writer Hisaye Yamamoto during her time in the internment camp, she herself did not begin to write until several years later. Many of Yamauchi's stories, including "And the Soul Shall Dance," deal with the struggles between Japanese immigrant parents and their American-born children.

Major works by Yamauchi

"And the Soul Shall Dance" (1974, story)
And the Soul Shall Dance (1976, play)
"Boatmen on Toneh River" (1983, story)
"Surviving the Wasteland Years" (1988, story)
"Makapoo Bay" (1985, story)
"Maybe" (1990, story)
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays, and Memoir (1994)

Yamauchi and the Web

This detailed biography of Yamauchi includes a photograph of the playwright.

Would you like to learn more about the Japanese-American experience Yamauchi portrays in many of her works? Scan this timeline of Japanese-American history.

This link will take you to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, which features the lifestyles and community contributions of Japanese immigrants to societies outside of Japan.