Yashima, Taro

Taro Yashima is best known as an author and illustrator of children's books. Three of his books, "Crow Boy," (1955) "Umbrella," (1958) and "Seashore Story" (1967) were runner-up for the Caldecott Medal. Yashima received the Child Study Association of America/Wel-Met Children's Book Award for "Crow Boy" in 1955 and the New York Times Choice of Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year in 1967 for "Seashore Story." Yashima is also well known for his leftist politics and paintings. Two of his books, "The New Sun" (1943) and "Horizon is Calling" (1947), are autobiographical drawings and accounts of his experiences in militaristic Japan during the 1930s. His two children, Momo and Makoto ("Mako"), made their mark in the arts. "Crow Boy" was written for Makoto while "Umbrella" was written for Momo.

Yashima was the well known postwar author noted for his eclectic grouping of works that attempted to address at some level the idenity issues facing Japanese Americans and the struggles they have contended with since the outbreak of war and beyond. The books that were published by Yashima (aka Iwamatsu Jun Atsushi) during the wartime dealt particularly with his experiences as an artist and leftist in Japan during the 1930s.