Skip to main contentBiographyWakako Yamauchi is a notable figure in Asian American literary circles who has written a number of award-winning plays, including the 1977 Los Angeles Drama Critic's nomination for outstanding new play titled, And the Souls Shall Dance. Yamauchi was born in 1924 in Westmoreland, California. Her maiden name was Wakako Nakamura. Yamauchi spent her formative years in Oceanside before being removed with her family to the Poston concentration camp at the age of seventeen. It was at Oceanside that Yamauchi began her lifelong association with Hisaye Yamamoto, a gifted writer who clearly informed Yamauchi's later work. While at Poston, Yamauchi worked as a staff artist for the Poston Chronicle. After spending a brief period in Salt Lake City and Chicago, she returned with her mother and sister to the West Coast in 1945 where she attended art school and lived with Hisaye Yamamoto. In 1948, she married Chester Yamauchi and retained his name even after the divorce. After years of writing without recognition, Yamauchi began to turn her short stories into plays. In 1977 her work, And the Soul Shall Dance, was produced by Mako for the East West Players. It was later screened on PBS and had several national showings. Other works by the author include, Songs my Mother Taught me, The Music Lessons, The Chairman's Wife, 12-1-A, The Memento, and In Heaven and Earth.
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Yamauchi, Wakako
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