Teiko Tomita (December 1, 1896 March 13, 1990) was a Japanese
tanka poet who lived in the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...
. Her
penname
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
was Yukari.
Early life
Tomita was born Teiko Matsui on December 1, 1896 in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, Japan. She was the second of nine children.
She began writing tanka when she was in high school. She took on the penname Yukari. After high school, Tomita earned a teaching certificate, and taught in elementary schools until 1920, when she married a farmer named Masakazu Tomita. They had been exchanging letters for two years, but had never met in person.
He lived in
Wapato, Washington
Wapato is a town in Yakima County, Washington, Yakima County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 4,607 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It has a Hispanic majority.
History Origins
The town was founded ...
, so Tomita moved to the United States to be with him.
They had five children, but one died as a child.
Career
Tomita and her new husband farmed on the
Yakima Indian Reservation
The Yakama Indian Reservation (spelled Yakima until 1994) is a Native American reservation in Washington state of the federally recognized tribe known as the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The tribe is made up of Klikitat ...
. However, they lost the lease on the farm soon after Tomita's arrival. Masakazu worked as a foreman at a nursery in
Satus. They moved to
Sunnydale
Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the al ...
in 1929. In 1939, Tomita joined a tanka club in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
. Some of her poetry was published in Japan.
After the
bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Haw ...
, Tomita burned all of her poetry so that the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
would not assume that she had any loyalty to Japan. Regardless, she and her family were
incarcerated at
Tule Lake
Tule Lake ( ) is an intermittent lake covering an area of , long and across, in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County in California, along the border with Oregon.
Geography
Tule Lake is fed by the Lost River. The eleva ...
in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
and
Heart Mountain in
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
as part of the enforcement of
Executive Order 9066. After she was released in 1945, Tomita briefly lived in
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, but returned to Seattle after the war and became a
seamstress
A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician.
Not ...
.
In 1967, Tomita was forced to relocate a second time when it was found that her home was in the buffer zone around the
Seattle Tacoma Airport. She moved to Seattle.
Despite burning all of her poetry at the beginning of the war, she resumed writing while incarcerated at Tule Lake. She wrote poetry as a way to deal with the situations around her. Some frequent symbols that appeared in her poems include the
cherry tree
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit).
Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The na ...
and
sagebrush
Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus '' Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub '' Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west.
Following is an al ...
.
She wrote poetry for the rest of her life.
Tomita died on March 13, 1990.
Selected bibliography
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomita, Teiko
1896 births
1990 deaths
Japanese poets
Japanese-American internees
People from Osaka Prefecture
American poets
American poets of Asian descent
American women writers of Asian descent
American writers of Japanese descent
Japanese emigrants to the United States