Toyo Suyemoto

Toyo Suyemoto was born January 14, 1916, in Oroville, California. She was the daughter of Japanese immigrants, Tsutomu Howard Suyemoto and Mitsu Hyakusoku Suyemoto. She was raised in the Nihonmachi, or Japantown, of Sacramento, CA.^[3] She attended University of California, Berkeley where she majored in English and Latin.^[2][4] She married Iwao Kawakami, a Nisei journalist. The couple moved to Oakland, CA, where their son, Kay, was born in October 1941.

Toyo Suyemoto's early life was influenced by growing up in Berkeley, California. Toyo was the oldest of 10 children in her family. Her appreciation of Japanese poetic forms came from her mother who encouraged Japanese literature and English.^[5] Her later work is a reflection of her mother's influence.^[6] Suyemoto's passion for writing poetry began from a young age and was widely published in Nisei literary magazines before the war. She gained recognition for her formal, controlled, and emotionally impactful poems and was often compared to well-known modern female lyricists like Wylie, Teasdale, and Millay. Her pre-war contributions to Nisei literary magazines displayed her talent and laid the foundation for her later achievements.

The outbreak of World War II changed Suyemoto's life. Her baby son, Kay, and her parents and siblings were forced to relocation, first to the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno and then to the Topaz camp. Her husband, Iwao Kawakami, known as a journalist, left Suyemoto and Kay during the first weeks of Japanese American relocation and incarceration.^[6] She experienced the loss her mother's scrapbooks of poetry and literature. During internment camps she described as overcrowded living conditions and the separation of families, making it difficult for Suyemoto and her siblings to support each other. Suyemoto and others in the community expressed resilience through creative expression and camp publications. During the war, Suyemoto's work gained recognition, two of her poems published in the Yale Review in 1946.

Suyemoto's personal experiences shaped her identity. Her son, Kay had a minor cold in Tanforan, which worsened due to exposure to horse dander and dusk resulting in hospitalization. Tragically, Kay, who had developed severe asthma and allergies during internment, passed away years later for a respiratory illness.^[7] Her writings reflected the main idea of loss, memory, and hope. The legacy of Suyemoto and other Japanese-American women writers have altered American literary history and continue to inspire prospective writers and activists.^[8]

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Toyo decided to rejoin her family in Berkeleywhile her husband Iwao moved to San Francisco for a job with a newspaper. The couple separated later that month, and Toyo took her son Kay with her to Berkeley. That spring, as part of the enforcement of Executive Order 9066, she and Kay were incarcerated at Tanforan Assembly Center.^[3][4] From there, Toyo and Kay, as well as her parents and siblings, were sent to Topaz Relocation Center, in Delta, UT. At Topaz, she taught English and Latin as a teacher and worked in the public library in the camp.^[3] She also helped to create schools for the children. Suyemoto continued writing poems during her years of incarceration in Topaz, as her passion for writing gave her a reason to survive incarceration.^[4] Suyemoto continued writing poems during her years of incarceration in Topaz.^[6] She was friends with artist Miné Okubo and she also served on the staff of the camp's literary magazine. Several of her poems were published there.^[2] During that time, Iwao never visited his wife or son and the couple divorced after the war.^[3] In the early 1980s, Suyemoto revisited Topaz and testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians about her time in the camp.^[6] She described how the poor conditions and lack of healthcare impacted her and her family.^[4]