Violet Kazue de Cristoforo
Encyclopedia
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
. Her haiku reflected the time that she and her family spent in detention in Japanese internment camp
Japanese internment camp
Japanese internment camp is a term generally used to refer to one or both of the following:*Japanese American internment, the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II...
s during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She wrote more than a dozen books of poetry during her lifetime. Her best known works were Poetic Reflections of the Tule Lake Internment Camp
Tule Lake War Relocation Center
Tule Lake Segregation Center National Monument was an internment camp in the northern California town of Newell near Tule Lake. It was used in the Japanese American internment during World War II. It was the largest and most controversial of the camps, and did not close until after the war, in...
, 1944, which was written nearly 50 years after her detention. She was the editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of May Sky: There Is Always Tomorrow; An Anthology of Japanese American Concentration Camp Kaiko Haiku.
She was a major advocate for the plight of Japanese Americans who were held in internment camps during the war. The work of Cristoforo and other activists ultimately led the United States government to make reparations and issue an official apology to the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II.
Early life
Cristoforo was born Kazue Yamane on September 3, 1917, in Ninole, HawaiiNinole, Hawaii
Nīnole is the name of two unincorporated communities on the island of Hawaii in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. In the Hawaiian language Nīnole means "bending"...
. She was raised in Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
and Hiroshima, Japan.
Cristoforo married her first husband, Shigeru Matsuda, soon after graduating from a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in Fresno.
World War II
Cristoforo and Matsuda had two small children. Cristoforo was pregnant with her third when the family was sent to a Japanese American internment campJapanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
near Fresno. There she gave birth to her third child on a makeshift table made of orange crates. She was forcibly separated from her husband, and they were sent to separate internment centers. She spent the rest of World War II being moved between two more detention camps in Jerome, Arkansas
Jerome, Arkansas
Jerome is a city in Drew County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 46 at the 2000 census. During World War II, Jerome was home to a Japanese American internment camp , Jerome War Relocation Center , later converted into a prison camp for captured German soldiers.-Geography:Jerome is...
and Tule Lake, California. She and her children were finally released from custody at the end of World War II.
Her time in the internment camps left a lasting imprint on Cristoforo's writings. Much of the original haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
that were written during her years in the camps has been lost or destroyed. However, her remaining writings and later works reflected the desolation and despair that she felt in there.
Post World War II
Cristoforo and her children were repatriated to JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1946. Her husband was sent to Japan separately. Life was not easy for the family. While living in Japan, Cristoforo discovered that her husband had married a Japanese woman. She also witnessed first hand the destruction and the aftermath of the atomic bomb and its effects on Japanese civilians.
Cristoforo met her second husband in Japan, an officer in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
named Wilfred H. de Cristoforo. The couple moved back to the United States and settled in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
. In addition to her writings, Cristoforo took a job at The McGraw-Hill Companies. Their marriage lasted until Wilfred's death in 1998.
Honors
Violet Kazue de Cristoforo was honored in Washington D.C. by the National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
in September 2007, just weeks before her death. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded her a National Heritage Fellowship
National Heritage Fellowship
The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts...
for cultural achievement for her writings. The National Heritage Fellowship Award is the highest award given in the United States to honor achievement in traditional and folk arts.
Death
Violet Kazue de Cristoforo died from complications from a stroke on October 3, 2007, at her home in Salinas, CaliforniaSalinas, California
Salinas is the county seat and the largest municipality of Monterey County, California. Salinas is located east-southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River, at an elevation of about 52 feet above sea level. The population was 150,441 at the 2010 census...
. She died just two weeks after receiving the National Heritage Fellowship Award. She was 90 years old.
Cristoforo was survived by two daughters, a son, and two grandchildren.