JOHN OKADA Biography - Writers

 
 

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JOHN OKADA

Name: John Okada                                                                     
Born: 1923                                                                           
Died: 1971                                                                           
                                                                                     
John Okada (1923-1971) was a Japanese-American writer. He attended the               
University of Washington and Columbia University. He served in the US Army in       
World War II.                                                                       
                                                                                     
His only novel, No-No Boy, deals with the aftermath of the Japanese-American         
internment during WWII and how this divided the Japanese-American population         
after the war.                                                                       
                                                                                     
According to Lawson Fusao Inada in La Grande, Oregon in July 29, 1976 in the         
introduction of No-No Boy after meeting Dorothy Okada, John Okada's wife:           
Dorothy is a truly wonderful person. It hurt to have her tell us that "you two       
are the first ones who ever came to see him about his work." It hurt to have her     
tell us that she recently burned his "other novel about the Issei, which we both     
researched and which was almost finished." It hurt to have her tell us that "the     
people I tried to contact about it never answered so when I moved I burned it,       
because I have him in my heart." You could say John was "ahead of his time" that     
he was born too early and died too young"                                           
                                                                                     
Okada is the namesake of the Asian-American theme dorm in Leland Stanford Jr.       
University, one of the world's most prominent. Okada House is part of the Wilbur     
Hall Complex located at 658 Escondido Rd, Stanford, CA, 94305.