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Yasutaro (Keiho) Soga

そが やすたろう（けいほう）

Yasutaro (Keiho) Soga

Pen Names: Keiho（Pen name used as literary name）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1873-03-18 （Tokyo, Japan）
Died
1957-03-07 （Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States） age 83
Nationality
Japan, United States (naturalized 1952)
Languages
Japanese, English
Residence History
Tokyo, Japan → Yokohama, Japan → Waianae, Hawai'i, United States → Waipahu, Hawai'i, United States → Moloka'i, Hawai'i, United States → Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States → Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States — internment period

Career

Occupations
journalist, editor, poet (tanka), activist, memoirist
Active Years
1896-1957
Influenced By
Fred Kinzaburo Makino, Motoyuki Negoro
Influenced
Hawaiian Japanese-American poets and scholars of Asian American literature

Awards

American Book Award
1985
Work: Poets behind Barbed Wire
Organization: Before Columbus Foundation
Result: 受賞（没後）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Life Behind Barbed Wire (internment memoir)

1948 memoir

A memoir recounting his detention as a Japanese immigrant community leader during World War II. Describes daily life in internment camps, community struggles, and postwar return; regarded as one of the early internment accounts by an Issei from Hawai'i.

internmentimmigrant experiencecommunitycivil rights
Translations
  • English translation: Kihei Hirai, Life Behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawaiʻi Issei (University of Hawaii Press, 2007)

Poets behind Barbed Wire: Tanka poems

1983 poetry (tanka) / anthology

An anthology collecting tanka poems by Soga and contemporary Japanese residents, including pieces reflecting internment experiences and life in Hawai'i.

tankainternmentnostalgiaHawaiian life

Fifty Years of Hawaii Memories (autobiography)

1953 autobiography / reminiscence

An autobiographical reminiscence covering fifty years in Hawai'i: work as an immigrant, activities as a newspaper editor, and efforts in community building.

immigration historylabor movementcommunity

Bibliography

  • Life Behind Barbed Wire (memoir, 1948)
  • Poets behind Barbed Wire: Tanka poems (1983)
  • Fifty Years of Hawaii Memories (autobiography, 1953)

Translations of Works

  • Life Behind Barbed Wire (translated by Kihei Hirai, 2007, University of Hawaii Press)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise, lyrical tanka-based stylejournalistic clarity and documentary quality
Recurring Motifs
life in Hawai'i and nostalgialabor and rightsinternment and the longing for freedom

Legacy

Yasutaro (Keiho) Soga was an influential journalist and community leader among Hawai'i's Japanese residents and a noted tanka poet. His internment memoir is valued as an important historical testimony documenting the Japanese American experience.

Museums

  • Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States (address omitted)

Academic Societies

  • Japanese American studies associations (general)

Archives

  • Internee directory and related materials at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i
  • University of Hawaii Press holdings of translated editions and publication materials

In Popular Culture

  • Inclusion and citation in Asian American poetry anthologies and historical studies

Trivia

  • Arrested hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941) and detained in multiple internment facilities during WWII.
  • Served as chief editor of the Nippu Jiji, advocating for Japanese plantation workers' rights in Hawai'i.
  • Naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1952.
  • His wartime memoir is regarded as an early and important account of internment experiences.
  • Posthumously associated with the 1985 American Book Award via the anthology Poets behind Barbed Wire.