Taro Yashima

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Taro Yashima (八島太郎) (1908–1994) was the pseudonym of Jun Atsushi Iwamatsu (岩松淳). He was born in Nejime, Kagoshima in 1908. After studying for three years at the Imperial Art Academy in Tokyo, he became a successful illustrator and cartoonist before going to jail because of his opposition to the militaristic government. In 1939 he and his wife went to America to study art, leaving their son Mako behind in Japan. After Pearl Harbor Mr. Iwamatsu joined the U. S. Army, and went to work as an artist for the OSS. It was then he first used the pseudonym Taro Yashima, out of fear that if the Japanese Government found out there would be repercussions for Mako and other family members. After the war, he and his wife were granted permanent residence status by act of Congress, he was able to return to Japan and collect Mako, and his daughter Momo was born.

In the early 1950's he began writing and illustrating children's books under the pseudonym he'd used in the OSS. Crow Boy (1956), Umbrella (1958) and Seashore Story (1967) are Caldecott Honor books.