Over the course of her career, Yoshiko Uchida published more than thirty books, including non-fiction for adults, and fiction for children and teenagers from 1949 to 1991.[5]
Yoshiko's career began in Philadelphia after accepting a teaching job at a Quaker school.[6] She spent several years there before moving to New York.[7] Here she worked as a secretary as well as began her writing career. She began submitting her work with no result. her first publication came in 1949 with the The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales. This is where she began to gain traction in her writing career as she published many more children's books. Through these publications, she was known for creating Japanese American children's literature, as there had never been published works for Asian literature prior. In 1952, she was taken on a 2 year research fellowship in Japan that gave her the information needed to create three more collections of folktales.[8] In the early 1980's, Uchida traveled, lectured and earned more than 20 awards for her works. During this time, she created her 1982 autobiography, Desert Exile, examining her experiences of her and her families internment. In addition to Desert Exile, many of her other novels including Picture Bride, A Jar of Dreams, and The Bracelet deal with Japanese American impressions of major historical events including World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and the racism endured by Japanese Americans during these years.
I try to stress the positive aspects of life that I want children to value and cherish. I hope they can be caring human beings who don't think in terms of labels—foreigners or Asians or whatever—but think of people as human beings. If that comes across, then I've accomplished my purpose.[9]
