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Nobuko Miyamoto

Biography

Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto (born November 14, 1939) is a third‑generation Japanese American singer, songwriter, dancer, theater artist, and activist whose work has been central to the Asian American Movement.[1][3][8] Born in Los Angeles, California, she and her family were among the approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, an experience that later became a core theme of her music and writing.[1][5] After the war she trained as a dancer and, under the name Joanne Miya, appeared in major film and stage productions, including the 1956 film version of The King and I and the 1961 film West Side Story, where she played Francisca and appeared in all of the Sharks’ musical numbers.[1][3] She also performed in the Broadway production of Flower Drum Song, an experience that sharpened her critique of Orientalist stereotypes and pushed her toward more explicitly political art.[4]

In the late 1960s Miyamoto’s artistic path merged with activism as she became involved in anti–Vietnam War organizing and aligned with the Black Panther Party and other movements for racial and social justice.[1][3][6] During the early Asian American Movement, she began writing songs that reflected Asian American histories and struggles, famously co‑creating with Chris Iijima the song “We Are the Children” around 1970, which became an unofficial anthem for a new political identity.[3][4] With Iijima and Charlie Chin she formed the group Yellow Pearl and in 1973 released A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America, often cited as the first Asian American album.[1][3][7] The record addressed Asian American identity alongside Black liberation and Indigenous land rights, signaling Miyamoto’s commitment to cross‑racial solidarity.[1] In the late 1970s she briefly joined the band Warriors of the Rainbow and in 1978 founded Great Leap, a Buddhist‑inspired, multicultural, community‑based performing arts organization in Los Angeles devoted to storytelling, music, and dance as tools for social change.[1][2][4]

Across subsequent decades Miyamoto expanded her practice to large community projects and intercultural collaborations, including the creation of FandangObon, a Los Angeles festival that brings together Japanese Obon, Mexican fandango, and African American traditions in partnership with Chicano musician Quetzal Flores.[1][4] Her later work includes deep engagement with environmental justice, urban farming through the Boggs Center fellowship in Detroit, and ongoing projects that address climate change, Asian American experiences, and Black Lives Matter.[1][4] In 2021 she released 120,000 Stories on Smithsonian Folkways, an album titled for the number of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II and reflecting on memory, displacement, and solidarity.[1][5] Miyamoto also authored the memoir Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution, further cementing her legacy as a pioneering Asian American artist‑organizer whose work helped give Asian Americans “our own song” and continues to inspire community‑based arts activism.[4][5][6]

Fun Facts

  • As a teenager, Nobuko Miyamoto appeared in two landmark Hollywood musicals: she was in the 1956 film The King and I and later played Francisca, a Shark’s girlfriend, in the 1961 film version of West Side Story.[1][3]
  • John Lennon and Yoko Ono personally invited Miyamoto and Chris Iijima onto The Mike Douglas Show in 1972, where they performed “We Are the Children” under the name Yellow Pearl for a national television audience.[3]
  • Miyamoto helped create some of the first Obon songs in English for a Los Angeles Buddhist temple, reshaping a traditional Japanese festival for Japanese American communities.[4]
  • Her 2021 album 120,000 Stories takes its title from the approximate number of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, including her own family, underscoring how personal history and collective memory intertwine in her work.[1][5]

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

  • Yuri Kochiyama - Political and personal influence; Miyamoto befriended Kochiyama through Black Panther–related activism in New York, absorbing her example of cross‑racial solidarity and grassroots organizing. (Involvement in Asian American and Black liberation–linked organizing that informed songs such as those on A Grain of Sand.) [Late 1960s–1970s[1][3][6]]
  • Rev. Masao Kodani - Spiritual and community mentor who gave Miyamoto space at Senshin Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, shaping her community‑based arts practice and Buddhist‑inspired approach. (Development of dance classes and early Great Leap projects; creation of English‑language Obon songs and later FandangObon.) [Mid‑1970s–1990s[4]]

Key Collaborators

  • Chris Kando Iijima - Primary musical partner in the early Asian American Movement; they performed as a folk duo and later as part of Yellow Pearl, co‑writing foundational Asian American protest songs. (Song “We Are the Children”; album A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America; extensive campus and community touring as “Chris and Jo.”) [Early 1970s–mid‑1970s[1][3][4][7]]
  • Charlie Chin - Guitarist and singer who joined Miyamoto and Iijima to form Yellow Pearl, helping shape the sound of early Asian American folk music. (Album A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America and related performances as Yellow Pearl.) [Early–mid‑1970s[1][3][7]]
  • Atallah Muhammad Ayubbi and Mutulu Shakur - Members of the Republic of New Afrika who contributed to A Grain of Sand, reflecting Miyamoto’s alignment with Black liberation struggles. (Contributions to tracks on A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America.) [Early 1970s[1]]
  • Quetzal Flores - Chicano musician who partnered with Miyamoto to blend Japanese Obon and Mexican fandango forms, creating multicultural community performance. (Co‑founding and development of the FandangObon festival in Los Angeles.) [2000s–2010s[1][4]]

Artists Influenced

  • Asian American Movement artists and organizers (collective) - Her songs and performances during the 1970s provided a soundtrack and vocabulary for Asian American political identity, inspiring later generations of cultural workers. (The album A Grain of Sand, the song “We Are the Children,” and subsequent community‑based projects with Great Leap.) [1970s onward[1][3][4][6]]
  • Great Leap community artists - Through Great Leap’s workshops and productions, Miyamoto mentored emerging performers from diverse communities to tell their own stories through song, dance, and theater. (Great Leap programs, Obon‑related works, and FandangObon projects that trained and featured younger artists.) [Late 1970s onward[2][4][5]]

Connection Network

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Discography

Albums

Title Release Date Type
Push 1978 Album
VIVID 2007-02-20 Album
SWEET SUGAR 1984 Album
NEW ROMANCE 2015-01-28 Album
NORIKO 2015-02-25 Album
Rush 2013-10-23 Album

Top Tracks

  1. My Life (Push)
  2. Atsuikaze (VIVID)
  3. ARROWS & EYES (NEW ROMANCE)
  4. Lovely City (NORIKO)
  5. ANOTHER LOVER (SWEET SUGAR)
  6. Monologue (Push)
  7. Cadillac Woman (Push)
  8. Silver Rain (Rush)
  9. Push (Push)
  10. UMI（SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER） (SWEET SUGAR)

References

  1. nobukomiyamoto.org
  2. nobukomiyamoto.org
  3. pbssocal.org
  4. aaartsalliance.org
  5. womenshistory.si.edu
  6. taijiterasaki.com
  7. performancepractice.la
  8. artsemerson.org

Heard on WWOZ

Nobuko Miyamoto has been played 1 time on WWOZ 90.7 FM, New Orleans' jazz and heritage station.

DateTimeTitleShowSpotify
Dec 7, 202520:33Black Lives Matterfrom 120,000 StoriesSpirits of Congo Squarew/ Baba Geno