Iris Yamashita is a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

screenwriter and novelist. She was born in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and studied engineering at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

and

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

as well as virtual reality at

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

while pursuing fiction writing as a hobby. She is most well known for being hired by

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

to write the screenplay for the companion piece to his 2006 war film '' Flags of Our Fathers'' telling the Japanese side of the story of the

Battle of Iwo Jima The was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The American invasion, desi ...

. At first rumored to be titled ''Lamps Before the Wind'', then called ''Red Sun, Black Sand'', the film was released in Japan on December 9, 2006 and in the United States on December 20, 2006 as '' Letters from Iwo Jima''. For her role as screenwriter she was nominated alongside Paul Haggis for the 2007

Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

. Her first novel, ''City Under One Roof,'' a murder mystery set in a small town in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

was published on January 16, 2023. A second novel, ''Village in the Dark'', about a detective’s search for her missing husband and son was published on February 13, 2024.

Nominations

References

External links

Official Website
* American writers of Japanese descent American women screenwriters Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{AsianAmerican-stub