Mitsu Yashima

Mitsu Yashima (八島 光), whose real name was Tomoe Sasako (笹子 智江), was a Japanese children's book author.

World War II and later years
Mitsu was the daughter of a shipbuilding company executive. She attended college in Japan. In the '30s, she joined a Marxist study group, where she met her future husband, artist Taro Yashima. They went to America to study art in 1939. When World War II broke out, Mitsu joined the U.S war effort, working for the OSS by sending American propaganda to the Japanese. She adopted the pseudonym Mitsu Yashima during the war. Following the war, Mitsu and Taro had their second child Momo, whom also appeared in many of their children's books. Mitsu died at the age of 80 on December 7, 1988.