Akira Y. Yamamoto was born on January 7, 1940. He grew up in a small village called Shimane Prefecture, Japan. From an early age he took an interest in language and because his village was filled with stories of mythological tales, Akira deeply interested himself in the belief system of peoples.
He carried his interests into his education as where he started at Mitoya Senior High School in Shimane, Japan (1955-1958). He then received his Bachelors Degree from higher education at Shimane University in Shimane, Japan (1958-1962). Akira went to the United States to attend California State College at Long Beach for a Spring semester in 1966. Next, he began teaching ESL (English as a second language) at a Japanese High School, but he found himself wanting to learn more about English, so he attended Indiana University, Bloomington (1966-1974). But his education furthered when in 1967 Akira received his Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics and then his Masters Degree in Theoretical Linguistics in 1970. In 1974, Akira received his Ph.D. in Anthropology, completing his dissertation called “Communication in Culture Spaces” under the direction of Dr. Carl F. Voegelin.
Akira's accomplishments are of a wide variety. Akira has been active in bringing language communities together, as well as professional communities. This ensures that cultures can have a long lasting culture renewal program. Yamamoto has also been the chairperson on the Linguistic Society of Americas Committee on Endangered Languages, working on preservation. His most recent accomplishment came when he joined the language revitalization efforts of a Venezuela-based group. Akira has also been a Professor in Anthropology at the University of Kansas. Akira also taught many different courses ranging from: Peoples of Japan & Korea and Japanese Society Through Films and Literature, to Japanese Ghosts and Spirits. Akira is active with his work through participating in groups. He has been a member of the Yavapai Language Program with the Prescott Yavapai Indian Tribe, Arizona, a member of the Hualapai Language Program, and a member of the Loyal Shawnee Language Program among several others.
And he's also won awards.
Among many, many awards, Akira received his first major award in 1985 from the University of Kansas, the Louise E. Byrd Graduate Educator Award. Shortly thereafter, he received another in 1986 for being recognized as an outstanding Linguistics Educator. In 1997 he received the W.T. Kemper Fellowship Award for excellence in teaching. His latest accomplishment came in 2000 when nominated for the Graduate Mentor Award.
Aside from award accomplishments, Akira has written many publications and books, including the Hualapai Reference Grammar,1982 and A Haiku Menagerie, 1992.
Akira is known mainly for his work with the Hualapai Indian Biligual/Bicultural Education Program, started in 1974 for much of the past two decades. Currently, he continues Indian education projects around the Oklahoma area. Akira is also an instructor at the Arizona-based Native American Languages Development Institute, a position he attained after teaching there from 1992-1994. It is clear that Akira Yamamoto has taken his work literally and has educated, created, preserved, and affected many people as well as history. It is of no doubt that he's made many significant contributions to the field of Linguistic Anthropology.
References
Personal Biography, http://cirs-tm.org/researchers/researchers.php?id=84, (2006)
Yamamoto, Akira. Personal Resume, 2000
Yamamoto, Akira. Teaching Indigenous Languages, 2000
Written By: Holly Schwichtenberg, 2006