Mary Oyama Mittwer

Mary "Molly" Teiko Oyama Mittwer (1907–1994) was a Japanese American journalist and community organizer who is best known for covering controversial topics such as social reform, dating and marriage, racism and integration. She wrote advice columns, articles, interviews, and poetry for major Japanese-American newspapers and journals, including but not limited Rafu Shimpo, Kashu Mainichi, Nichibei, Shin-Sekai, The New World Sun, Leaves, Gyo-Sho, Nisei magazine Current Life, and the Common Ground journal, which focused on giving minoritized racial groups a platform.

Oyama attended Sacramento High School and later San Francisco National Training School, graduating in 1928. She also one of the founding members of the Nisei Writers Group, which was formed after a meeting on October 7, 1934 and became a catalyst in creating a distinctive Nisei literary voice. Fred Mittwer had previously lost his job after the attack of Pearl Harbor. She is seen in a publication created by War Relocation Authority titled "New Neighbors Among Us."

Post-war career (1943–1994) In 1945, when the exclusion orders were lifted, the couple returned to their house in Los Angeles.

She gradually published less after the 1950s. In 1985, she participated in a Nisei writers’ conference at UCLA. She died on January 12, 1994.

Relationships Her brother-in-law was the Los Angeles-based furniture designer Henry Mittwer, who later became a Buddhist monk and disciple of Tenryuji Temple Kyoto, author of The Art of Chabana: Flowers for the Tea Ceremony. Her sister Lily married poet Yasuo Sasaki of Salt Lake City, Utah, editor of the Nisei literary publication Reimei.