

It was then that he first used the pseudonym Taro Yashima, out of fear there would be repercussions for Mako and other family members if the Japanese government knew of his employment. Army and went to work as an artist for the Office of Strategic Services.

After Pearl Harbor, Iwamatsu joined the U.S. In 1939, they went to the United States to study art, leaving behind their son Mako.

At one point both he and his wife Tomoe went to jail for his opposition to the militaristic government. After studying for three years at the Imperial Art Academy in Tokyo, Iwamatsu became a successful illustrator and cartoonist. His father was a country doctor who collected oriental art and encouraged art in his son. Iwamatsu was born September 21, 1908, in Nejima, Kimotsuki District, Kagoshima, and raised there on the southern coast of Kyushu. Taro Yashima was the pseudonym of Atsushi Iwamatsu, a Japanese artist who lived in the USA during World War II.
