Yukiko Duke (Sweden, 1966) works as a journalist and translator of Japanese literature. She has been a literary critic for Swedish public TV channel SVT for several years, and has been both host and reporter for various cultural TV programs, as well as a news reporter on Japanese TV. Yukiko also worked as a columnist for several magazines (Vi and ICA) and today she is the editor of the largest literary magazine in Sweden, Vi Läser.
Yukiko Duke translates from Japanese into Swedish, including the novels of Haruki Murakami. In 2001, her and Eiko Duke’s Japanese cookbook, Mikaku, was shortlisted for the August Prize in the nonfiction category.
Her narrative nonfiction, The Letters from Iwo Jima, tells of the life, the agony and the battles as the USA invaded the famous Japanese island of Iwo Jima in the Second World War. It’s a terrible depiction of war, suffering, agony and personal loss their and consequences, as well as the political, social and military decisions taken by all sides.
Yukiko provides a fantastic portrait of General Kuribayashi, the writer of the letters: how he went about shaping the defense of the island, and what shaped him as a man. The author also shows what sort of world Kuribayashi encountered during his career, not only in Japan but also overseas in the U.S. (as deputy military attaché) and Canada (as military attaché). Yukiko Duke’s suggestive and very intimate prose illuminates this story of military history containing a fascinating biography within its pages.

Yukiko Duke is currently writing her first novel, set in post-war Japan and showing the complexity of recovery, both for individuals and as a people.