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Yoshiko Uchida was born on 24 November 1921 to Dwight and Iku Uchida in Alameda, California. Dwight Uchida immigrated to the United States in 1903 where he became a prominent member of the community and an active member in the Sycamore Congregational Church in El Cerrito, California. Dwight and Iku Uchida had graduated from Doshisha University, a Christian university, in Japan before immigrating to the United States.

Dwight and Iku Uchida's love of learning influenced both of their daughters, Yoshiko and Keiko ("Kay"), to pursue careers in education and writing. Yoshiko Uchida began writing stories at age ten. The Japanese rituals and customs of her Issei (first-generation) parents heavily influenced her formative years as she cultivated a love for Japanese folk tales. She has stressed that her childhood contained a balance of uniquely Japanese customs and a sense of curiosity and playfulness common to all children. Her books emphasize common bonds that transcend ethnic and cultural differences while remaining deeply rooted in a Japanese folk tradition.

The decision of the United States government to intern citizen and non-citizen Japanese-Americans in "relocation" camps, Executive Order 9066, profoundly altered Uchida's life. When she was in her senior year at the University of California at Berkeley, her family had to move, first to Tanforan Racetrack Relocation Center in California, then to Topaz in Utah. At Topaz, Uchida taught second grade children and recalls, "snakes and scorpions sometimes came to share the room with us."

Uchida graduated cum laude with a Bachelors of Arts in English, Philosophy, and History from the University of California at Berkeley in 1942, and received her diploma through the mail at Topaz because of her internment. Upon her admission to the Masters of Education program at Smith College, Uchida moved to Northhampton, Massachusetts. Following her graduation from Smith College, she taught first and second grades at a Quaker school in Philadelphia. Because of her dedication to teaching, Uchida had little time left for writing. Thus, she decided to move to New York City, take a secretarial position, and write in the evenings. The result of this move was her first book, The Dancing Kettle (1949). Shortly after its publication, Uchida received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1952 to study for two years in Japan where she explored Japanese culture, customs and folktales with the founders of the Japanese Folk Art Movement, philosopher Soetsu Yanagi, and master potters Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai.

The experience of imposed exile and cultural isolation became dominant themes in Uchida's later works. Uchida has described her father's disappointment and surprise when close Caucasian friends asked him if he had known in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Uchida family's experience of forced internment probably explains Yoshiko Uchida's deep commitment to exploring Japanese culture and arts throughout her career. Following her studies in Japan, she wrote a series of articles about the Folk Art Movement for the Nippon Times and, upon her return to the United States, she served as the west coast correspondent for Craft Horizons magazine.

Uchida's books include: The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales (1949), New Friends for Susan (1951), The Magic Listening Cap (1955), The Full Circle (1957), Takao and Grandfather's Sword (1958), The Promised Year (1959), Mik and the Prowler (1960), Rokubei and the Thousand Rice Bowls (1962), The Forever Christmas Tree (1963), Sumi's Prize (1964), The Sea of Gold and Other Tales from Japan (1965), In-Between Maya (1967), Hisako's Mysteries (1969), Sumi and the Goat and the Tokyo Express (1969), Makoto, The Smallest Boy (1970), Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese American Evacuation (1971), Samurai of Gold Hill (1972), The Birthday Visitor" (1975), The Rooster who Understood Japanese (1976), The Bracelet (1976), originally published as a short story, Journey Home (1978), Jar of Dreams (1981), Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family (1982), Best Bad Thing (1983), Picture Bride (1987), Invisible Thread: An Autobiography (1991), and Magic Purse (1993).

Uchida won the New York Herald Tribune's Spring Book Festival Award in 1955 for her book Magic Listening Cap. Other honors for Uchdia's books included citations from the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Library Association, the California Association of Teachers of English, a chapter of the Japanese American Citizen League, the International Reading Association, the National Council for Social Sciences, and the Children's Book Council. She also received the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, two Commonwealth Club of California Juvenile Book Award Medals, the University of Oregon Distinguished Service Award, the California Japanese Alumni Association Award, the California Reading Association Award, the Japanese American of the Biennium Award, the Japanese American Citizen's League Award, the Nikkei in Education Award, and the Morris S. Rosenblatt Award from the Utah State Historical Society.

Uchida cared for her parents until their deaths in 1966 (Iku Uchida) and 1971 (Dwight Uchida). Yoshiko Uchida died on June 21, 1992 after several years of poor health. She left behind a prodigious collection of folktales and stories.