1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, October 16 Capy Harada was born near Santa Maria, California. Capy Harada was a Japanese American who played an important role as a bridge between Japanese and American baseball after the war. His real name was Tsuneo HARADA. His father Joemon Harada and his mother Kuni were immigrants who moved from Wakayama Prefecture to California in 1904 (Meiji 37). My parents worked hard as vegetable farmers and became wealthy enough to buy a car, but their fortunes changed with the advent of the Great Depression. When his mother, Kuni, died in 1934, his father, Joemon, judged that it was impossible to raise 7 brothers by a...

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, October 10 Novelist James Clavell was born in Sydney, Australia. His father was Richard Charles Clavell, a British naval officer stationed in Australia. When my father’s mission to Australia was completed in 1922, I returned home with my family. James received his childhood education in Portsmouth, home to the British Navy, but later returned to Australia where he served in the Royal Artillery Corps and fought the Japanese during the Pacific War from 1941. However, during the Singapore war, he was captured by the Japanese army and imprisoned in Changi Prison. Originally built in 1936 by the British Straits Colony Administration as a prison with a...

1921 ( Taisho 10 ) Monday, October 3 Welfare activist Sato Hatsume is born in Aomori. After graduating from Aomori Gigei Gakuin (current Aomori Akenohoshi High School), she became a teacher at an elementary school and married Mataichi SATO, whom she met while serving as the principal of the school. In 1992, she sponsored ‘Mori no Iskia’ at the foot of Mt. Iwaki. It is a place of healing where people with troubles and problems are accepted and pain is shared. Throughout her life, she appealed to the world to change the way we eat food with the taste of simple ingredients. She died in 2016. She was 94 years...

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, October 1 The 3rd generation Edoya Nekohachi was born in Tokyo as an impersonator and actor known for imitating animal vocal cords. His real name was Rokuro OKADA. He was the sixth son of his father, the first Nekohachi EDOYA, so he was named Rokuro. As a boy, he toured various places with his father’s troupe from Sakhalin in the north to Kyushu in the south. In 1940 (Showa 15), he joined the comedy troupe Furukawa Midorinami, and when World War II began in December 1941 (Showa 16), he was drafted into the army in 1942 (Showa 17) and went to the southern front including Rabaul....

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, September 23 Takara Tomoko, a Latin singer, was born in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture. She joined Takarazuka Shojo Kagekidan (Takarazuka Girls Revue Company) at the age of 13 and played an active role as a star of the moon band. After the war, she debuted as a record player, recognized by the Tokyo Cuban Boys. Continuing Latin hits. In C’est Si Bon, sexy singing is controversial. He has participated in NHK Kohaku Utagassen four times. Takara Tomoko’s “C’est Si Bon” published in April 1954 was banned. This was because her sexual singing voice in the middle part of the song was regarded as problematic and many...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, September 22 Politician Miyazawa Hiroshi was born in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Hiroshi Miyazawa is the second son of three famous Miyazawa brothers in Hiroshima prefecture. My eldest son, who is two years older than me, became the 78th Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, and my second son, Hiroshi Miyazawa, served as Minister of Justice in the Cabinet of Tomiichi Murayama, serving as Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture and later as a member of the House of Councilors. His third son, Tai Miyazawa, was a diplomat and also a German ambassador. These three Miyazawa brothers and their father, Yutaka Miyazawa, are also members of the House of Representatives,...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, September 8 The Chukyo Commercial High School baseball team (now Chukyo High School attached to Chukyo University) manager Taki Masao was born in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture. He also participated in Koshien five times as a player at the Chukyo Commercial Baseball Club, where he later became the manager. In the summer of 1937 (Showa 12) and the spring of 1938 (Showa 13), he won 2 championships as a catcher. The pitcher of Chukyo Commerce, which combined the battery, was Jiro Noguchi who was said to be an iron-arm pitcher. Especially in the 1937 summer tournament, he pitched to Kumamoto Kogyo, which had Tetsuji Kawakami in the...

921 (Taisho 10) Wednesday, August 31 Sculptor Takahashi Go was born in Chiyoda, Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture. His real name was Takeshi TAKAHASHI. For generations, his birthplace in Yamagata made a living as a wood carver for shrines and temples, known as miyaborishi (wood carver). Takahashi Tsuyoshi also studied under his father from a young age, and started to carve the family business of temples and shrines. In 1940 (Showa 15), he moved to Tokyo at the age of 19, and the following year he entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (present Tokyo University of Arts), where he mastered his skills under the sculptor Sekino Seiun. With World War...

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, August 29 SEKI Yukio, who later became leader of the Kamikaze Tokkotai “Shikishima-Unit,” was born in Omachi Town, Nii County, Ehime Prefecture. It corresponds to the present Saijo City. My father Katsutaro was an antique dealer. He went from Omachi Elementary School to Saijo Junior High School (now Ehime Prefectural Saijo High School), and then to the Naval Academy in December 1938 (Showa 13). In 16 1941, he graduated from the Naval Academy. He is a 70 year graduate. In the same class was pilot Kanno Naoshi, also called the Ace of Shooting Down. In 1943 (Showa 18), he was assigned to the Kasumigaura Air Corps....

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, August 8 American actress Esther Williams was born in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Her father was Louis Stanton Williams, a famous painter, and mother Bula, a psychologist. She was the youngest of their five children. She has been a competitive swimmer since high school and won the U.S. National Championships three times. Esther was expected to win a medal in the swimming event at the Tokyo Olympics, which was scheduled to take place in 1940 when she was 19 years old, but the Olympics itself has been cancelled. In 1941, a year after the Pacific War began, she was recruited by the film...