On Friday, May 27, 1921 (Taisho 10), Nobuo Murakami, fondly known as the “Musch Murakami” French chef, was born in Matsueda-machi, Kanda Ward, Tokyo. This place is present Kanda Iwamoto-cho, Chiyoda Ward. Nobuo Murakami’s father, Nobutaro Murakami, and his mother, Iyo, ran a restaurant called Banzaitei. In 1933 (Showa 8), he graduated from Third Nippori Elementary School and worked at a Brazilian coffee shop in Asakusa. In 1939 (Showa 14), he was hired as an apprentice at the Imperial Hotel, and the following year became a regular employee. During the Pacific War, he went to the Chinese front as an army soldier, and after the war, he was detained in...

1921 (Taisho 10) Sunday, May 22 Kim Jong-oh, a Korean General, was born in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. While he was a student of the Faculty of Law at Chuo University in Japan, he went to war as a student and became an army lieutenant. After the war, he joined the Korean Army. In the Korean War, he was active in the Battle of Chuncheon and the Battle of Hakuba Highland. After the armistice, he served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chief of the Army General Staff. He died at the age of 1966, 44. The Battle of Hakuba Highlands was one of the fierce battles...

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, May 20 Former Nissan Chairman Yutaka Kume was born in Tokyo. After graduating from Tokyo Prefectural Sixth Junior High School (Current Metropolitan Shinjuku High School), he enrolled in the Department of Aeronautical Engines, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo Imperial University, where he was involved in the manufacture and repair of military aircraft during World War II. After the war, he joined Nissan Motor Company in 1946 (Showa 21). After that, he served as General Manager of Engineering Department of Zama Plant and General Manager of Yoshiwara Plant. Kume became the president of Nissan Motors in 1985 (Showa 60). He led Nissan’s golden age in the bubble economy....

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, May 19 Civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama was born in San Pedro, California. Her father is Seiichi Nakahara, a fish merchant who immigrated from Japan, and her mother is Tsuyako Sawaguchi Nakahara, a piano teacher who graduated from university. The family was relatively wealthy, and Yuri grew up in an area with a lot of white people. However, when the Pacific War started, the family was detained for the incarceration of Japanese-Americans, and their lives changed completely. He loses his father, Seiichi, in custody. In 1946, she married Bill Kochiyama, a second-generation Japanese-American military man whom she met during her detention, and had 6 children. In...

1921 (Taisho 10) Monday, May 16 Professional wrestler Kinji Shibuya was born in Utah, the United States. He was raised in Los Angeles as a second-generation Japanese American, and played an active role as an offense guard of American football at Belmont High School. He also played as an American football player at the University of Hawaii in the Hula Bowl, an all-star game at the U.S. National University, and joined semi-pro teams such as the Honolulu Polar Bears and the Honolulu Warriors. In 1952, he was scouted by Shikina OKI and joined professional wrestling. The following year, he took on the NWA champion, Lou Thesz, and attracted attention. Active...

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, May 13 Comedy actor Toru YURI was born in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture. He went to Tokyo and joined Moulin Rouge Shinjuku-za Theater, but he was called up for military service by the Army in 1943 (Showa 18) and went to the North China Front. In 1956 (Showa 31), he formed the comedy group “derailment trio” and later appeared in popular TV dramas such as ‘This is the time’ and ‘Kantaro Terauchi Family’ besides movies. Toru Yuri originally admired Piston Horiguchi and wanted to become a professional boxer. Because of this relationship, he was also famous as a teacher of “Hachirō Tako” who was active in...

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, May 7 Tokuji Kawasaki, a professional baseball player and manager, is born in Tosu, Saga Prefecture. He entered Ryukoku Junior High School, but failed the entrance examination for Army Cadet School and went on to Kurume Commercial School. He became the best 8 player as the ace player of Kurume Commerce in the Fukuoka tournament at Koshien in summer. After graduating, he went to Manchuria and joined Fushun Coal Mine. In 1940, he participated in the Inter-City Baseball Tournament held by the Mantetsu Club and drew attention by defeating in his first match the championship candidate “Fujikura Electric Wire”, who had won 2 consecutive championships. (Showa...

1921 (Taisho 10) Tuesday, May 3 Chikako, the fifth daughter of Count Takatsuku Todo, the 13th head of the Todo family and first son of Takakiyo Todo, the last lord of the Tsu domain of Ise, was born. When Chikako was 16 years old and a student at the Girls’ School, she got engaged to Prince Takahiko, the eldest son of Prince Yasuhiko Asakanomiya. She married in 1938 (Showa 13) and had 1 son and 2 daughters, but the Asakanomiya family renounced their membership from the Imperial Family in 1947 (Showa 22) after the war and called herself Chikako Asaka thereafter. 1950 (Showa 25) Tuberculosis developed, and 2 years later,...

1921 (Taisho 10) On Sunday, May 1, Hitokoto Taju, a professional baseball player, was born in Rokuai-mura, Shizuoka Prefecture, now Shimada City, Shizuoka Prefecture. He entered the local baseball powerhouse, Shimada Shogyo, and participated in 7 Koshien tournaments: 1937 (Showa 12) spring and summer; 1938 (Showa 13) spring as an outfielder; and 1939 (Showa 14) spring as an ace for 4 consecutive seasons. In the summer tournament, we lost in the final two years in a row to Wakayama Prefecture’s Kaisou Junior High School with the aces of Shima Seiichi and Sanada Juzo. 1941 (Showa 16) Entered Senshu University. In the five major leagues, he recorded no hits and no...

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, April 28: Kyohei FUJITA, a glass craftsman, was born in Okubo-machi, Toyotama-gun, Tokyo Prefecture. He studied chasing at Tokyo Fine Arts School (The present Faculty of Art, Tokyo University of the Arts), but he switched to glass craft in the middle. He aimed to express the traditional beauty of Japan with glass materials, and studied European glass techniques such as Venetian Glass. He established his own field of glass art with his own decorative glass art called “modern Rinpa school” which is a mixture of colored glass and gold leaf, and he was called “Kazaribako”. He received the Onshi Prize of the Japan Art Academy for...