• About
  • Events
  • Community Calendar
  • Advertise
  • Subscriptions
  • Foundation
  • Contact
  • Seattle Chinese Post

Northwest Asian Weekly

  • Community
    • Names in the News
    • Local
    • Business
    • Pictorials
    • Obituaries
  • Nation
  • World
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Columns
    • On the Shelf
    • At the Movies
    • A-POP!
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • The Layup Drill
    • Travel
    • Wayne’s Worlds
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentary
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Astrology
  • Classifieds
  • Community Calendar
You are here: Home / News / World News / Japan’s World War II film idol Rikoran dies at 94

Japan’s World War II film idol Rikoran dies at 94

September 20, 2014 By Northwest Asian Weekly

https://i0.wp.com/nwasianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/33_39/world_yamaguchi.jpg?resize=300%2C386

Yoshiko Yamaguchi

By Mari Yamaguchi
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese film idol Yoshiko Yamaguchi, who was known as Rikoran and symbolized Japan’s wartime dreams of Asian conquest, has died at age 94.

Known as Shirley Yamaguchi in the United States and one of the biggest Japanese film stars during and after World War II, Yamaguchi died of heart failure on Sept. 7, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

Born to Japanese parents in northern China in 1920 and raised in Japan’s wartime puppet state Manchukuo, Yamaguchi was adopted by a Chinese friend of her father and was renamed “Xianglan,” or “Fragrant Orchid,” when she was 13.

She debuted as Chinese singer Li Xianglan — Rikoran in Japanese — and starred in Chinese-language films made by the Japanese-run Manchurian Cinema Association, many of them propaganda movies.

During its militaristic march across Asia in the first half of the 20th century, Japan operated coal mines and railroads and forced China’s last emperor, Pu Yi, to be head of a puppet government in Manchuria, which the Japanese called Manchukuo.

Widely believed to be Chinese, Yamaguchi was a star in Asia, particularly in Japan.

“Yue Lai Xiang,” one of her best known songs, is still popular among Chinese singers. In the movie `’Song of the White Orchid,” she depicted a young Chinese woman who falls in love with a Japanese man after her family is killed by the Japanese.

Chinese authorities arrested Yamaguchi after the war and accused her of being a Chinese traitor. But a friend produced family records proving her Japanese origin, saving her from execution. She apologized for her duplicity and was allowed to leave China.

After the war, Yamaguchi appeared in two Hollywood films and on Broadway during the 1950s. At home, she starred in Akira Kurosawa’s film “Scandal,” Seijun Suzuki’s “Escape at Dawn,” and other movies.

She then largely withdrew from the silver screen, but the story of her dramatic life was made into dramas and musicals that are performed even today. Her 1987 autobiography “Half My Life as Rikoran” was a best-seller.

After her first marriage to Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi ended in the mid-1950s, Yamaguchi married Hiroshi Ohtaka, who was Japan’s ambassador to Burma, now Myanmar, and occasionally appeared on television. In 1974, she was elected to parliament’s Upper House as a member of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and served until 1992. She was among the contributors to a private atonement fund for Asian “comfort women” used as prostitutes for Japan’s wartime military. (end)

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: World News Tagged With: 2014, Akira Kurosawa, Asia, China, Chinese, Fragrant Orchid, Hiroshi Ohtaka, Japanese American, Japanese-run Manchurian Cinema Association, Myanmar, Pu Yi, Seijun Suzuki, United States, Upper House, Vol 33 No 39 | September 20 - September 26, Yoshiko Yamaguchi, Yue Lai Xiang

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube


Find us on Issuu!

Subscribe to our e-news

© 2022 NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
412 MAYNARD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104
206-223-5559 | INFO@NWASIANWEEKLY.COM
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.