With the
advent of Television coming so soon after the
Second World War, it was obvious that Japanese
characters would not have been given prominent
roles on television, but with the flow of time
Japanese characters have made head ways into
television. In the years of the 1950s,
Japanese roles on TV were either stereotypical
evil WWII soldiers, or minor laborers (maids,
house servants, gardeners) or the occasional
war orphan. In the 1960's the flower power
generation moved beyond prejudice to depict a
starship helmsman on the futuristic space
drama Star Trek. In the 1980s and
1990s, TV roles expanded to doctors, lawyers
and other respected members of society. Today,
the Japanese presence on TV is much better
than it was in the 1950s but still the number
of Asian roles are few and far between
compared to the numerous Caucasian actors or
other minorities such as the African-Americans
and Hispanic. The following is a random
sampling of programs featuring Japanese
characters. Enjoy
BARNEY
MILLER/ABC/1975-82
(Jack Soo) Detective Nick Yemana, a
sleepy-eyed Japanese-American police
detective who worked at the 12 precinct
located in New York's Greenwich Village
area. Jack Soo's last episode was in
October of 1978. He died in January, 1979
and later in May of that year a special
episode was filmed, dedicated to the
memory of his character Det. Yemana. At
the end of the tribute all officers raised
their coffee mugs in a final toast and
tender gesture of farewell. (Det. Yemana
was known for making terrible coffee). In
real life, Jack Soo had spent most of WWII
in a Japanese internment camp.
BEVERLY
HILLS 90210/FOX/1990-2000
(Lindsay Price) Janet Sosna, the
Japanese-American wife of Steve Sanders,
the adopted white son of TV actress
Samantha Sanders, the star of "Hartley
House. On episode #224 "Ready or Not"
Janet first appears in the recurring role
as Janet Sosna when she is hired as an
assistant for Brandon and Steve. who run a
magazine called The Beat. Janet
officially joined the cast on episode
#242. Janet and Steve investigate a
"haunted house," get locked inside a
refrigerator and have sex. On episode #258
"Slipping Away, Janet hides her
relationship with Steve from her father,
who only wants her to date Japanese men.
After Steve professes his love, Janet
tells her father the truth and gets thrown
out of the house. Although her Japanese
parents Ben (James Shigeta) and Michelle
Sosna (Leslie Ishii) at first did not
approve of her marrying a Caucasian, their
hearts melted when they saw their
interracial grandchild, Madeline "Maddy."
Janet later turns down a job at the
magazine Nouveau and agrees to
start a new magazine with her husband [so
she could spend more time with her baby
girl]. Note: Lindsay Price also appeared
as Michael Lai on the 1995-97 season of
The Bold and the Beautiful and as An
Li Chen during the 1991-1993 seasons of
All My Children. Born in Arcadia,
California, Lindsay’s family roots include
a Korean mother and a German Irish father.
BOSTON
COMMON/NBC/1996-97
(Amy Hill) Mrs. Sakini, plump,
middle-aged Japanese-American executive
secretary working for Harrison Cross, a
British-accented President of Harrington
College in Boston, Massachusetts. During
"The Occidental Purists" episode to
satisfy the multicultural casting needs of
the school play "The Tea Ceremony," Mrs.
Sakini, was reluctantly recruited to play
the role of a 16-year-old Japanese girl
named Lotus Flower.
THE
COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER/ABC/1969-72
(Miyoshi Umeki/costar) Mrs.
Livingston, a soft-spoken, philosophical
Japanese housekeeper who cared for Thomas
Corbett, a widower publisher and his small
son, Eddie. Sometimes confused by American
customs she asked advice from "Mr. Eddie's
father" as she called her employer. In her
spare time Mrs. Livingston attended night
classes to improve her English.
DAVIS
RULES!/ABC/1991-92
(Tamayo Otsuki) Mrs. Elaine Yamagami,
a Japanese assistant principal working for
Pomahoc Elementary School near Seattle,
Washington. Mrs. Yamagami's had thick
accent and was always talking about the
differences between people in Japan and
America. Kristi Murakami played her
daughter, Nickki.
DICK TRACY/SYN/1961
(Cartoon Character) Joe Jitsu (voice
of Mel Blanc/Paul Frees) an oriental
policeman working with Dick Tracy nabbing
such crooks as Sketch Paree, the Mole,
Itchy, Flat Top and Prune Face. His wrist
radio call sign was "six, two and even...
over and out". This character was an
extreme stereotype of an Asian with large
protruding teeth, heavy black-rimmed
glasses and a derby hat. His slurred
vocabulary was filled with "Rots of Ruk"
type phrases.
GUNG
HO/ABC/1986
(Gedde Watanabe) "Kaz" Kazuhiro, a
Japanese manager stationed at the Assan
Motors automotive plant in Hadleyville,
near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Other cast
included Patti Yasutake as Kaz's wife,
Umeki; Sab Shimono as Kaz's assistant,
Saito; Emily K. Kuroda as Saito's wife,
Yukiko; Rodney Kageyama as Ito; and Scott
Atari as Kenji. The series was based on
the Ron Howard film "Gung Ho" (1985) about
a group of Japanese businessman who
participated in a joint American-Japanese
automotive plant venture.
HAPPY
DAYS/ABC/1974-84
(Noriyuki Pat Morita) Matsuo
Takahashi, a.k.a. "Arnold," a
Japanese-American owner of a 1950s
Milwaukee Drive-in hamburger joint called
"Arnold's, the after school hang-out for
the teenagers of Jefferson High School.
When he bought the restaurant it was
called Arnold's and so to save money, this
Japanese-American entrepreneur decided not
to rename the restaurant to save on the
cost of buying a new sign. Arnold later
sold the restaurant to a jovial,
easy-going Italian-American named Al
Delvecchio who also retained the name of
the restaurant. Note: Pat Morita was also
the star of his own series including the
sitcom MR. T & TINA/ABC/1976; the
detective drama OHARA/ABC/1987-88; and
action cartoon THE KARATE KID/NBC/1989-90
(an animated spin-off of the 1984 movie
The Karate Kid, where Morita as Mr.
Miyagi spoke the now famous line ""Wax On,
Wax Off."
MCHALE'S
NAVY/ABC/1962-66
(Yoshio Yoda) Fuji Kobiaji, an AWOL
Japanese soldier living with the American
navy crew of the PT Boat # 73 near the
Island of Taratupa in the South Pacific
during World War II. Fuji, a Seaman Third
Calss in the Imperial Japanese navy, was
the opposite of his zealot kamakazi
countrymen. Choosing not to be sent to a
POW camp, he befriended his American
captors and became their chief cook and
bottle washer, living in constant threat
of being discovered by outsiders. When Lt.
Cdr. McHale and his men were transferred
to the European Front (Italy), Fuji
followed, incognito, of course.
QUINCY,
M.E./NBC/1976-83
(Robert Ito/costar) Sam Fujiyama,
Japanese-American medical assistant to Dr.
R. Quincy, medical examiner for the Los
Angeles Coroners Office. The series was
inspired by the exploits of Dr. Thomas
Noguchi, former L.A. Coroner who
investigated the deaths of Marilyn Monroe
and John Belushi among others. He was
often called "Coroner to the Stars."
RAGS TO
RICHES/NBC/1987-88
(Kimiko Gelman) Rose, one of five
orphaned girls adopted by Nick Foley, a
West Coast self-made millionaire who lived
in a Bel Air mansion with an aging but hip
English butler during the days of 1961.
Rose's mother was a Japanese-American
imprisoned in an American concentration
camp during World War II. While interned
she fell in love with an U.S. Army soldier
and became pregnant. When the baby's
father shipped out, Rose's grandfather
gave the baby (Rose) up for adoption.
Disheartened, the next day Rose's mother
walked in front of a moving train.
ST.
ELSEWHERE/NBC/1982-88
(Kim Miyori) Dr. Wendy Armstrong,
Japanese-American medical resident working
at Boston's St. Eligius Hospital (aka "St.
Elsewhere"). During the 1982-84 season,
Dr. Armstrong's character was written out
of the series via suicide brought on by
her demanding hospital responsibilities
and her depression over her anorexia
nervosa problem.
SARGE/NBC/1971-72
(Harold Sakata) Kenji Takichi, a
rectory cook and athletic coach for the
parish of St. Aloysius in San Diego. His
boss, Father Samuel Cavanaugh was a former
cop turned priest. Perhaps, Harold
Sakata's most memorable role was that of
the evil enemy agent "Oddjob" in the James
Bond spy thriller Goldfinger
(1964).
SATURDAY
NIGHT LIVE/NBC/1975+
(John Belushi/costar) Samurai Warrior,
a grunting Japanese Samurai with a
ponytail and kimono in skits like "Samurai
Tailor," "Samurai Night Fever" and
"Samurai Hotel." Sid Caesar was the first
to do a wild takeoff of a Samurai in the
1950s when he spoofed Japanese films in a
sketch called "Ubetchu."
SHOGUN/NBC/1980
(Toshiro Mifune/costar) Toranaga, a
powerful warlord who lived in feudal Japan
in the 1600s. Also featured are Yoko
Shimada as Lady Mariko, who interpreted
for a shipwrecked English navigator named
John Blackthorne (referred to as "Anjin-san");
Frankie Sabai as Yabu; and Nobuo Kaneko as
Ishido, Toranaga’s nemesis. The five-part,
twelve hour miniseries is based on James
Clavell’s epic novel of the same name.
STAR
TREK/NBC/1966-69
(George Takei) Hikaru Sulu, a highly
efficient Chief Helmsman of Japanese
descent stationed aboard the USS
Enterprise, a futuristic starship whose
mission was to "...seek out new life...to
boldly go where no man has gone before."
Born in San Francisco in 2237, Sulu's
hobbies included collecting old Earth
style weapons, fencing and botany. He
later assumed command of the Starship
Excelsior in the year 2290. In real life
George Takei spent part of WWII in a
Japanese internment camp.
STAR TREK:
THE NEXT GENERATION/SYN/1987-94
(Rosalind Chao) Keiko Ishikawa
O'Brien, a Starfleet botanist of Japanese
descent who married Miles O'Brien, the
transporter chief aboard the starship USS
Enterprise-D. Also featured were Patti
Yatsutake as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa, a member
of the Enterprise-D medical staff;
Benjamin W. S. Lum as Jim Shimoda, an
assistant chief engineer featured on
episode No. 3 "The Naked Now"; Robert Ito
as Tac Officer Chang in charge of
Starfleet Academy examinations on the
episode No. 19 "Coming of Age"; and Keone
Young as Buck Bokai (a.k.a. Harmon Bokai),
one of professional baseball's greatest
player who broke Joe DiMaggio's record for
consecutive hits in the year 2026 as
mentioned on episode No. 13 "The Big
Goodbye." The Bokai character was
integrated into a holographic program used
by the African-American commander Benjamin
Sisko to play baseball on board the
Enterprise on episode No. 14 "The
Storyteller,"; and his holographic image
came to life and escaped the confines of
his holographic programming on episode No.
16 "If Wishes Were Horses."
21 JUMP
STREET/FOX/1987-90
(Dustin Nguyen/costar) Harry Truman
"H. T." Ioki, a young Japanese-American
police officer (with erratic driving
skills) who was assigned to an elite squad
of baby-faced cops posing as high school
students to battle juvenile crime. (A sort
of MOD SQUAD of the 1980's.) His parents
moved to the U.S.A. after World War II.
Once Ioki commented he was "named after
the guy who dropped an atom bomb on my
house". He learned to speak English by
watching old DRAGNET reruns and once
thought a "Stake-out" was what you did to
get a "Sirloin-to-go." Later in the series
(12/20/87 episode) it was revealed that
Ioki was actually a Vietnamese refugee. In
real life Nguyen had escaped Saigon in
1975 by boat to Guam and later arrived in
the U.S.A. His character was in many ways
autobiographical.
Bonus:
MR. NISSAN (TV Commercial)
(Dale Ishimoto) Mr. Nissan, a
mysterious man with the terrier dog,
glasses, baseball cap and a big grin
featured on a series of Nissan automobile
TV commercials in 1997. The mystic Mr.
Nissan character was based on the former
Nissan president Yutaka Katayama who
reportedly represented "honor, integrity
and fun." The 60-ish actor Dale Ishimoto
who played Mr. Nissan was born in Delta,
Colorado and served as a veteran of the US
Army. Before playing Mr. Nissan,
Ishimoto's acting credits included parts
on MCHALE'S NAVY, KUNG FU and other TV
commercials.
