FOUND A GRAVE

Actress. Born in Hiroshima prefecture, Okada was described as 5 feet tall, weighed 95 pounds and had both black eyes and hair. After training at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, she joined the Butai Kyokai (Stage Show Association). She was accepted by “Shukke to sono deshi”. In 1922,she made her debut as a movie star by ‘Dokuro no Mai”of Nikkatsu Cinema Company. After that,her fame spread as a movie and new drama star. She founded Taishu Eiga-sha in 1929 and began working with Shochiku Cinema in 1932. Her film credits include “Daichi wa hohoemu” (The Earth Smiles) 1925, “Shirayuri wa nageku” (The White Lily Laments) 1925, “Ningen” (The Human Being) 1925, “Kyoren no onna shisho” (The Passion of a Woman Teacher) 1926, “Mata au hi made” (Until the Day We Meet Again) 1932, “Tokyo no onna” (Woman of Tokyo) 1933, “Tokyo no yado” (An Inn in Tokyo) 1935, and “Aru mittsu” (A Certain Adultery). In 1938, a mood of war was beginning to rise in Japan, and Okada felt she could not bear the aura of fascism. On Dec.27,1938, Yoshiko Okada and up-and-comming young director Ryokichi Sugimoto started a trip from Tokyo’s Ueno Station to Karahuto(Sakhalin). On New Year’s Day,they visited the border garrison of Poronajsk on Sakhalin, then crossed the border.They left for Moscow by the Siberian Railway, but they were arrested for spying by the Soviet National Police. MrSugimoto was executed by firing squad in Oct. 1939. Okada was sent to concentration camps for ten years. In 1948, she began to work for the Moscow Broadcasting Station. She worked hard as a translator, editor and announcer. She discussed Russian Literature. She encountered Shintarou Takiguchi, a former movie star who had been taken prisoner in Manshu, China, and continued to stay in the Soviet Union after the war. They were married in 1950, In 1955, at age 53, she entered the Runacharusky Drama school and began to learn drama. In 1971, after MrTakiguchi had died, she felt lonely and wished to return to Japan. In October of 1972, the Japanese goverment agreed to her return and on nov.13,carrying one of Takiguchi’s bones next to her chest, she returned to Japan for the first time in 34 years. After returning, she appeared in the movies “Otokowa tsuraiyo yuuyake koyake”, (Orange Road Express), and acted as a cultural ambassador between Japan and the Soviet Union. (Reference: Mr Akira Komatsu, and NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, TV program, “NHK special correspondent’s report ‘Journey Yoshiko Okada’s Comming Back,'” broadcast nov. 7,1972.)