James Shigeta

November 20, 2018December 10, 2018
actors, music, Uncategorized
Tagged Asian American, musician
by Hwee Lin Yeo

Left: James Shigeta (credits: Flickr Photobase), Right: Album cover of We Speak The Same Language (credits: rafu.com)

One may recognise James Shigeta from his role as his role as Joseph Takagi in the 1988 hit, Die Hard, or as Wang Ta in the highly acclaimed, all (mostly) Asian-American cast 1961 musical-film The Flower Drum Song. While his acting career was distinguished, for he defied tropes that Asian American men are unattractive, Shigeta’s work as a singer should not be overlooked.

Born in Hawaii in 1933, Shigeta sang in nightclubs in the US under the name Guy Brion. He served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War for two and a half years, sang for the troops and rose to the rank of staff sergeant. After winning first place in a TV show called Original Amateur Hour, the American Idol of its day, . His subsequent success in multiple Tokyo musicals bestowed him with the nickname, The Frank Sinatra of Japan. He even set the then all time best selling record in Japan with his Japanese rendition of ‘Love Letters In The Sand’, which sold over two million copies.

Following Shigeta starring role as Wang Ta in the 1961 film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Flower Drum Song’, Shigeta was signed to Fred Astaire’s label Choreo (later Ava Records), and released the album ‘We Speak The Same Language’.

Scholar Olivia Wang noted that the way in which Shigeta was presented in reference to his nationality and ethnicity was “different, sometimes contradictory”, detailing that while his music is “almost all completely Tin Pan Alley standards” and “nothing different about Shigeta from any other pop singer of the era, certainly not on a racial ethnic level”, critics often referred to Shigeta as a Japanese artist even though he is Japanese American, and is hailed as “the Frank Sinatra of Japan”.

Shigeta was inducted into the Japanese American Hall of Fame by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California along for defying negative tropes of Asian American masculinity, and thereby inspiring Asian Americans to pursue acting careers in the entertainment industry.

Reference:

Between the Notes: Finding Asian America in Popular Music Author(s): Oliver Wang Source: American Music, Vol. 19, No. 4, Asian American Music (Winter, 2001), pp. 439-465 Published by: University of Illinois Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3052420 Accessed: 18-09-2016 10:27 UTC