Authors Mulboyne
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One popular foreign entertainer in Japan you don't hear much about today, is Roy James. Here he is, in a TV commercial for Nescafe instant coffee.
Roy James was born in Tokyo in 1929. While he might have looked like a Westerner, his family were Muslim Kazan Tatars who fought against the Soviets, and ended up in Japan. Roy James was a stage name: he was born Abdul Hannan Safa.
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Roy James's family ended up as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. During WWII, Turkey had good relations with Japan but declared war in 1945, which caused Turks in Japan a few months of hardship.
Speaking about this time, James said he was questioned on the way to school, and would take a beating if he was deemed to be in an unauthorized place.
Roy James went to Japanese schools and was a native speaker of Japanese. He got his introduction to showbusiness through Taibi Okada aka E. H. Erick. Erick and his brother featured in this old thread:
Roy James was born in Tokyo in 1929. While he might have looked like a Westerner, his family were Muslim Kazan Tatars who fought against the Soviets, and ended up in Japan. Roy James was a stage name: he was born Abdul Hannan Safa.
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Roy James's family ended up as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. During WWII, Turkey had good relations with Japan but declared war in 1945, which caused Turks in Japan a few months of hardship.
Speaking about this time, James said he was questioned on the way to school, and would take a beating if he was deemed to be in an unauthorized place.
Roy James went to Japanese schools and was a native speaker of Japanese. He got his introduction to showbusiness through Taibi Okada aka E. H. Erick. Erick and his brother featured in this old thread:
This is Erick, who took the stage name E\u30fbH\u30fb\u30a8\u30ea\u30c3\u30af. His Japanese name was Taibi Okada. One of his talents was wiggling his ears. /7 pic.twitter.com/xi4YkJO36z
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) September 27, 2017