Hamako Watanabe

Hamako Watanabe
Hamako Watanabe in 1938
Background information
Native name	渡辺 はま子
Birth name	Hamako Kato (加藤 浜子)
Born	(1910-10-27)October 27, 1910 Yokohama, Japan
Died	December 31, 1999(1999-12-31) (aged 89) Yokohama, Japan
Years active	1934-1989

Hamako Watanabe (渡辺 はま子, Watanabe Hamako, 27 October 1910 – 31 December 1999) was the stage name of a Japanese popular singer, who was active during the Shōwa period of Japan, before, during and after World War II. Her real name was Hamako Kato.

Watanabe was born and raised in Yokohama, and claimed that her grandfather was a quarter American. She graduated from the Musashino Academia Musicae in 1933, and soon obtained a job as a music instructor at the Yokohama Gakuen Women’s High School. However, the same year, she won an audition at Polydor Records, but after only one song (which was not released), her contract was not renewed. Per the advice and recommendation of Tamaki Tokuyama, her mentor from the Musashino Academia, she transferred to Victor, who released her debut song in 1934.

Her acting debut also occurred the same year at a stage musical at the Hibya Public Hall in Tokyo. When the lead singer, Chikoko Kobayashi suddenly dropped out of the performance, Watanabe was quickly promoted to understudy, and played the role of a fisherman’s daughter alongside Ichirō Fujiyama and Roppa Furukawa. She resigned from teaching in 1935. In the mid-1930s, Watanabe had a number of hit songs. However, government censors came down on her in 1936 over the risqué lyrics on a number of her songs.

In April 1937, Watanabe transferred from Victor to Columbia Records, which was then producing mostly patriotic songs. Her song, Aikoku no hana (“Flower of Patriotism”, 1938) was an immediate hit. She was sent to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War to raise morale among the troops, and visited many locations in Japanese-occupied China. The release of Shina no yoru ("Night in China", 1938) and Kanton buruzu ("Canton Blues", 1938) further boosted her popularity, especially after Shina no yoru was made into a hit movie by the Manchukuo Film Association, starring Ri Koran. During this time, Watanabe often performed wearing Chinese dress, and many of her songs incorporated traditional Chinese melodies or phrases of Chinese lyrics. At the surrender of Japan, Watanabe was based in Tianjin and was placed in a prisoner of war camp for over a year.