[78-L] Glaydys Tsutumi post from 2009 Search

[Mark Thomas]

Hi,

My understanding is that several of these singers on Japanese pop hits in
the later 40s and early 50s, during the Occupation (recordings that catered
to US troops), were Nisei from the US, perhaps Hawaii or California, who
went to Japan to record these songs because of their English language
skills.  Perhaps her granddaughter can enlighten us, but I thought that
Gladys Tsutumi was from the U.S.

A number of traditional Japanese songs were given English lyrics (I believe
unrelated to the original lyrics, not translations), and Tonko Bushi
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo-T5cF14kY> has lyrics about Geisha Girls
and Ginza Ave and sounds totally made up for the western military audience.
It's super catchy.

I also believe that Ramond Hattori, the arranger on some of these
recordings, was from the U.S.

Tonko Bushi is on Columbia A 1171. The flip side is Tankoh Bushi by Grace
Amemiya <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZTVvvUUwY>. That song is a
traditional song related to coal miners, but the English lyrics may also be
unrelated. Grace Amemiya was born in California.  On YouTube, besides a
number of her Japanese recordings, is an oral history interview
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOPaJndRL9Q> with her from 2011, about her
experience in an internment camp in the US during WWII.

Best,
Mark Thomas

On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 2:29 AM <ron at fial.com.invalid> wrote:

>
> There were two posts regarding  Gladys Tutsumi found in 2009
>    ( from 78-L mail list administrator)
>
> =======================  (1)  ============================
>
> [78-L] Gladys Tsutsumi
> Jan Hovers janhovers at hotmail.com
> Sat Feb 7 06:34:26 PST 2009
>
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>
> Dear list members,
>
> I
> have a question about a mysterious record. It is a familiar Japanese
> folksong. But I can´t find
> any details of it, nor in my guidebooks, nor on the web. It is really a
> lovely recording.
>
> The title is TONKO BUSHI, recorded on (Japanese) Columbia Records, cat.nr.
> A 1171,
> matrix M 1212223
>
> It is  sung by Gladys Tsutsumi with Columbia Orchestra
> Authors:  verse: Michael White, Melody: Masao Koga, Arr.: Raymond Hattori
>
> hope to find out more about Gladys Tsutsumi and also about this recording
> (date
> and place)
>
> The  label is partly in English and partly in Japanese.  I would be very
> happy to hear from
> you!
>
> Jan
> Hovers
>
> Amsterdam, The Netherlandswww.78rpm.hovers.nl
> _________________________________________________________________
> Jouw nieuws en entertainment, vind je op MSN.nl!
> http://nl.msn.com/
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> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> ====================  (2)  =======================
>
> [78-L] Gladys Tsutsumi
> Hopkins/Kato hopkat at sa2.so-net.ne.jp
> Sat Feb 7 16:49:50 PST 2009
>
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> Don't know anything about Gladys Tsutsumi, but this is a post-war record,
> so
> the music world was very conscious of American styles. A lot of singers
> made
> up English first names for themselves. Koga Masao is one of the most famous
> songwriters in Japan, with a long career (from about 1930 to the 1970s, I
> think) and many of his songs try to combine a folk song sensibility with
> modern orchestration.
> David Hopkins
> Nara, Japan
>
>
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