Paul Vitello, 日本歌手、演员李香兰在东京逝世. 纽约时报中文网, Sept 23, 2014 (under the heading 讣告)
cn.nytimes.com/obits/20140923/c23yamaguchi-obit/
, which is translated from
Paul Vitello, Yoshiko Yamaguchi, 94, Actress in Propaganda Films; A performer’s life was defined by self-reinventions. New York Times, Sept 23, 2014 (in the obituary section).
Note:
(a) Her early movies made in Manchuria were “‘Honeymoon Express’ 蜜月快車 (1938), “China Nights” 支那の夜/ 支那之夜 (1940) and “Song of the White Orchid” 白蘭の歌/ 迎春花 (1942).
(i) The pair of movie titles are Japanese and Chinese, in that order. The Chinese is traditional Chinese, used at the time in China, including Manchuria.
(ii) 支那の夜 is pronounced “shina-no-yoru.” (The “yoru” and “ya” are Japanese and Chinese pronunciations, respectively, of 夜.
(b) “As ‘Ri Koran,’ a Japanization of Li Xianglan, Ms Yamaguchi began re-establishing her film career in Hong Kong and Japan in the late 1940s.”
The kana does not different r and l as in English. So “Li” became “Ri” in transliteration from English to Japanese--always. The same may be said about 蘭 (“lan” to “ran”). The “kō” (with a long vowel) is Chinese pronunciation of 香, in Japan.
(c) “She appeared in a dozen Japanese films, including Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film 'Scandal 醜聞 [in kanji]'"
(d) She "retir[ed] from acting in 1957. She married Hiroshi Otaka, a Japanese diplomat, the same year. He died in 2001. A previous marriage, to the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, ended in divorce. Information about her survivors was not available. Ms Yamaguchi became a talk-show host on Japanese television in the 1960s under her married name, Otaka Yoshiko."
(i) Japanese Wikipedia (in a page under the title 山口淑子) said she remarried in 1958, to Hiroshi ŌTAKA 大鷹 弘 (then 駐ビルマ--Burma--日本大使館の三等書記官).
(ii) Japanese English dictionary
* taka タカ 《鷹》 【たか(P)】 (n): " falcon (Falconidae spp.); hawk"
* koseki 戸籍 【こせき】 (n): "family register"
* isamu 勇む 【いさむ】 (v): "to be in high spirits; to be encouraged; to be lively; to cheer up"
(iii)
(A) Editorial: People Should Be Allowed to Keep Own Family Name After Marriage. May 30, 2013
ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201305300047
("The Civil Law [民法] stipulates that married couples must adopt the family name of either the husband or wife. * * * In Japan, 96 percent of married couples use the family name of the husband, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. That means the burden of having to change surnames is mostly carried by women")
(B) Linda E White, Chapter 14 Challenging the Heteronormative Family in the Koseki; Surname, legitimacy and unmarried mother. In: David Chapman, Karl Jacob Krogness (eds), Citizenship and Japan’s Household Registration System; Koseki, ientification and documentation. Routledge, 2014, at 247
books.google.com/books?id=jYP8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA247&lpg=PA247&dq=women+name+change+japan+marriage&source=bl&ots=CuyD6Dl6KE&sig=_snVAn05De-87QWUsv-XnXy2Pf0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xbghVOOGGc2nyATp04H4Aw&ved=0CF0Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=women%20name%20change%20japan%20marriage&f=false
("In Japan, young men rarely consider relinquishing their family names upon marriage")
(iv) That is why the page in Japanese Wikipedia under the title イサム・ノグチ (katakana for "Isamu Noguchi") says this: "本名 [real name]：大鷹淑子（旧姓 [maiden name]: 山口）。"
(v) Her first marriage was with Isamu NOGOCHI. Japanese Wiki said that while acting in US, she met him in New York, and that the marriage lasted from 1951 to 1955. The Japanese Wikipedia page for Mr Noguchi indicates that he ("日本名：野口 勇; 1904-1988") was born in US by a Japanese father and an American mother (white).
(e) For the penultimate paragraph, the translation has “山口淑子在接受采访时说，她年轻时认为中国是 ‘家乡，’ 日本是’祖国。’” The original is more telling: “Ms. Yamaguchi told interviewers that as a young woman she considered China her ‘home country’ and Japan her ‘ancestral country.’”