Sessue Hayakawa - The man who introduced Asia to Hollywood

Sessue Hayakawa is the first Asian american actor that started performing in Hollywood during the silent movie era. He was not only talented but also the highest paid actor during in the early 20's. Hayakawa was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the silent era of the 1910s and 1920s. He acted in movies till late 60's. Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese navy, but he was turned down due to problems with his hearing.

Humble Beginnings

The disappointed Hayakawa decided to make his career on the stage. He joined a Japanese theatrical company that eventually toured the United States in 1913. Pioneering film producer Thomas H. Ince spotted him and offered him a movie contract. Roles in The Wrath of the Gods (1914) and The Typhoon (1914) turned Hayakawa into an overnight success. The first Asian-American star of the American screen was born. Hayakawa became a regular player at the Japanese Playhouse in Little Tokyo, where he was discovered by Hollywood film producer Thomas H. Ince. Against all odds, Ince agreed to pay him the extraordinary sum of $500 per week to star in the silent film adaption of a stage play called “The Typhoon” in 1914.

“The Typhoon” starred Hayakawa as a Japanese diplomat to France who, after having an affair with a chorus girl, strangles her to death in a fit of passion. Despite the negative stereotyping of his character, Hayakawa’s brooding good looks made him an undeniable sex symbol amongst white women across America.

He married actress Tsuru Aoki on May 1, 1914. The next year his appearance in Cecil B. DeMille's sexploitation picture The Cheat (1915) made Hayakawa a silent-screen superstar. He played an ivory merchant who has an affair with the Caucasian Fannie Ward, and audiences were "scandalized" when he branded her as a symbol of her submission to their passion. The movie was a blockbuster for Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount), turning Hayakawa into a romantic idol for millions of American women, regardless of their race. However, there were objections and outrage from racists of all stripes, especially those who were opposed to miscegenation (sexual contact between those of different races). Also outraged was the Japanese-American community, which was dismayed by DeMille's unsympathetic portrayal of a member of their race. The Japanese-American community protested the film and attempted to have it banned when it was re-released in 1918.

The popularity of Hayakawa rivaled that of Caucasian male movie stars in the decade of the 1910s, and he became one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. He made his career in melodramas, playing romantic heroes and charismatic heavies. He co-starred with the biggest female stars in Hollywood, all of whom were, of course, Caucasian. His pictures often co-starred Jack Holt as his Caucasian rival for the love of the white heroine (Holt would later become a top action star in the 1920s),

Hayakawa left Famous Players-Lasky to go independent, setting up his own production company, Haworth Pictures Corp. Through the end of the decade Haworth produced Asian-themed films starring Hayakawa and wife Tsuru Aoki that proved very popular. These movies elucidated the immigrant's desire to "cross over" or assimilate into society at large and pursue the "American Dream" in a society free of racial intolerance. Sadly, most of these films are now lost.


With the dawn of a new decade came a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, particularly over the issue of immigration due to the post-World War I economic slump. Hayakawa's films began to perform poorly at the box office, bringing his first American movie career to an end in 1922. He moved to Japan but was unable to get a career going. Relocating to France, he starred in La bataille (1923), a popular melodrama spiced with martial arts. He made Sen Yan's Devotion (1924) and The Great Prince Shan (1924) in the UK.

In 1931 Hayakawa returned to Hollywood to make his talking-picture debut in support of Anna May Wong in Daughter of the Dragon (1931). Sound revealed that he had a heavy accent, and his acting got poor reviews. He returned to Japan before once again going to France, where he made the geisha melodrama Jošivara (1937) for director Max Ophüls. He also appeared in a remake of "The Cheat" called Forfaiture (1937), playing the same role that over 20 year earlier had made him one of the biggest stars in the world. Hayakawa’s return to Hollywood coincided with the rise of another Asian American star — Anna May Wong, who coincidentally had a starring role in Hayakawa’s 1931 sound debut “Daughter of the Dragon.”

After Second World War

After the Second World War he took a third stab at Hollywood. In 1949 he relaunched g himself as a character actor with Tokyo Joe (1949) in support of Humphrey Bogart, and Three Came Home (1950) with Claudette Colbert. Hayakawa reached the apex of this, his third career, with his role as the martinet POW camp commandant in The bridge on the river Kway (1957), which brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Suporting Actor. His performance as Col. Saito was essential to the success of David Lean's film, built as it was around the battle of wills between Hayakawa's commandant and Alec Guinness' Col. Nicholson, head of the Allied POWs. The film won the Best Picture Academy Award, while Lean and Guiness also were rewarded with Oscars.

Hayakawa's Return to Japan

Hayakawa continued to act in movies regularly until his retirement in 1966. He returned to Japan, becoming a Zen Buddhist priest while remaining involved in his craft by giving private acting lessons. Before returning to Japan, Hayakawa wrote an interesting book called ''Zen showed me the way'' in the book Hayakawa explains motives and reveals an interesting glimpse of his life.

Daisuke Miyao wrote a recent book on Sessue Hayakawa in the silent era. Daisuke reconstructs the Japanese actor’s remarkable career, from the films that preceded his meteoric rise to fame as the star of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat (1915) through his reign as a matinee idol and the subsequent decline and resurrection of his Hollywood fortunes.

Sessue Hayakawa with his wife

Hayakawa's Home in California

Sessue Hayakawa lived in Los Angeles till the mid 60's. This is probably the home were Sessue Hayakawa wrote his book ''Zen showed me the way''. After Tsuru Aoki, with whom he adopted three children, died in 1961, Hayakawa returned to Japan, wrote his autobiography as already mentioned before “Zen Showed Me the Way: To Peace, Happiness and Tranquility,” and became a Zen monk.

He died in Tokyo on Nov. 23, 1973, and his star is now set on Vine St. in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Though Sessue’s star does not shine all the way to his native country, it is worth recalling, on the anniversary of his birth, how very brightly it once shone elsewhere.

The Bridge on the River Kwai rebuilt

It is perhaps one of the most iconic movie scenes of all time - the moment the bridge on the River Kwai is blown up in the 1957 film about prisoners of war in World War Two. Now, 59 years after it was destroyed, the Sri Lankan authorities plan to rebuild the wooden star of the Oscar-winning film The Bridge On The River Kwai. While the World War II epic was supposedly set in Japanese-held Burma, it was mostly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) between 1956 and 1957, less than a decade after independence from Britain.

An epic movie that I will never forget! Incredible actors like Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa demonstrated that good movies are possible using low-tech technology and passion. Nowadays many movies are somewhat the same and I hardly remember any actor. 

Tourist hotspot: Visitors in the area like to call in and see where the Bridge on the River Kwai was built for the Hollywood film.

The 1957 film was shot in various locations, concentrating in particular on Sri Lanka, where a wooden bridge was built as a set.

One hundred meters downstream there was a second bridge during World War II. This was a wooden bridge that could carry light diesel rail trucks transporting construction materials while the main bridge was being built.

In recent years, the village has become a magnet for adrenalin junkies who can white-water raft down the river, whose real name is the Kelani. But after Sri Lanka's Electricity Board unveiled plans to dam the river as part of a £50million ($82million) hydroelectric project, there was widespread dismay among locals whose livelihoods depend on tourism. In a bid to soften the blow, the electricity board has announced that it will pay for the reconstruction of a new wooden bridge, built on the original's foundations, to attract fans of the Oscar-winning movie. 'We have offered to rebuild the bridge at the same location,' the board's chief project engineer Kamal Laksiri told AFP.

''Today there is no bridge, only a few concrete posts remain. But we have looked at drawings and pictures of the bridge and we will recreate it.''

Many fans have around the world have been waiting for such good news. It would have been a disaster for local tourism not to reconstruct the bridge. 

The final scene in which a British officer played by Alec Guinness blows up a rail bridge that his fellow prisoners of war have just built was shot at sleepy Kitulgala, two hours' drive from the capital Colombo.

The explosion scene, in which a train packed with Japanese VIPs derails and then plunges into the river below, had to be shot twice in 1957 after a cameraman failed to give the correct signal to director David Lean. Elephants were used to haul the train out of the river for the second take and locals used the wooden debris to build homes or keep as souvenirs.

With Japanese engineers in command, a rickety bridge and lackadaisical work by the POW soldiers prove inadequate and dooms the project. But under British engineers, a stronger bridge begins to take shape. Taken from the book by Pierre Boulle and with a screenplay by Carl Foreman, it’s a story of enduring courage. The majority of films about World War II deal with the European theater, but this movie is the finest one depicting the courageous actions of British troops half a world away. Its values — steely adherence to military regulations and traditions in the face of unbridled fanaticism — are still compelling, fifty-nine years later.

As with many movies, the story of the production was almost as interesting as the film itself. The real camp was in Thailand along the river Kwai, but the movie was filmed in Ceylon along a wide rushing stream near Kitulgala along dense jungle. As Col. Saito said: “There are no bars here. The jungle keeps you in.”

Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, is halfway around the world. The intense heat and humidity were a heavy burden on cast and crew alike. There was also the challenge just to reach the set, live there for weeks, and oh yes, make a movie. Producer Spiegel built bungalows, installed plumbing facilities, water filtering, even a gourmet food-catering service. (Government officials in Colombo soon heard about the French Chef on location, and soon trekked to join Spiegel for lavish lunches.) Spiegel’s chauffeur-driven Jaguar took him as deep into the jungle as the roads would permit.)

He built miles of roads and cut through the mountains for the railroad tracks. Sixteen elephants hauled trees across the river for timber to build the bridge. The filmmakers used no special effects, building a bridge similar to the one in real life, and used few modern techniques to preserve authenticity. On a budget of just seven million dollars, that was a real challenge in and of itself. Today, computer animation would have created a railroad, but in Spiegel’s time, he bought an old engine and six railroad cars, then cut them in two to transport them through the jungle, then had them re-assembled by welders.

But Director Sir David Lean couldn’t quiet the numerous jungle birds whose squawks and chirping crickets before filming caused delay. Thus, just before rolling, he’d fire a gun in the air to scare them off. At least Holden had no problem with his makeup; he’d leap into the muddy river to get dirty before each scene.

World War II movies need a technical advisor so a General of the British army was hired. He was a veteran of jungle warfare, and wore a monocle even to bed. He believed “every boy of 17 should be sent into the jungle with no food nor water and suffer a bit of pain. It would teach him so many things.”

But not everyone was pleased to have the movie filmed in their country. The local press denounced Spiegel as a “Yankee imperialist” and “capitalistic exploiter.” Holden –the George Clooney of the 1950’s – was attacked as “The Great White Star.” A security guard was sent to mind the bridge, lest it be blown up prematurely. The troublemakers notified customs officials, saying the completed footage would contain diamonds and opium, hoping the ensuring inspection would spoil the negative. One night in Colombo, Lean and Spiegel were surrounded by men with knives yelling: “Money! Money! Money!” Spiegel, who’d fled the Nazis right after Anschluss engulfed his native Austria, would not be cowed. He placed his hand in his pocket and yelled: “Pistol! Pistol! Pistol!” The marauders dispersed.

Three Siamese actresses were hired, though they hadn’t read the script. So they lugged along evening gowns, unaware their roles were porters carrying heavy equipment for the commandos sent to blow up the bridge.

The movie even created its own mini-zoo, thanks to animal lover and environmentalist Holden. There was a stray cat, two parrots, a monkey, and a flightless owl who took a liking to Guinness. He’d feed it with an eye-dropper while it sat on the actor’s shoulder. Guinness would coax it while feeding it, saying: “Come, come. Here’s Mom.”

Bridge on the River Kwai told a story that hadn’t been widely known. In the recent movie “The Railway Man,” a former POW working on the same railroad suffered the effects of Japanese torture four decades later. Both films show how courage in the face of evil can be one’s finest saving grace.