Shigeru Wakatsuki


Shigeru Wakatsuki was a Japanese film producer and journalist who served as the representative director and president of Ninjin Club. His film credits included the epic war trilogy The [Human Condition (film series)|The Human Condition], [The Inheritance (1962 film)|The Inheritance], Love Under the Crucifix, Pale Flower, Kwaidan, and Empire of Passion. Wakatsuki also worked for several publications prior to his film career, and was arrested and tortured in 1944 as a suspected communist in connection with the Yokohama incident.

Biography

Wakatsuki was born Shigeru Yoneyama between 1914 and 1915 in Niigata Prefecture. As a student, he was involved in student activism and became interested in making a film adaptation after reading Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. After graduating from Chuo University, he worked as the editor-in-chief of several publications, including and Chuokoron-Shinsha. During World War II, he was a reporter and journalist for Kaizō. He also wrote under the pen name Shun Morishita. On January 29, 1944, Wakatsuki and three of his colleagues at Kaizōsha were arrested by the Special Higher Police for printing communist essays. They suffered government oppression regarding free speech in what became known as the Yokohama incident. As a suspected communist, he was subsequently tortured by the Special Higher Police.
After the war, he worked as a journalist before transitoning to film in 1954, as the representative director and president of Ninjin Club, a company co-founded by his cousin-in-law, actress Keiko Kishi; Wakatsuki became a film producer in 1955. He attempted to fufill his longtime dream of making Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things into a film, eventually succeeding in 1964 after a decade of development hell, with Kwaidan. His other producing credits included the epic war trilogy The Human Condition, The Inheritance, Love Under the Crucifix, and Pale Flower ; his final credit was for Empire of Passion.
Wakatsuki died on December 10, 1987, at the age of 72 or 73.

Filmography

Producer