User:Ckoerner/Akira Mimura

Akira Mimura (Japanese: 三村明, Hepburn: Akira Mimura, January 6, 1901 - December 23, 1985) known internationally as Harry Mimura, was a cinematographer and film director during the Taisho and Showa eras. He is one of the founders of Japanese film cinematography.

Career
Mimura's father was Rear Admiral Kinzaburo Mimura, who served as the captain of the Japanese battleship Kirishima and the battleship Hyūga. Mimura was born in Etajima, Aki District, Hiroshima (now called Etajima City).

Mimura graduated from Zushi Kaisei Senior High School in 1919 and moved to the United States in September of the same year. After attending school in Seattle, he graduated from the Nicholson School for Science and Math in Chicago in 1924. It is said that when the anti-Japanese movement was spreading across the United States, he decided to enter the film industry with the desire to, "become a cameraman and show Americans the true side of Japan."

In 1925 Mimura studied at the New York College of Photography, and was the first Japanese to join the New York Photographer Union. At that time, it was extremely difficult for Asians and Japanese people who did not have citizenship to join the union. He worked for Gregg Toland, known for his work as a cinematographer on Citizen Kane, and George Barnes, known for Rebecca and other films. He became the first Japanese cameraman to work as a cinematographer's assistant in Hollywood, where he learned the art of cinematography.

Mimura worked on about 60 films, including Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, The Trespasser, an early talkie directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Gloria Swanson, Swan, directed by George Fitzmaurice, starring Lillian Gish, and Condemned, directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Ronald Colman.

In the early Showa era, future movie critic Nagaharu Yodogawa, who was a young boy living in Kobe at the time, saw the name "Mimura" in an American magazine and wrote a fan letter to Mimura asking if he was Japanese. Mimura, who was working in Hollywood at the time, sent a carefully handwritten letter along with a photo of Gloria Swanson saying, "This is the moving I'm currently making". Yodogawa treasured the gesture for the rest of his life.

Filmography

 * A Wanderer's Notebook (1935)
 * Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
 * お嬢さん (1937)
 * 綴方教室 (1938)
 * 支那の夜 (1940)
 * Horse (1941)
 * The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya (1942)
 * 緑の大地 (1942)
 * 姿三四郎（1943)
 * 加藤隼戦闘隊（1944)
 * 東宝千一夜（1947)
 * 恋する妻（1947)
 * 黒馬の団七（1948)
 * 三百六十五夜（1948)
 * 結婚三銃士（1949)
 * 夢よもういちど（1949)
 * 銀座カンカン娘（1949)
 * 暁の脱走（1950)
 * 女医の診察室（1950)
 * 処女宝（1950)
 * 愛染香（1950)
 * バナナ娘（1950)
 * 月よりの母（1951)
 * 女豹の地図（1951)
 * 銀座化粧（1951)
 * 上海帰りのリル（1952)
 * ハワイの夜（1953)
 * 南十字星は偽らず（1953)
 * 風立ちぬ（1954)
 * 第二の接吻（1954)
 * やくざ囃子（1954)
 * やがて青空（1955)
 * 明日の幸福（1955)
 * 花のゆくえ（1955)
 * いらっしゃいませ（1955)
 * 世にも面白い男の一生 桂春団治（1956)
 * 森繁よ何処へ行く（1956)
 * 鬼の居ぬ間（1956)
 * おしどりの間（1956)
 * ひかげの娘（1957)
 * その夜のひめごと（1957)
 * 浪人街（1957)
 * 非常線（1958)
 * おしどり駕籠（1958)
 * 娘の中の娘（1958)
 * 白い通り魔（1959)
 * 空港の魔女（1959)
 * 父と娘（1959)
 * 東京べらんめえ娘（1959)
 * 警視庁物語 血液型の秘密（1960)
 * 警視庁物語 聞き込み（1960)
 * 消えた密航船（1960)
 * 砂漠を渡る太陽（1960)
 * 遙かなる母の顔（1960)
 * 金も命もいらないぜ（1961)
 * 恋愛学校（1962)
 * 恋は神代の昔から（1963)
 * 浅草の侠客（1963)