Actor Masao Kusakari (73) appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on May 5th. He shared an anecdote about finding out that his father, whom he had been told had passed away, was actually alive at the age of 83.
Kusakari was born to an American soldier father and a Japanese mother. She had never seen a picture of her father, and her mother told her that he had died in the Korean War, which she believed. When Tetsuko asked her, "Was it financially difficult for your mother and you to be the only child?", she replied, "I think it was quite difficult. We went through a lot. There was discrimination back then."
Recently, when she had someone look into his whereabouts for a TV program, it was discovered that her father had lived in the United States until he was 83 years old. "I was once offered the opportunity to appear on the program. When I told my mother about it, she told me, 'If you were to meet him in that way, it would cause trouble for him, so you should not do it,'" she revealed, explaining that her mother had tried to stop her.
Later, her mother passed away in 2010 at the age of 78. She received another offer to appear on the show, and after consulting with her daughters, they encouraged her to do it, so she decided to take the role.
Her father lived to be 83 years old. "I was surprised. The first time I spoke to them, both my father and mother were still alive. I think it was good that I appeared on the show this time," she recalled. She said she went to visit her aunt and cousin, who are her father's relatives and live in the United States, and added, "The first thing my aunt said was, 'Are you going to forgive me?' And somehow I felt a great sense of relief."
