夜来香 / 上戸彩 YeLaixiang by Ueto Aya

Young Japanese actress Ueto Aya sang this YeLaixiang (夜来香)for the Japanese TV drama 李香蘭 in Feb. 2007. DVD is available to see full of story.

Li Xianglan(李香蘭) was born in China in　1920.　When she was 13, her Chinese foster father(養父)gave her name Li Xianglan. She lived as a Chinese singer and actress, hiding the fact that she actually was a Japanese named Yamaguchi Yoshiko(山口淑子) in order to avoid anti-Japanese movement fighting against the invasion of Japanese army.

Once, there was an episode for her national identity. When she had a concert in Japan, a local newspaper scooped that she was actually a Japanese. Then she replied "I know the paper made my real name public, but I don't worry whether I fall out of my populality. The important thing is how well I act and sing on the stage. And I think my nationality is just an East Asian woman."

June 1945, she had a concert with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra(上海交響楽団) at the Grand Theatre(大光明大戯院). This video is the scene. The concert was so successful continuing 3 days. August 9th 1945, she had an encore concert for her fans at Shanghai horse race field(現在の人民広場). She knew that this could be the last message to China where she was born in, grown up and loved.


The war ended. Chinese government arrested her on the doubt that she helped Japan's propaganda by acting in Japanese movies. Many newspapers said that she would be killed. Finally, getting help from her Russian childhood girl friend, she got free and left out to Japan.