Joe Yamanaka

, better known as , was a Japanese singer and actor. He is known for both his work with Flower Travellin' Band and as a solo musician; singing at a vocal range of three octaves. As an actor, he appeared in many television shows and movies, such as Blackmail Is My Life (1968), Zatoichi (1989) and Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002). He is also recognized for 20 years of charity and volunteer work with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and flew around the world helping those in poor or war-torn conditions; visiting more than 30 countries including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bosnia, numerous sovereign states in Africa, China, Ukraine (including Chernobyl), North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Brazil. While doing aid work in Jamaica, he met local musicians and later became involved in reggae music. His aid work was a personal inspiration to help those who were growing up in similar conditions that he had experienced as a child. Biography Akira Yamanaka was born in Yokohama, Japan, on September 2, 1946. He grew up in a family of seven children, though the only one of mixed descent as his father was a US Army soldier of Caribbean descent. In his autobiography, he mentions that he never met his biological father and that he came from a poor family in ruined Yokohama; being born in a brothel as his mother was a prostitute for the Recreation and Amusement Association. The only knowledge of his father was that he was a US soldier from either Cuba or Jamaica. Joe grew up in an orphanage after his mother and stepfather died. During an interview with Mainichi Shimbun, Akira stated that he was born with tuberculosis and that he never really thought about his biological father, believing that those who raised him were his real parents. He left the orphanage at the age of 16 and became a boxer (inspired by his childhood idol Hiroyuki Ebihara) to earn money, he then met his lifelong friend Rikiya Yasuoka, who was a kickboxer of Japanese-Sicilian heritage. Yamanaka mentions that he adopted the English name Joe because it is the English pronunciation of his favorite painter, Keito Joh; with Joh meaning castle in Japanese. As a teenage boxer, he used the ring name . Joe and Rikiya decided to become actors and starred in the 1964 Japanese film Bicycle Thieves. Yamanaka's career changed once again, though he would continue to act until his death, when he met another lifelong friend, Johnny Yoshinaga, who persuaded him to become a musician.