“Pearl” aired in November, 1978, and was shot earlier that year. I was preparing to leave Hawaii in September for an acting job at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. This was my last TV job in Hawaii, and one of the last jobs of any kind. A little ironic, somehow, a show about Pearl Harbor.
I was cast as an RCA motorcycle messenger, and at one point soon after the attack I rode my motorcycle, with a sidecar, up to a military checkpoint in the countryside around Pearl Harbor, ignorant of the attack. Costumes had dressed me in a period riding outfit, kind of a jumpsuit, and boots and gloves, and a close-fitting leather helmet of the period, and goggles. I looked exactly like a Japanese “kamikaze” pilot, and that scene, of course, involved a hassle at the checkpoint. I felt it was, at the least, gratuitous, but, in those days on sets and in scripts, and in society, really, there wasn’t really a strong movement against Asian stereotyping, and I didn’t know who I could talk to or if there was even such a person or position on set, and, anyway, I had fun riding that motorcycle so, even though I felt a little uncomfortable, I just moved on.
I think, though, that that role on that episode caused me to concentrate more on doing theatre over the next ten or fifteen years, rather than commercial work, caused me to kind of “look down” on TV and film and commercials and think of them as lesser than theatre. I don’t know that that’s true, but I didn’t do much commercial work over that next period of time so maybe there’s something to it. So there’s that irony I mentioned earlier: a show about Pearl Harbor maybe blowing a little hole in my career.
http://www.ronnakahara.com
Ron is a New York City based actor/director originally from Hawaii.
He studied at the University of Hawaii with Glenn Cannon from NY, Terry Knapp from The Royal Shakespeare Co. and with noted voice teacher Kristen Linklater. While there he also studied Kyogen theater with Japan National Treasure Nomura Mansaku and performed in Kabuki.
Selected acting:
NY–Man In Snow (LaMama,) Ping Pong (The Public Theatre,) Ching Chong Chinaman, Rashomon (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre,) Earth and Sky (Second Stage,) The Three Sisters (Pan Asian,) Romeo And Juliet (NYSF/Public Theatre,) As You Like It (NYSF/Public Theatre,) Danton’s Death (LaMama E.T.C.,) The School for Wives (NATCO,) Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pan Asian) REGIONAL– Wild Swans (debut), (Young Vic, London, and A.R.T., Boston,) Snow Falling on Cedars, The Merchant of Venice (Hartford Stage Co.,) Comedy of Errors (The Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.,) The Screens (The Guthrie Theatre,) Othello (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta,) The Empress of China (Cincinnati Playhouse,) Cyrano (ACT, San Francisco,) Taming of the Shrew (ACT,) Diary of a Scoundrel (Hawaii Public Theatre) FILM–Isn't It Romantic, The Wolf of Wall Street, Sleepwalk With Me, I Think I Love My Wife, College Road Trip. TV- can be seen currently recurring as Hirochi in Netflix's Daredevil Season 2; Madam Secretary, Elementary, NYC 22, The Good Wife, Fringe, 3 LBS., Whoopi, Cosby Mysteries, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, One Life to Live, As the World Turns, All My Children, Pearl, The Miniseries, Hawaii 5-O (the original).
As a director, Ron has worked at theatres and Universities around the country. He was one of the first 6 recipients of the NEA-TCG Director Fellowship Award in 1987.