Haruo Oka - "Chakki Chakki" singer who brightened postwar reconstruction, 1940s-1950s

Haruo Oka - "Chakki Chakki" singer who brightened postwar reconstruction, 1940s-1950s

Haruo Oka was born in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture in 1918, and became popular as a popular singer who symbolized the postwar reconstruction period of Japan. He began his career as a singer in the 1940s, but his musical career was interrupted when he was drafted into the army during the war. After the war, amidst the ruins of the fire and confusion, she once again sang and became a presence that brought hope to the people. In an era of shortages and social unrest, Oka's cheerful and friendly singing encouraged the masses, and she was close to the lives of ordinary people.

Her most famous song, "Tokyo no hanayasume" (1947), about a flower seller standing on a street corner in postwar Tokyo, is a masterpiece that portrays the lives and hopes of the common people with its lively melody. Like a flower blooming in a city undergoing reconstruction, this song was a big hit, bringing cheer to the people. The songs "Minato Chanson" and "Kochi no Hawaii Kouro (Longing for the Hawaiian Routes)" reflected the exoticism and longing for foreign countries, and symbolized the Japanese people's dream of participating in the international community again.

Haruo Oka, nicknamed "Chaki-Chaki-Oka" (meaning "chaki-chakki Oka" in Japanese), was a man of the Edo period who never lost his cheerful, folksy attitude, even on stage. While his contemporaries Ichiro Fujiyama and Noboru Kirishima, both of whom were more prestigious and lyrical, had a strong presence, Oka's unique charm lay in the fact that he conveyed cheerfulness from the same perspective as the common people. In the midst of postwar reconstruction, his songs played the role of a light that illuminated people's lives and continued to give them energy and hope for the future.