Yoshiro Okabe

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Yoshiro Okabe (岡部 芳郎;April 9, 1884–March 1, 1945) was the only Japanese assistant of Thomas Edison. He worked at Menlo Park from 1904 to 1914.

After going back Japan, Okabe made the short Sound film Katyusha using Edison's kinetoscope. He died in 1945 in Kobe in a U.S. air strike.

[edit] life

Okabe was the first mate of English ship. He caught typhoid fever during the ship at anchor in New York. After recovering , he remained in US, and got job at Edison institute in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Okabe was not only engineer of Edison, but also like his bodyguard by using his Jiujitsu. Edison liked him very much, and brought him to camping with Henry Ford, Harvey Samuel Firestone etc.

Viscount Shibusawa Eiichi was one of the Japanese who met Okabe in Menlo Park, 1909. Baron Okura Kihachiro also supported Okabe to inviting Edison to Japan around 1926. Okabe negotiated by Okura's support, but this attempt was a failure because Edison was busy to developing synthetic rubber. Viscount Kaneko Kentaro was also close friend of Okabe. At ceremony held in memory of Edison in January 22th 1931, Kaneko presented Okabe as " Edison introduced me one Japanese who worked in secret laboratory, when I visited America to procure war expenditure. He was Honorable Yoshiro Okabe!".