Ambassador Fredrick Ladd

[dannavy85]

You know if you think about it, NBC's Fred Ladd did more to advance the exchange of cultures between America and Japan after World War II than any posted official ambassador.

Certainly not downing the important achievements of Edwin Reischauer, who was the Ambassador to Tokyo when Ladd visited Mushi Studios in Fujimidai to arrange the contract for Astroboy.

I talked to Fred back in 2002 at the San Diego comic con and I asked him if he ever thought anime would be as big as it is now in America, especially with Generations X and Y. He told me it surprised him about the mid-80's or so that he did start something quite amazing.

I then told him that he should consider himself one of America's most skilled Ambassadors, seeing as how his little trip in the early 60's ended up doing so much for the relations between Japanese and Americans. It put a good deal of fresh step into a man who as of late has been in declining health.

I do hope that on the sad day Fred Ladd is gone from this world, that people wil remember him not as some NBC executive but as an ambassador of good will. He deserves that great credit.

[cybotron]

Yeah! He was real brave to bring Astro after the war. I mean we would never have had Mothra and stuff otherwise.
Not to mention he was really great at the dub. Those Astroboy episodes were the sweetest. Voice talentwise.

[jeffbert]

Originally posted by cybotron@Oct 17 2004, 05:13 PM
Yeah! He was real brave to bring Astro after the war. I mean we would never have had Mothra and stuff otherwise.
Not to mention he was really great at the dub. Those Astroboy episodes were the sweetest. Voice talentwise.

I worked with a man who had great haterd of all things Japanese, esp. the people. This was during the late 70s & early 80s (I believe he was a soldier/sailor during WWII). I can imagine that this guy was not alone, as some people tend to see things in sweeping generalizations. Thus, they blame the entire nation for the leaders' acts. Anyway, I agree that in light of that (assuming this guy was representitive of many others), Fred Ladd was indeed going against the current.

Yet, by that time, the war had been over for about 20 years. Would that many hold a grudge for that long against people who had nothing to do with the decisions of their leaders, and many of whom had not even been born until after the war? :wacko:

[cybotron]

you better believe it. As late as the 70's there were anti japanese demonstration in Detroit. When they got caught with those V8 gas guzzlers. There were Klan and Nazi marches calling for strikes against Japan. And tariffs. It was awful. When will people learn?

[Atoman]

:wahah: Wow! Fred Ladd is one of my heros. Thanks to him I grew up with Japanese anime: Gigantor, Speed Racer, but unfortuneately no station where I lived showed Astro Boyor Kimba the White Lion. , but I did see Osamu Tezuka's live action Space Giants(Ambassador Magma in Japan), and other live action tv: Ultraman and Spectreman. This opened a door to asian culture to me. I became not only a fan of the pop culture, but the art, music and food of Japan, China, Korea, etc.

There is a nice interview with him on the Kimba box dvd by Rhino. He talks about Astro and Kimba. He also talks about how Disney, I mean Mike Eisner's Co. riped-off Kimba. :angry: After seeing the Lion King Fred called Tezuka Productions in Japan and asked if they wanted to sue Disney. They said no because they like Disney and this reflects Tezuka's ethics. But when Disney was approached with this issue by someone else, they said "Kimba who?" :angry: , makes me ashamed to be an American. This shows how much Fred Ladd is an ambassador to Japan, and how much he loved Tezuka.

So Thank You Fred Ladd, you're the best ambassador to Japan ever.

[O2Destroyer]

This is one of those tough calls. Ladd definitely brought the stuff over, and he clearly did his job well; the things I shake my head at are really NBCs doings and not Ladd. I'm not sure I'm hip to all the silly names he made for the characters--but then again, it isn't as though Tezuka gives many of his characters serious names!

While I wish films like Kimba could have been seen in the US the way Tezuka wanted it, it wouldn't have been seen at all if it wasn't for Ladd, so really it is a great service he did.

I might add that if it wasn't for Ladd there is a serious question how much Japanese stuff we'd have over here at all. It is the sense of familiarity created by Ladd's efforts that had made so much that followed afterwards possible.