Rokuro "Bob" Kuwahara (August 12, 1901 – 1964) was a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

best known for his work with

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

and

Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by ...

between the 1930s and 1960s. Kuwahara was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on August 12, 1901, and his family moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1910, where he graduated from Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in 1921. After high school he attended the

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

in Los Angeles until 1928. In 1929 Kuwahara moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to work as a commercial artist, but the

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

forced him to return to Los Angeles. In 1932 Kuwahara began working as an animator and writer for Walt Disney, where he had a hand in shorts like ''

Thru the Mirror ''Thru the Mirror'' is a Mickey Mouse cartoon short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists in 1936. In this cartoon short, Mickey has a ''Through the Looking-Glass''-type dream that he travels through his mirror ...

'' and the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated '' Who Killed Cock Robin?'', as well as the feature-length film ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

''. In 1937 Kuwahara went to work for the

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to a ...

, but later spent three years in the Heart Mountain internment camp during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

following the signing of Executive Order 9066. In 1945 Kuwahara and his family moved to

Larchmont, New York Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...

where he wrote and drew a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

called ''

Miki Miki may refer to: Places *Miki, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Kagawa, a town in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Azerbaijan, a village in Astara Rayon, Azerbaijan People *Miki (given name) *Miki (surname) *Miki Núñez (born ...

'' for five years before low circulation forced him to drop the strip. In 1950 Kuwahara returned to animation, signing on with Paul Terry's

studio, and stayed with the studio following

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

' purchase of the studio in 1955. In 1959 Kuwahara wrote and directed the first of 14

Hashimoto-san Hashimoto-san is a fictional Japanese mouse created by the Japanese-born animator Bob Kuwahara and Eli Bauer for the Terrytoons animation company. Hashimoto is a judo instructor living in Japan with his wife Hanako, son Saburo, and daughter Yur ...

theatrical shorts, for which he is probably best remembered today. Production of these shorts continued until 1963, after which time they were incorporated into CBS' ''

The Hector Heathcote Show Hector Heathcote is a Terrytoons animated cartoon character. Created by Eli Bauer and Ralph Bakshi, he first appeared on July 18, 1959, in ''The Minute and a Half Man.'' He was voiced by John Myhers. Terrytoons created the character for television ...

.'' During the same period Kuwahara was also a director for the popular ''

Deputy Dawg Deputy Dawg is a Terrytoons cartoon character, featured on the animated television series of the same name that aired from 1960 to 1964. Background The character of Deputy Dawg originated in 1959 as part of a projected series entitled ''Possible ...

'' series. Kuwahara's final TV series was 1965's syndicated ''

The Astronut Show ''The Astronut Show'' is an animated TV series, produced by the Terrytoons animation studio. It first aired on August 23, 1965. Each episode included an episode of ''Astronut'', ''Hashimoto-san'', and ''Luno The White Stallion''. Astronut first ...

''. Kuwahara died in 1964. He was survived by a wife, Julia (1904–1996), and two sons, Denis and Michel.

Notes

External links

* *
Bob Kuwahara biography
on Lambiek 1901 births 1964 deaths Artists from Tokyo Japanese animators American animators Manga artists American comics artists Terrytoons people Japanese-American internees Japanese emigrants to the United States Walt Disney Animation Studios people Otis College of Art and Design alumni Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people {{animator-stub