75-year-old actor Baku Owada appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on November 10th, where he talked about his memories of his parents.
As soon as his older brother, actor Owada Shinya, entered the entertainment industry, his father's hair, which had been black, turned gray in an instant, which must have worried him. Seeing that, he found it difficult to tell his father that he wanted to enter the entertainment industry, but when he did, his father kept quiet. However, he didn't object. He told him, "If that's the path you want to take, then go for it," and "Live your life as a decent human being."
Owada says, "I truly believe that I am who I am thanks to my parents. The way they lived their lives is the basis for the way I live my life today." His father was a devout Christian. He would often tell him, "There are many difficult things in life, and you may feel despair at times. But at those times, don't look down, look ahead. If you look into the distance, you will see a ray of hope, so believe in it." He says that this has "become my motto."
Her mother was a cheerful person. She would tell her, "Always smile. Smile even when you're sad or in pain. If you cry when you're in pain, only people who are in pain will gather around you. If you smile, happy people will gather around you, and you will share your happiness. Become someone who can smile even when you're in pain." Her mother passed away at the age of 98 years and 11 months. She lost her husband at the age of 70, and had lived alone ever since. "We were worried about her and asked if she wanted to live with us, but she didn't want to cause trouble for them, so she said it was better for her to live here and continued living alone," she said.
As his health deteriorated, he entered a facility, and when COVID-19 hit, he was no longer able to visit, so he would call. When his wife, Kumiko Okae, passed away, he kept it a secret so his mother wouldn't worry, but he knew she would call him. "She worried about me, and said, 'I don't know anyone as nice as you,' and 'You were a good boy,' and asked me how I was doing, and to cheer up, because if you're not doing well, she'll cry," he revealed.
