My Take
Susumu Namishima is one of those figures I genuinely know very little about, and I think it's worth being upfront about that rather than pretending otherwise. Born in 1922 in Kagoshima — deep in old Satsuma country, where the people have a reputation for being tough and straight-backed — he lived through the full sweep of prewar Japan, the war itself, and the long rebuild that followed, and he kept working as an actor through all of it. There's something quietly remarkable about that kind of staying power. The craft of an actor from that generation often went undocumented in the ways we'd expect today: no social media trail, sparse records, most of the real work visible only to those who were in the seats. He passed in 1995, so most of his career is tucked away in an era I can only imagine, but the fact that he was still here to see Japan become what it became makes him feel like a living bridge across an extraordinary century.
Overview
Susumu Namishima was a Japanese actor born on October 3, 1922, in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture. He worked during the turbulent Showa era, spanning the prewar, wartime, and postwar periods of Japanese history. He passed away on January 1, 1995.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Susumu Namishima
- Name (Japanese)
- 波島進
- Reading
- なみしま すすむ
- Born
- October 3, 1922 – January 1, 1995
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Libra / Dog (戌)
- Origin
- Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Active years
- Unknown
- Occupation
- Actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
- Debut
- Unknown
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B3%A2%E5%B3%B6%E9%80%B2
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.