Yoshio Yoda obit

Yoshio Yoda, Actor on ‘McHale’s Navy,’ Dies at 88

He played Fuji Kobiaji, the Japanese prisoner of war turned Seaman 3rd Class, on all 138 episodes of the wacky ABC series.

 

He was not on the list.

Yoshio Yoda, who portrayed Fuji Kobiaji, the lovable Japanese prisoner of war who becomes a valued member of the PT-73 crew led by Ernest Borgnine on the 1960s ABC comedy McHale’s Navy, died Jan. 13 in Fullerton, California, it was announced. He was 88.

Yoda appeared on every one of the 138 episodes of McHale’s Navy during the Universal Television show’s 1962-66 run, plus two movies.

His character deserted from the Imperial Japanese Navy and becomes a Seaman 3rd Class, gladly “serving time” cooking and working for Borgnine’s Lt. Commander Quinton McHale and his crew on the fictional Pacific island base of Taratupa.

Fuji’s presence and identity is meant to be kept a secret from Joe Flynn’s Captain Binghamton, so whenever the boss arrives unannounced, he’s told to “head for the hills!” in a popular running gag.

Born in Tokyo on March 31, 1934, Yoda was studying law at Keio University in Japan when he was encouraged to pursue an acting career, and he enrolled at the University of Southern California’s film school in 1958.

MGM producers contacted USC seeking an actor who was bilingual in Japanese and English, and he was cast as Sgt. Roy Tada alongside Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss in the World War II comedy The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962), directed by Richard Thorpe.

He attended night school while appearing on McHale’s Navy and wound up getting his degree in cinema arts.

After the show ended, Yoda appeared on ABC’s Love, American Style in 1969 and served as an assistant vice president of Toyota Hawaii in Honolulu. He moved to Fullerton when he retired.

Yoda was born the only son of a family of manufacturers. After Yoda graduated high school, he enrolled at Keio University to study law. During this period, Yoda met Edward Ugast, then general manager in East Asia of 20th Century Fox. Ugast encouraged Yoda to pursue a career in acting. Yoda abandoned his studies and immigrated to the United States, whereupon he enrolled at University of Southern California in August 1958 with aspirations of becoming a film producer. In summer 1961, William White, a USC faculty member, received a call from Joe Pasternak of MGM seeking a young man who could speak English and Japanese. White contacted Yoda, who was then put in touch with MGM's casting office. After a series of interviews, Yoda was cast in the part of Sgt. Roy Tada in The Horizontal Lieutenant. Yoda's success in that role led him to be cast as Imperial Japanese Navy Seaman 3rd Class Fujiwara "Fuji" Takeo Kobiashi in the American television series McHale's Navy. He was recast in the role in the later feature-length films McHale's Navy and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.

Yoda announced that he was to wed Yoko Okazaki, a Japanese fashion model, in June 1964. In 1965, Yoda headed the panel of judges that chose the Nisek Week Festival Queen at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

He was predeceased in death by his son, Edward. Per his request, no services will be held.