Photo/Illutration Akira Takarada takes part in an international symposium in July 2021 sponsored in part by The Asahi Shimbun. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

On screen and on stage, as well as during interviews, actor Akira Takarada came across as upbeat and seemed not to have a care in the world.

But his face turned dark when talk turned to war.

The actor who became a household name in Japan by starring in the first “Godzilla” movie in 1954 and went on to become a peace activist, died on March 14 at age 87.

Born on the Korean Peninsula when it was under Japan’s colonial rule, Takarada and his family moved to Manchuria in northeastern China during the waning days of World War II. His father worked for the South Manchuria Railway Co.

In July 2021, Takarada took part in a special talk session of the International Symposium for Peace 2021: The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition, sponsored in part by The Asahi Shimbun.

He went into graphic detail about being caught up in fighting when Soviet troops stormed the Manchurian city of Harbin in the closing days of World War II, when he was 11 years old.

The actor recalled that he ran home with his shirt bloodied from a bullet wound and struggled with a fever for five days before a military doctor finally got around to seeing him at home. He fought not to cry out when the doctor used scissors to remove a lead bullet fragment. His mother asked about anesthetics, but the doctor said there were none.

Takarada spent about two months in agonizing pain because all the hospitals were closed and no treatment was available.

He described how he learned of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the end of the war a few days later on Aug. 15 while living in Manchuria.

After listening to Emperor Hirohito’s radio broadcast announcing Japan’s surrender, Takarada said he asked his father, “We didn’t lose, did we?”

But his father responded, “No, Akira, everything is over.”

Takarada’s big break came when he was cast as a navy diver in the 1954 movie about the destructive monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation.

For many years, Takarada never talked publicly about his war experiences. It was only after he turned 60 that he began to open up.

“I kept it bottled up because I had long thought that actors should not make political statements,” he once said. “But when I unintentionally let slip about my war experiences, I found that many people were genuinely interested.”

He went on the road with a one-man show depicting the obstacles Japanese and others faced as they fled from China after the war. He was unable to mask his anger at the horrors of war.

Takarada served as executive producer on his last movie, “Yononakani Taete Sakura no Nakariseba” (If there were no cherry blossoms in the world we endured), which is scheduled for release in Japan on April 1. In the movie, he plays the role of a spiritual adviser helping people prepare for their deaths. But toward the end of the movie, his character recites the struggles faced by those who returned to Japan after the war.

Takarada gave an interview four days before his death. He didn’t pass up the opportunity to express his sorrow about the war in Ukraine.

“After the end of World War II, we also came under attack by Soviet troops,” Takarada said. “The same thing is happening again. The young boy now facing a tragic situation in Ukraine is me 77 years ago.”

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