Keiko Sonoi information

Keiko Sonoi
園井恵子
Sonoi in her Takarazuka days
Pronunciation	Sono'i Kei'ko
Born	Tomi Hakamada (袴田トミ) (1913-08-06)August 6, 1913 Matsuo, Iwate (now Hachimantai)
Died	21 August 1945(1945-08-21) (aged 32) Kobe, Hyogo
Nationality	Japanese
Other names	Kiyono Kasanui (笠縫清乃)[1]
Alma mater	Takarazuka Revue
Occupation	actress
Years active	1930–1945
Known for	film, theatre
Notable credit	Muhōmatsu no isshō [ja] (1943, Daiei Film)
Height	155 cm (5.09 ft)

Keiko Sonoi (園井 恵子, Sonoi Keiko, 6 August 1913 – 21 August 1945) was a Japanese actress, who was a member of the all-female musical-performing Takarazuka Revue during the 1930s and the 1940s, best known for her role as an officer's widow in the wartime film Muhōmatsu no isshō (1943) [ja], and for being part of the Sakura-tai [ja] or Cherry Blossom Unit of traveling shingeki play actors who died as a result of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing.

The fate of the Cherry Blossom Unit was later dramatized by playwright Hisashi Inoue, and also made into a feature film by director Kaneto Shindo.

The actress appears to have had a long-held desire to perform shingeki plays, but that was not economically viable due to the need to her support her parents and siblings. As a Takarazienne, she had the manga comic artist Osamu Tezuka as a childhood fan who lived on her block, and Astro Boy may have been influenced by Sonoi's performance of Pinochio ("Pinocchio") from April to May, 1942.