Background
He was born in Delta, Colorado in 1923 and was raised in Guadalupe, California.
He was born in Delta, Colorado in 1923 and was raised in Guadalupe, California.
After being sent to the Gila River internment camp in Arizona, Ishimoto volunteered to fight in World World War II, joining the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. After two years, he was awarded a Purple Heart and given a medical discharge. After starting a business in Chicago, he moved back to California, where he grew up, and started his acting career by acting at the Altadena Playhouse.
He became a "familiar figure" for playing "villainous Japanese soldiers".
Over the course of his career, he acted in a wide variety of movies, such as a Japanese army captain in Beach Red (1967), a Korean doctor in Mid-Atlantic Animal Specialty Hospital (1970), a karate instructor in Superchick (1973), and as Vice Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya in Midway (1976).