Charlie Nagatani lives in Kumamoto, Japan, where he owns a country and western bar, sings country and western music in English, and only wears cowboy boots, cowboy belts, jeans and shirts. The exception to his dress code is in the summer, when he wears country music-themed T-shirts.
Every autumn for 16 years now, Nagatani has hosted Country Gold, a country and western music festival, at Mount Aso - which has the world's largest active volcano crater - near Kumamoto. Country Gold features Nagatani and his band, as well as a variety of American country and western musicians who perform for Japanese fans, many of whom are dressed like cowboys.
It's a far cry from the Charlie Nagatani who wanted to kill Americans 50 years ago. Back in January 1956, the then 19-year-old - like a lot of people in Japan after the second world war - hated Americans.
Nagatani was nominally a student in Tokyo, but he spent his time playing pool in bars. In February 1956, Nagatani returned to his home town to show off his new Tokyo sophistication and to go to a 20th birthday party that a friend was throwing for him. The friend brought an American country and western band, the Hillbilly Jamboree, to play at the party.
'I didn't know the music at the time, but I was so impressed,' says Nagatani. 'So, I made up my mind to quit college and the leader asked me to join them. I went with them to US military bases, singing.'
Nagatani met a lot of Americans in Kumamoto and at military bases in Japan, Guam, and the Philippines. He toured these bases during the Vietnam war, first with the Hillbilly Jamboree, then with other bands and finally with his own, Charlie Nagatani and the Cannonballs, which he started in 1961.