Takashi Ishihara; This burly former rugby player made two defining calls. He railroaded through a U.S. assembly plant aginst bitter objections at home, then brushed aside U.S. dealer pleas and dropped the Datsun name.(Occupation overview)

Byline: Hans Greimel

This burly former rugby player made two defining calls. He railroaded through a U.S. assembly plant against bitter objections at home, then brushed aside U.S. dealer pleas and dropped the Datsun name.

Takashi Ishihara rammed through two decisions that defined Nissan Motor Co. in the United States. The brusque former rugby player championed Nissan's first U.S. assembly plant despite fierce opposition at home. And he axed the Datsun name.

"He was a man of action,'' recalls Yoshikazu Hanawa, a former Nissan president, about Ishihara, who died in 2003 at age 91.

Ishihara joined Nissan in 1937, avoiding a tour of duty in World …