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Dikko Henderson was a fictional British intelligence operative and veteran living in Japan. The character appeared in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, portrayed by British actor Charles Gray, who later went on to play the role of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. Henderson was loosely based on the literary character who first appeared in Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name.

Biography[]

Following his faked death, James Bond is taken to the estate of the expatriate British intelligence agent Dikko Henderson to begin his investigation into the deadly disappearance of a British spacecraft, allegedly at Soviet hands.

Henderson, who Bond meets through Aki, is serving as a liaison between the British Secret Service and the Japanese SIS. Bond, wary of Henderson, initially draws his weapon on the man despite his using a cane to walk. To very his contact's identity, Bond takes the man's cane and raps it against his leg, revealing it to be a prosthetic; Henderson discloses that he lost the limb while fighting in Singapore in 1942.

Henderson, unfazed, leads Bond to his living quarters, an odd mismatch of Japanese and English furniture and stylings for which he apologizes, claiming he will never "go full Japanese" despite having lived in the country for twenty-eight years. Henderson, after making Bond a stirred Vesper martini, muses on who is responsible for the theft of the spacecraft and notes for Bond that Japanese agent Tiger Tanaka will be of great assistance to his investigation.

Henderson, after asserting that neither Japan nor Russia are responsible for the theft, suddenly stops mid-sentence. Bond realizes quickly that an assassin has stabbed Dikko through the paper walls and pursues the man, though Henderson has already perished. Bond avenges Dikko moments later, stabbing the assassin with one of his own blades before impersonating him to continue his investigation.

Additionally, Henderson's belief that another powerful entity is responsible for the theft is vindicated, as the assassin that killed him was in the employ of the Osaka Chemical Corporation, itself enthralled to the true perpetrator, S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

Behind the Scenes[]

Given the date that Henderson provides for the loss of his leg in Singapore, it is likely that he participated in the brief but intense battle there between the invading Japanese and occupying British colonial forces in 1942. It is interesting to note, however, that You Only Live Twice came out in 1967 and is likely set during that year, meaning that if Henderson is taken at his word of having lived in Japan for twenty-eight years, he had lived there for a time before the battle of Singapore and during a time at which his home country of Britain was at war with Japan.

Whether this was related to his established career with British intelligence and how he came to be in Singapore at the time remains unknown. It is likely that his calculation of his time in Japan was made by the writers without consideration for historical events. This disparity may also be in reference to the real-life inspiration for the literary version of Dikko, Ian Fleming's acquaintance Richard 'Dikko' Hughes, a journalist that covered Southeast Asia before and after World War II and later traveled with Fleming during his research in writing You Only Live Twice.

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