There is a saying that we die twice:

The first time being our physical death.  

The second being when our name is mentioned for the last time.  

「人は二度死ぬ」と言われます。
一度目は肉体の死
二度目は、その名前がもはや口にされなくなったときです。

WHEN YOU CALL MY NAME

 When You Call My Name  is a collaborative project honouring civilians who were brought from Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, and across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand as ‘Japanese enemy aliens’ to be interned in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand during WWII, and died during internment.

They include 26 people from Taiwan and one from Korea who were included with the Japanese because Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula were under the rule of Japan during the Pacific War. There are also 3 people from Thailand who were originally interned in New Zealand and died in a plane crash with Japanese internees on their way to be interned in Australia before being repatriated on a prisoner exchange.

192 people are now buried in the Japanese Cemetery in Wiradjuri Country Cowra, NSW, Australia; 11 people who died in a plane crash are buried at the Waikumete Cemetery in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; and two who died on the voyage to Australia from the Indonesia (the then Dutch East Indies) were buried at sea.

The project gave every participant an information kit on a particular internee to ‘adopt’. The participant was then asked to respond to their learnings with a 2D artwork, or a photograph of a work, which includes the name of the internee.

The artworks will be exhibited online, as a print catalogue and also be collated as a part of a large-scale group collage for exhibitions.

 

When You Call My Name は、第二次世界大戦中に「敵国人」として、東南アジア、南太平洋諸島、オーストラリア各地、ニュージーランドにて身柄を拘束され、オーストラリアとニュージーランドの収容所にて亡くなった民間人を追悼する共同プロジェクトです。

亡くなった人々の中には、太平洋戦争中に台湾と朝鮮半島が日本の統治下にあったために日本人とみなされ、共に収容された台湾出身者26名と朝鮮出身者1名も含まれています。また、もともとニュージーランドで収容されていたタイ出身者3名もおり、彼らは日本人収容者たちと共にオーストラリアへの移送中、交換捕虜として本国送還される過程で、飛行機事故により命を落としました。

現在、オーストラリアのニューサウスウェールズ州のカウラにある日本人墓地に、192名の人々が埋葬されています。飛行機事故で亡くなった11名はオークランドのワイクメテ墓地に埋葬されており、当時のオランダ領東インド(現在のインドネシア)からオーストラリアへの航海の途中で亡くなった2名は海葬されました。

このプロジェクトでは、参加者ひとりひとりが、ある特定の収容者に関する情報キットを受け取り、その方を偲ぶアートをそれぞれに制作しました。作品には、その収容者の名前が入っています。各作品はウェブサイトやカタログに掲載される一方で、全作品を含む大きなコラージュ作品としても展示される予定です。

Artwork by Sophie Constable honouring HIGA Denzo, who was brought to Australia from New Caledonia to be interned during the Pacific War.

Denzo was born in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He was working as a farmer in Touho, New Caledonia. He was married, and had 4 sons and 4 daughters. He was 61 years old.

We thank the Higa family for consenting to Sophie’s digital quilt portrait of their ancestor Denzo to be used as the flagship image for the When You Call My Name project.

ソフィー・コンスタブル氏による本作品は、太平洋戦争中にニューカレドニアからオーストラリアへ抑留された比嘉傳三(ひが・でんぞう)氏を讃えたものです。

比嘉氏は沖縄県出身の農夫で、ニューカレドニアのトゥオに住んでいました。家族は妻と8人の子ども(4男4女)。 61歳で亡くなりました。

本プロジェクトの象徴として肖像の使用を許可してくださった比嘉家の皆さまに感謝申し上げます。

 

日系民間人の抑留については以下をご覧ください。

◆ 民間人抑留の歴史
https://cowrajapanesecemetery.org/jp/civilian-internment/

◆ カウラ日本人墓地に埋葬された人々を探す
https://www.cowrajapanesecemetery.org/jp/search/

 

Project participants’ works are being published one after another on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/when.you.call.my.name/

インスタグラムにてプロジェクト参加者の作品を順次公開中
https://www.instagram.com/when.you.call.my.name/

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