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.
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 gives every participant an information kit on a particular internee to ‘adopt’. The participant will be 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 exhibition.
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.
