GO Ichimatsu
Born: 4 August 1881 – Died: 13 June 1944
Particulars:
Ichimatsu was born in Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan. He was working as a farmer in Kanaky / New Caledonia when the Pacific War broke out. His wife was still living in the Kikuchi area of Kumamoto Prefecture. He was taken to Australia and interned at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. He died of asthma and bronchitis at the age of 62. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Shingo Usami
Artist/s Statement:
Mr Go and I share the same birthday, 4 August. I chose this photo, which I took while travelling around in the Queensland outback. I still vividly remember the moment when the contrast between the vast arid land and the blue sky took my breath away. I know it’s not the same scenery Mr Go saw when he was in the Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. However, I can clearly imagine his shock when he first encountered the vastness of Australia, far from the sceneries of his hometown in Kumamoto and New Caledonia, where he spent years working as an agricultural worker. He must’ve been struck by the unexpected and harsh turn of fate that brought him to such a vast, unfamiliar place.
Artist Bio:
Shingo Usami is a Sydney based Japanese actor who has worked extensively in theatre, film, TV, and voiceover in Australia since 1998. His recent TV and film credits include the American network AMC’s TV series ‘The Terror: Infamy’, and Apple TV’s ‘Invasion’. Other film and TV credits include ‘Unbroken’, ‘Paper Planes’, ‘Emperor’, ‘Red Dog’, ‘Broken Sun’, ‘The Pacific’, and ‘Curtin’. His theatre credits include ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘Measure for Measure’, ‘Servant of Two Masters’, ‘The Floating World’, ‘Coup d’Etat’, ‘Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes’, and the Australian tour of ‘Miss Saigon’ 2007/2008. In 2023, he co-directed and acted in the iconic Japanese play ‘The Face of Jizo’ by Hisashi Inoue, for which he received a nomination for the Sydney Theatre Awards and Time Out Arts and Culture Awards.