KANASHIRO Satoru
Born: 9 February 1890 – Died: 26 April 1946
Particulars:
When the Pacific War broke out, Kanashiro Satoru, aged 51, was working as a fisherman in Padang, Sumatra. He was detained by forces of the Dutch East Indies. The father of two sons and two daughters, he was originally from Okinawa Prefecture in Japan, where his wife still resided. He arrived on board the SS Cremer at Outer Harbour in South Australia and was subsequently transferred to Loveday Internment Camp. Three months after the war ended, he was placed on the ‘seriously ill’ list and later transferred to the 28 Australian Camp Hospital in Victoria, where he died of pulmonary tuberculosis. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Ruth Fazakerley
More info:
Ruth Fazakerley
Artist/s Statement:
So little is known about Kanashiro, before or during his internment at Loveday. I can find no photographs. The details of his name might even be questioned given the interplay of English, Dutch, Japanese, and Okinawan languages, and the likely expediency of internment paperwork. No Japanese kanji is recorded. Did he write the cursive signature (in English) or was it supplied by an efficient administrator? I wonder whether Kanashiro worked his trade in Padang as just one of the many Okinawan fishermen who had transformed the fishing industry across the region since the 1920s? Perhaps he was employed by one of the large Japanese companies that by 1941, were again reshaping the fishing industry? I know that 10 other Okinawan fishermen with the same family name were also aboard the SS Cremer, after being rounded up from across the Dutch East Indies and British Strait Settlements, including Padang, Batavia, Macassar, Penang, and Singapore. Together with those Okinawans from further afield who joined them at Loveday, Kanashiro at least shared a community of culture, language, and deep knowledge of the sea.
Local man Max Scholz, a boy when Loveday Camp was first opened, recalls the kites that could be seen flying occasionally from the Japanese compound. I like to imagine Kanashiro also standing and watching the sky, making and re-making connections between sky, wind, sea, and land.
Artist Bio:
Ruth Fazakerley lives in Adelaide, South Australia, only a few hours drive from the site of the former Loveday Internment Camp. In memory of Kanashiro, she travelled there to fly a kite and look at the sky. Trained as an artist, she has previously exhibited in Australia and the United Kingdom. She now works in higher education in a variety of roles. She has an academic interest in contemporary public art, memorialisation, and the relationship between history and memory.