MINAMI Masukichi
Born: 1 March 1887 – Died: 2 September 1944
Particulars:
Masukichi was born in Shionomisaki in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. He arrived in Australia in 1894 and worked as a fisherman on Waibene / Thursday Island. He moved to Rockhampton, then to the Townsville district, never returning to Japan during his 47 years in Australia. He was a laundryman in Gimuy / Cairns when the Pacific War broke out. When he was arrested, he had with him a cigarette lighter, one portmanteau or travel bag, 2 pounds 8 shillings, which were handed over to the authorities. He was interned at Hay Internment Camp in New South Wales, then transferred to Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. At age 57, he died at the camp hospital. The cause of his death is not recorded in documents held at the National Archives of Australia. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Donna Weeks
Artist/s Statement:
I was drawn to this project because of research I had been doing on early Japan-Australia relations, specifically the visit to Queensland in 1893 by Watanabe Kanjuro, an envoy sent by the Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, himself a native of Wakayama Prefecture. Watanabe spent several weeks travelling through Queensland under the express orders to learn of the ‘conditions of Japanese migrants’. He produced a lengthy and detailed report and I have discovered a selection of photographs he took as well. Watanabe was also a key figure in an ‘immigration society’, with the purpose of ‘facilitating’ Japanese indentured labour throughout the Asia Pacific region.
I imagine that the two men, Minami and Hashimoto, who I am honouring, may have ventured to Australia on the back of Watanabe’s report. The map which joins the two pictures, the two men’s lives perhaps, is an illustration from Watanabe’s report.
For Minami Masukichi I have a photo I took on a visit to Taiji, in Wakayama, a maritime village not far from his birthplace, Shionomisaki Peninsula. I stood at this park on the Kandorizaki Peninsula, a lookout for the Taiji men who went to sea. I want to imagine Minami’s family standing here, looking out towards the great southern seas for their brother; and perhaps give Minami a place of solace as a Peninsula man, who once looked south at the promise of another life.
I honour their otherwise anonymous existence through connection with this government report. The ‘Watanabe Report’ has taken up more time than perhaps it should have but it demonstrates the deep historical connections between Japan and Australia, significant developments that took place well before these two men and their compatriots found themselves interned. It is an important part of the history of our two countries that needs to be told.
Artist Bio:
Donna Weeks is a political scientist and Emeritus Professor at Musashino University in Tokyo, Japan. Donna has an affinity for amateurish photography. She has studied, researched, and taught at universities in Tokyo and Queensland, Australia for several decades and now spends time bringing her various research projects to fruition.