MIZUKAME / MIZUKAMI Gennosuke
Born: Sept 1876 – Died: 19 January 1942
Particulars:
Gennosuke was born in Mie Prefecture in Japan. He arrived in Australia in 1897 and worked as a laundryman on Waibene / Thursday Island, Queensland. When the Pacific War broke out, he was taken to New South Wales and interned at Hay Internment Camp. Two days after he arrived at the camp, he was taken to hospital and died two weeks later. The cause of his death is unrecorded in documents held at the National Archives of Australia, along with many other details, as he died before his particulars were taken. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mari Suzuki
More info:
Mari Suzuki
Artist/s Statement:
As there are very few records of Mizukame Gennosuke’s life, I chose to place a copy of his plaque in a view from the hill of Thursday Island cemetery. At dusk the sun shines on the water closest to the pearl divers’ graves.
Artist Bio:
Mari Suzuki is a fourth-generation Japanese Australian whose parents and family members were born on Thursday Island in Queensland, Australia, and were interned at Tatura Interment Camp in Victoria during the war.