NISHI Yasubei
西安兵衛
Born: 11 October 1877 – Died: 1 January 1944
Particulars:
Yasubei was born in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture. He arrived at Waibene / Thursday Island, Australia in 1895 aboard the SS Gartreach. He and his wife Tame had five children on the island. Their family name was Suzuki until Yasubei took over as the head of the Kushimoto Nishi family. He was employed at a shipping and merchant company on Waibene / Thursday Island, in the store. Tame had a part-time small kiosk selling homemade lemonade and sweet Japanese cakes for the pearling community.
When the Pacific War broke out, the family had a house with an estimated value of 300 pounds, stock worth 400 pounds, and furniture and effects with an estimated value of 300 pounds. Yasubei and Tame were interned at Tatura Internment Camp in Victoria, while their two sons Toshi and Kiyoshi were interned at Hay Internment Camp in New South Wales. Yasubei was admitted to the Waranga Hospital in November 1943 and died of heart failure at age 66. Widowed, Tame returned to Japan to live out her life with her eldest son Nishi Mineo in Kushimoto. Her ashes are in the Nishi family grave.
–Mari Suzuki
More info:
Mari Suzuki
Artist/s Statement:
Nishi Yasubei died at the age of 66 in Tatura. His remains are interred in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra New South Wales. In the early 1960s, the family of Kiyoshi Suzuki made inquiries with the intention of having Yasubei’s remains returned to Japan. They were told that ‘the matter was none of their business’. The artwork shows the face of a young Yasubei gazing outward next to the Nishi family grave in Kushimoto where his wife Tame is interred.
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.