SUGAMATA Kanichi
Born: 25 July 1886 – Died: 10 March 1942
Particulars:
Kanichi was born in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. Official documents say that he was a ‘planter’ in ‘Modajae Mongondow, Celebes’, in the Dutch East Indies, now Sulawesi, Indonesia when the Pacific War broke out. He was a single man of the Buddhist faith, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 126 pounds, sallow completion, grey hair, brown eyes, and had a small mole between his eyes. He was captured and taken to Australia and interned at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. He was admitted to the hospital in Barmera a couple of months later, and died from dysentery aged 55. His grave is now in the Japanese Cemetery, Cowra in New South Wales, Australia.
–Cheri Hills
More info:
Taka Takiguchi
Artist/s Statement:
Welcome back to Hiroshima.
It is recorded that you were engaged in agriculture in what is now Sulawesi, Indonesia. Back then, Sulawesi was under Dutch colonial rule, and was likely a place with a strong ethnic character and a pastoral atmosphere. And yet, you were detained on 8 December, the very day of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Even in a place as remote as Sulawesi, before the official outbreak of war, it seems Japanese nationals were already under close surveillance.
Spring wild orchid a single bloom, and I love it all
–Chizuko Shigeta
The Japanese military began its operations in Sulawesi on 10 January 1942. You were transferred from Sulawesi to Adelaide in Australia on 27 January. Tracing your path through those days, I feel both the fragility and the preciousness of peace. Amid it all, I hope there were moments when the tropical flowers of Sulawesi, or the cherry blossoms that bloom quietly in our migrants’ heart from time to time, allowed you to forget the hardships of the times, even if only briefly. Having lived through such a turbulent era, I hope you rest peacefully now.
Welcome back, indeed.
Sincerely, Taka Takiguchi
Artist Bio:
Taka Takiguchi (滝口貴) is an independent artist and producer of Japanese (Hiroshima) heritage related stories based in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia. His practice delves into personal stories, places, their historical contexts, and our presence within them today. He explores relational phenomena – between memory, time, and language – bringing them to life through poetry, scriptwriting, and movement based techniques, including the Suzuki Method, Butoh, and shamanic/trance dance. His late grandmother’s thousands of haiku and handwritten journals remain a constant source of inspiration for his passion for writing poetry.