SUZUKI Inokichi
Born: 1 November 1889 – Died: 22 May 1943
Particulars:
Inokichi was born in Yokohama, Japan. He arrived in Australia in 1907. He was also known as Ivan Steel, and worked as a mechanic in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Unlike others who were arrested in Australia immediately after the war began, it took until 17 December 1941 to arrest him. The list of his items confiscated by the authorities include: motor accessories such as gas pipes, wheel pullers, lifting jacks; engineers’ and plumbers’ tools: taps, sheets of iron, tanks; a motor truck; old clothing; boots; blankets; photographs and negatives; books; and cameras. He was single, and had his brother listed as his next of kin, whose address was in Kaketsuka in Shizuoka Prefecture, on the banks of the Tenryu River. He was interned at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. He died from cancer of the oesophagus at age 53. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Kerry Laws
Artist/s Statement:
The scant information we have on Inokichi Suzuki poses more questions than it answers, but at the same time reveals a sad ending to what appears to have been a hard life.
Suzuki migrated to Australia in 1907 at the tender age of 18. It’s an unfortunate irony that by the time of his arrest, at age 51, he had resided in his chosen country for almost twice as long as he had lived in his birth country.
It would have been a rough and tough life surviving the wartime hardships of two world wars and the Great Depression, especially for a slightly built ‘foreigner’ – Suzuki was just 5 feet tall and weighed 7.5 stone – but he went by the name of Ivan Steel, which seems particularly apt.
There being no photographs remaining of Suzuki Inokichi, I have taken the licence to create an image of the person I imagine him to have been, standing, reflecting, in his final workplace.
Artist Bio:
Kerry Laws left Sydney, Australia in 2014, leaving behind her career as an educator, to establish an art practice amongst the wildlife and forests of Tomerong, near Jervis Bay on the south coast of New South Wales. She primarily works with charcoal, pen, acrylics or mixed media, using her art to tell stories about, or express responses to, the people and happenings around her. Kerry is an active member of her community and in the art scene, on environmental campaigns, and as a volunteer with the local wildlife rescue group.