TANIGUCHI Tsunesuke
Born: 10 November 1885 – Died: 21 February 1945
Particulars:
Tsunesuke was born in Higashimuro Gun area of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan, like many others in the pearling industry, who worked in Australia. He arrived in Western Australia in 1908. He was a married man with his wife and daughter still living back in Wakayama Prefecture.
When the Pacific War broke out, Tsunesuke was working as a tender for Gregory & Co, based in Smith Street, Garramilla / Darwin, Northern Territory. His possessions, including a pair of binoculars, a log line and instrument, an overcoat and raincoat, a box of tools on lugger D36, and two suitcases at Gregory’s Workers Camp were confiscated by the authorities. He was taken to Adelaide River in the Northern Territory, then shipped to Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia.
In 1943, when the Australian authorities re-classified civilians who worked at sea as prisoners of war, many protested, as did Tsunesuke, who refused to sign official papers. He was transferred to Hay Internment Camp with other re-classified men. He was repeatedly hospitalised thereafter for hypertension, until he died of chronic hypertension. He was 57. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Shingo Usami
Artist/s Statement:
Mr Taniguchi was from the southern part of Wakayama Prefecture and worked as a merchant seaman in the pearling industry in Darwin. After his arrest, he was sent to Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia. In 1943, the Australian government decided to re-classify those who worked at sea as prisoners of war due to their knowledge and familiarity with the Australian coastline. Mr Taniguchi was transferred along with other pearl divers and tenders to Hay Internment Camp in New South Wales, where he died in February 1945. I took this photo of ‘angel’s ladders’ in the outback of Queensland. The randomness of clouds breaking and sunlight reaching the ground always reminds me of the accidental nature of our lives. I’d like to dedicate this photo to Mr Taniguchi and his fellow Japanese internees, who must’ve experienced so many unexpected turns in their lives.
Artist Bio:
Shingo Usami is a Sydney based Japanese actor who has worked extensively in theatre, film, TV, and voiceover in Australia since 1998. His recent TV and film credits include the American network AMC’s TV series ‘The Terror: Infamy’, and Apple TV’s ‘Invasion’. Other film and TV credits include ‘Unbroken’, ‘Paper Planes’, ‘Emperor’, ‘Red Dog’, ‘Broken Sun’, ‘The Pacific’, and ‘Curtin’. His theatre credits include ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘Measure for Measure’, ‘Servant of Two Masters’, ‘The Floating World’, ‘Coup d’Etat’, ‘Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes’, and the Australian tour of ‘Miss Saigon’ 2007/2008. In 2023, he co-directed and acted in the iconic Japanese play ‘The Face of Jizo’ by Hisashi Inoue, for which he received a nomination for the Sydney Theatre Awards and Time Out Arts and Culture Awards.