WAKISAKA Morikichi
Born: 6 June 1884 – Died: 16 September 1943
Particulars:
Morikichi was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. He was married, although he had left his wife in Fukuoka Prefecture, and was working on his own as a farmer in Kanaky / New Caledonia when the Pacific War broke out. He was taken to Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia and died less than a year later from lung disease. His grave is in the Japanese Cemetery in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
–Mayu Kanamori
More info:
Michael Kenji Abe
Artist/s Statement:
I chose to commemorate and honour two Nikkei people who were forcibly removed from their adopted countries and interned at Loveday, Australia during World War II, where they died during their internment. I chose these two Nikkei because they came from the same prefectures as my maternal and paternal grandparents.
My first two art pieces pays homage to Tomita’s life in Kudus as a merchant and to Morikichi Wakisaka who immigrated from Fukuoka to New Caledonia, where he worked as a farmer.
A third piece in my series is similar in theme but is not related to immigration to the South Pacific, but to immigration to Canada. My great-grandfather Takejiro Toyota emigrated from Fukuoka Prefecture in 1907 to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, followed three years later by his wife, Hama and 13-year-old son Shoshichi. Later his other son, Daigoro would also join them. Shoshichi and Daigoro would marry two Obuchi sisters, Kiriye and Hanayo, and have 14 and 11 children respectively. The families were interned in New Denver and Slocan in the interior of British Columbia during WWII. Takejiro died on 2 December 1942 from a cerebral haemorrhage during his internment, and rests in Slocan Cemetery. This third piece pays homage to the families’ settlement in the sawmill logging community of Paldi in British Columbia.
What factored into Takejiro’s decision to immigrate to Canada, Morikichi to New Caledonia, and Tomita to Kudus? It makes me pause to ponder how different my life would be today if my great-grandfather Takejiro had chosen to go somewhere other than Canada.
Artist Bio:
Michael Kenji Abe is a third-generation or sansei Japanese Canadian from Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.