Close to 90,000 Japanese people had migrated to the Philippines, Guam, Malaya and the Straits settlements, Borneo and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and Oceania prior to World War II.^[1] Within Oceania, the largest communities were in Hawai’i and Micronesia, growing close to 160,000 and 90,000 people respectively. In contrast, the largest communities in the South Pacific were in New Caledonia and in Australia, numbering about 1,400 and 1,200 people by WWII respectively, distributed between multiple cities, towns and rural areas. About 150 people of Japanese descent lived between Vanuatu, Papua, New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Initially migrating mainly as indentured labour for trade or for fishing, most men soon became self employed, in varied fields such as agriculture, marine occupations such as shipping and fishing, trade, laundry, and retail. Some were also Chrisian missionaries.

From the late 1930s, most temporary migrants in the South Pacific returned to Japan following advice from Japanese authorities, while those who remained no longer considered Japan home. As Judith Bennett finds:

‘Throughout the South Pacific as well as Australia and New Zealand, […] these Japanese civilians had spent the bulk of their adult lives away from Japan. Many had married locally, had children of mixed ancestry and considered themselves as belonging to the place where they lived.’ (Bennett 2009:61)

Regardless, almost all were interned at the outbreak of the Pacific War, even when deemed no risk by local law enforcement or intelligence. Their homes and businesses were looted or requisitioned and onsold.

In most places, men who had married locally were separated from their families and sent overseas to be interned, with Australia and New Zealand acting as initial internment hubs for the region. For example, of the 31 Japanese settlers from Fiji, interment in New Zealand had separated 11 from their Fijian, Fijian-Indian, Samoan, or Tongan wives and children. In New Guinea, Yuriko Nagata recorded a Nikkei son Michael Asanuma saying, ‘Mum and us children all wanted to go with Dad and other families too, but we were not allowed. We missed him very much.’

In New Caledonia, most men and women born in Japan were interned together with their children, and sent to Australia. Similarly in Tonga, 14 men and seven wives born in Japan and their nine children were sent to New Zealand to be interned. However, when in New Zealand, the wives and children were interned separately from their husbands and fathers. One Tongan wife and her son chose to go to New Zealand with the other wives.

In contrast to most Allied Nations around the Pacific, few Nikkei settlers were interned in Aotearoa / New Zealand – local authorities accepted their long residence and connections with local communities, particularly Maori communities, as evidence of integration. Some first-generation settlers were monitored or held under house arrest, and only two were interned, despite both being naturalised British subjects.^[2] Three Thai students were also interned as a result of Japan taking over Thailand.

In New Zealand men were interned on Matiu / Somes Island in Wellington Harbour, with German and Italian internees, while wives and children were detained around Auckland such as Pokeno and Pukehohe. In both locations, internees grew kitchen gardens to supplement their rations, and the men also fished and sent dried fish to their wives.

In New Zealand as in Australia, the climate at internment locations was much colder than their tropical homes, requiring supplemental clothing. In Australia, after the accidental death of a 5-year-old New Caledonian child from burns, no heating was permitted, which was particularly difficult for those who had lived in the tropics, especially the elderly. 63 internees from New Caledonia died while in captivity, largely from disease such as tuberculosis, with an average age at death of 61.

The families interned in New Zealand were not included in a first repatriation agreement, but in August 1943, families and the three Thai students were included on a flight organised to take a group of internees for repatriation via Australia. The plane crashed leaving Auckland, killing nine of the family members and all the young Thai men. Survivors were then sent with remaining internees from the camps to Australia by boat, except for the New Zealand settlers and some internees who were too ill to travel.

At the end of the war, Aotearoa / New Zealand settlers returned to their communities and renewed pre-war friendships. Some negative attitudes were countered in the press by community members invoking the war service of younger Nikkei in the New Zealand Army. Three internees with Tongan wives asked to return to their families in Tonga, but only one was permitted to return.

With few exceptions, all those sent to internment camps in Australia were deported to Japan after the war, regardless of age, place of birth, naturalisation status, or next of kin. 29 of the New Caledonian settlers petitioned the French government to return to New Caledonia, having resided there for between 27 and 42 years, having family there or having no family in Japan.^[3] However, all were refused, and all surviving Japanese internees from New Caledonian were deported from Australia to Japan in February 1946.^[4]

Some families exchanged letters throughout their separation. Nagata records Michael Asanuma saying, ‘it was hard on my mother, bringing up us children all by herself. My father was not allowed to come back to New Guinea. He wrote to us from Japan telling us that he was in poverty. We sent him a few things – hand towels, soap and things.’

People who were not literate faced difficulties communicating. Some New Caledonian descendants did not know their fathers had died in Australia until long after the war, and some never knew what happened to them.

Although most of the internes were removed from Australia and the camps in Australia and New Zealand demolished, the graves will always remain.

–Sophie Constable

[1] Yuriko Nagata, Unwanted aliens: Japanese internment in Australia, St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1996: 8.

[2] Bennett, Judith A. ‘Japanese Wartime Internees in New Zealand: Fragmenting Pacific Island Families.’ The Journal of Pacific History, 44, 1 (2009): 61-76.

[3] Letter, 31 Jan 1946, A1066, 45/1/11/15; Cable from Australian official representative, Noumea, 31st Oct 1945, Japanese internees (a) Release in Australia (b) Deportation – Part 1, NAA：A437, 1946/6/72, 74937.

[4] Ibid.

Further reading

Bennett, Judith A. ‘Japanese Wartime Internees in New Zealand: Fragmenting Pacific Island Families.’ The Journal of Pacific History, 44, 1 (2009): 61-76.

Iwamoto Hiromitsu. The Japanese settlers in Papua and New Guinea, 1890-1949 [thesis]. Australian National University, 1995.

Kobayashi Tadao and Keiko Raulet, Les Japonais en Nouvelle-Calédonie : histoire des émigrés sous contrat, Nouméa, Nouvelle-Calédonie: Société d’Études Historique de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, 1992

McNeil, Ken. ‘A brief history of the Japanese in New Zealand.’ The Journal of The Japan Society for New Zealand Studies 3 (1997): 60-79.

Nagata, Yuriko. Unwanted aliens: Japanese internment in Australia. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1996.