Chapter 9: After Internment

After the internees left, there was the question of what to do with the land and facilities set up for the camps. According to the Adelaide Advertiser, Colonel Dean, who remained commandant at Loveday throughout, did not want the camps and their facilities to be scrapped. He suggested that they would make an excellent centre for the rehabilitation and training of returned men who intended to take up land in the proposed river settlements.1 However, most of Loveday’s facilities did not survive. An inspection committee found that production could not be economically continued, and that there was not much local support for retention.2 The only camp operation to survive was the poultry farm bought by Fred Kinnish, who was in charge of the farm at the camp. In 1985 his daughter, Colleen, wrote:

We lived in the small rooms on the main building where the chickens used to be kept. Later they (my parents) built a house made out of two of the old camp buildings. We lived there many years and kept the poultry farm going.3

Kinnish sold the farm a few years before he died in 1965.4 The Loveday Hall erected by the Japanese was the only building saved through local efforts. It remains on site as the Loveday Hall and is used by the Barmera Badminton Club.5 The Disposal Commission had all other facilities dismantled and sold in the middle months of 1947. Most of the buildings were scattered through the region. The Barmera packing shed bought one,6 the Berri distillery bought several and made them into workers’ cottages,7 the Berri teachers’ hostel was made from others.8 The sites of the camps have since been largely cleared and are being farmed. In 1987 the site of Camp Number 14 was being used for grazing and some concrete walls, building foundations and many of the stone borders from the Japanese gardens could still be seen. The cane which the Japanese planted for basket and fence-making had spread widely throughout the area.

The site of the Woolenook Wood Camp has not been cleared as it is in a national park. As internees slept in tents, there is no evidence of their occupation except for the crumbling concrete floor of the ablutions block and the tree stumps left by the woodcutters. A few have regrown, but the extensive felling caused a lot of damage to the environment. There is virtually no new growth due to the increased salt content of the soil as a result of raising the water table.

The Hay camps were closed in April 1946 and cleared as soon as the prisoners left. The only buildings kept were in the Hay Showgrounds in 1987. There was little local support for further conservation. Mick Beckwith wrote:

The terrible shame of it all is that many thousands of dollars’ worth of buildings and concrete foundations were never put to more permanent use … How handy these would be even today for youth activity, emergency housing, storage of materials, etc. However, I suppose when the war ended everyone was glad to rid the place of anything that reminded them of this dreadful conflict.9

Number 4 Camp at Tatura was closed after the Japanese not repatriated to Japan were transferred to Number 3 Camp on 26 September 1946. The camp facilities were not removed straight away. The family camps, Numbers 3 and 4, were later used as a holding camp for postwar migrants.10 The buildings were later demolished and sold to local farmers for sheds and building materials.11 They are scattered around the region. The site of Number 4 was not completely cleared, and rolls of barbed-wire fencing, toilet pans and children’s shoes scattered around the site evoke vivid images of camp life.

Many of the Japanese made handicrafts while they were interned. When they departed, they either left them in their huts or gave them to guards. Local people in Loveday, Barmera, Hay and Tatura still keep such objects. Bob Margitich has a few, including secateurs. Bert Whitmore keeps a highly prized wooden carving of a girl. The Kinnish family have a silver ring made from a coin, a wooden box and wooden vases made from mallee roots. Colleen, who was 8 at the end of the war, used to wear wooden sandals which had been left in the camp.

The local historical societies of all three towns, Hay, Loveday and Tatura, have recognised the wartime internment of aliens as part of their local histories. The Hay Goal, built in 1878, was used as a detention block for Italian and Japanese POWs during the war. It is now a historical museum run by the Hay Historical Society. Among the exhibits are a number of artefacts made by Japanese in the camp.

The Tatura Historical Museum run by the Historical Society has established a special display about all the internment and POW camps in the region. The Society has collected wartime artefacts, memoirs and photos from all the nationalities concerned. In January 1994, James Sullivan and former internees arranged the placement of a plaque commemorating Number 4 Camp.12

In 1985 the South Australian government identified the Loveday Internment Group as a potential heritage site and part of the complex was placed on the Registry of State Heritage Items in 1989.13 According to the historical and archaeological report compiled by the State Heritage Branch, Department of Environment and Planning, this move was made “in recognition of its significance in representing the role South Australia played in the wartime internment of aliens”.14 There has been local interest in the camps. In May 1992 the Paringa District Council placed a plaque commemorating the Woolenook Wood Camp.15 In January 1993 a steering committee was formed to establish a Loveday Internment Camp Museum in the existing museum at Cobdogla, 6 kilometres from the Loveday camp sites.16 They organised a special photographic display of the Loveday Internment Camps in May 1994, which was opened by Bruce Ruxton, National Vice President of the RSL.17

Some former guards married local women after the war and settled in the towns. Charlie Clift, a guard at Hay, was one, and he was still living in the town in 1986. One former guard at Tatura married a former Japanese internee at Tatura. Bert Whitmore resumed his life as a prominent businessman in Barmera near Loveday and later served as a city councillor and was still living there in 1992.

Both Japanese and Formosans found it difficult to re-establish their lives. Return to normality in their war-torn countries was a slow, hard process. Japan had been devastated by the war and its industries had been largely destroyed. In 1945 rice production was only at 60 per cent of prewar levels, and unemployment and poverty were widespread.18 Large numbers of repatriates exacerbated the labour surplus and food shortage. By 1950 over 6 million repatriates had returned to Japan.19 Some of those from Australia tried to re-establish themselves in their home towns, while others went to live with relatives. According to Ganter, some of the former PWJMs should have had a prosperous future in war-torn Japan with their Australian savings which they brought back with them, but “rampant inflation in Japan rendered their fortunes worthless”.20 One former pearl-sheller was quoted by Ganter as saying that “he had hoped to build a house with his savings, but on his return to Japan in 1946, all he could buy with it was two tatami (straw) mats”.21 Etsuroo Chikanari, a former Loveday internee, went back to his home in Osaka, but found it had been bombed. He built a small shack on the land where his home used to be and began a take-away tempura shop. He was still living there in 1992 as the owner of one of the most successful restaurants in the area.22

Some found it impossible to make a living and decided to return to the repatriates’ centre in Kanazawabunko, where they could meet other repatriates from Australia. A number of them lived there for a long time. The centre was near US bases, which provided employment for Japanese. Former internees with sufficient English soon found employment with the occupation forces as typists, interpreters and translators, while others found work as cleaners and cooks. The Kai family from New Caledonia, who went to live with their relatives in Saitama, returned to the centre after 8 months. They were very happy to see their friends from the Tatura Internment Camp. Mari said:

They [relatives] were equally struggling to survive … We couldn’t stay there long … My Japanese was not good enough, although I studied it in the camp school. I could understand more or less what they were saying, but couldn’t say what I wanted to say. I spoke French to my father and he translated into Japanese.23

Shinji Kondoo, the oldest brother of the Kondoo family from Borneo, also went back to the centre to find work. Although both Mari and Shinji had limited English, a friend from Tatura already working with the occupation forces got them work. Shinji began as a cook and continued to work after the occupation forces left Japan. In later years he worked as an accountant at the US base at Tachikawa, and retired in 1988.24 Mari worked as a typist with the occupation forces, then worked for a trading company as an English typist until she retired in 1989.25 Albert Ueno, the leader of the Ueno Acrobatic Troup as well as B Compound leader at Tatura, did not return to his original occupation as an acrobat and instead worked as an interpreter for the occupation forces in Tokyo, and later as an English-speaking tour guide for the Japan Travel Bureau in Tokyo.26 Kaichiro Namba, on the other hand, returned to his acrobat performing after the war. In 1946, while still at the repatriates’ centre in Kanazawabunko, he married an Indonesian-born Japanese, Haruko Hiraki, whom he had met in the camp at Tatura. On 25 August 1947 Haruko wrote to Francis Sproat, a former warden:

Received your most welcome letter a few weeks ago and I was very happy to hear from you … I am married now. All my brothers and sisters and Mother went back to Java last week and am left alone, but soon I hope I can go myself … We two are in good health and getting along fine. Here only thing is we two can’t read Japanese so we have hard time, but we manage to get along …27

Kaichiro soon joined the Ringling-Barnum Circus in the United States and was away from his wife and family for most of his later years.28 Haruko, his wife, did not return to Indonesia and was still living in Japan in 1992.

Takejiroo Haraguchi, 64 years old in 1946, found employment with the General Headquarters of the occupation forces upon returning to Japan. He worked in the section responsible for investigating and arresting war criminals in areas under Dutch control.29 A few months later he became advisor to the Dutch Military Delegation (later the Dutch Embassy), and in October 1946 completed a list of Japanese war criminals for the Dutch. He stayed with the embassy till his death in 1951.30

Some former internees from Loveday also found work at US bases. Indonesian-born internees from 14B worked for the occupation forces in Yokohama. With their skills in English, Takamura and Satonaka were able to find work with the US base in Yokohama. Yooichi Soneda, who was of Japanese Chinese origin, was the only one in his family returned to Japan. The rest were all living in Jakarta. This included his father who was interned but who had been returned home to NEI on the prisoner exchange. Yooichi first went to live with his uncle in Yamagata, a northern part of Japan. He said:

I helped farming, mainly rice growing. The life was hard for me there. I learnt to speak Japanese gradually, but felt terrible for 2 years. The climate was cold and their food was not something I was used to. Yamamoto-san [a former leader of B Compound at Loveday] introduced me to a factory job in Kobe. I did the work for 2 years.31

Takamura and Satonaka, his fellow internees from 14B, visited Soneda and told him about the jobs in Yokohama − “easier and better money”. Soneda returned to Kanazawabunko and soon found employment as a cook in a servicemen’s night club.32

Tatsuzoo (Tony) Imaizumi from 14C worked as an interpreter and typist for US Army Headquarters in Osaka. On 15 January 1947, he sent a New Year’s greeting to Kinnish, his former boss at the chicken farm at Loveday:

This is my first letter to you since my repatriation … I am now working at the US 65th Engineering Company in Sakai City … May the future give me more opportunity to write you in detail about things here … My best wishes for the year 1947 to you all.33

In a Christmas greeting to Kinnish later that year, he wrote:

I am of opinion that Australia is an incomparable nice country to live in. Japan is a beautiful country indeed, especially what concern its scenery and ancient temples. Since the Occupation Army came to Japan, this country has an overall change. It has adopted the Western ideas … I hope that Japan will be as Westernized as any country of Europe in the next coming years.34

Many of the older deportees were able to prove their Japanese citizenship by reference to family registers and began life as Japanese nationals. However, some found that they were not registered, which meant they had lost their Japanese citizenship. Paradoxically, these were people interned for being Japanese. In 1993 many Japanese who had been born overseas and interned during the war still keep their overseas citizenship, either Dutch or French, while those who had been British subjects in Australia were able to take Australian citizenship. In Japan they still register themselves as “aliens”, carry alien registration cards and renew their visas to stay in Japan every 3 years. The Kai family are among these aliens. Izumi Kai had married a New Caledonian woman who died before the war. He could have chosen either to register his family anew, or to register as a foreigner. He chose the latter. Mari and her brother, 18 and 20, already had French citizenship, so they agreed with his decision. According to Mari, she was better off as a French citizen in Japan. In postwar Japan there were advantages to being a citizen of a foreign nation − free bus rides, special train carriages for foreigners, access to Western food and other items.35

In Taiwan, those who stayed in Taipei but had no family there were helped by the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Authority until they obtained employment.36 As in Japan, those with English language skills found employment more easily than others. Harry Liang worked in the financial bureau of the Taipei municipal government as an English–Chinese interpreter and later became an English teacher in a mission school. His brothers worked for the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Authority, the municipal government and an American oil company. His sister worked in a hospital.37 But those who could not speak Chinese had difficulty living there. In September 1946 a former internee wrote to James Sullivan:

I wrote to the Dutch Consul in Hongkong and asked his permission to return to Java, but till now I have not heard anything … Most of the ex-internees are working … Because I can’t speak the Chinese language and it is very difficult to get a job for me here. The sooner I return to Java the better …38

According to the Yuan family in Taipei, many former internees returned to Indonesia. They did not feel at home in Taiwan. In 1946 Chu Tie Twan wrote:

Now we are arranging and expecting to return to Java as soon as shipping are available. I, as well as others who can’t be happy as the custom is disgusting and we are regarded as a different race … it is a fact that it’s better to stay in Australia until we could return to Java.39

Sai Kwie Kie wrote to Sullivan, a former Officer at Tatura:

I am working in Kon-Chi Hospital but my pay is hardly sufficient to make both ends meet … I frequently having in my mind the thinking that we may be repatriated back to Java at the earliest opportunities for Java is my birth place. Now arrangement has been made here concerning our repatriation and our names have been sent in already in the waiting list.40

The deportation broke up many families. Some were never able to locate each other. One family in the Solomon Islands is still searching for information about their grandfather. In 1986 Albert Palmer, a grandson of Seigoroo Fujita of the Solomon Islands, wrote to the author seeking information:

(My grandfather) was removed from the Solomons in December 1941 and transported immediately to Australia. That was the last that was heard of him until Miss Palmer (his sister) received information from you pertaining to him.41

Seigoroo Fujita was classified as a PWJM and interned at Hay as he was a fisherman. In March 1946 he was repatriated to Japan and it is unknown what happened to him afterwards. George Yokoyama was 8 when his father, Tomiji Yokoyama, was arrested in New Caledonia and sent to Australia. George never heard from him again.42 Tomiji Yokoyama was interned at Loveday and sent to Japan on the Koei Maru after the war.43

Most former overseas internees interviewed in Japan and Taiwan expressed appreciation of the fair treatment they received during internment in Australia. Those from NEI tended to express this feeling strongly. Masaichi Nabeshima from the Celebes said, “Whenever I hear the name Australia on the radio or television, I get emotional.” He feels bitter about the bad treatment by the Dutch before arriving in Australia. While speaking of the experiences he had at the hands of the Dutch Army in the Celebes, he began shaking with anger.44 Shigeru Nakabayashi declared, “I had many bad experiences in my life, but nothing was worse than the time we were on that ‘hell ship’.”45 Guan Guo Shi, son of Guan Hei who was interned at Loveday, said that his father often spoke of life in the camp and that he had always been treated humanely.46

Former internees of Japanese descent who were released in Australia after the war gradually returned to the Australian community. Most were able to return to their homes, but some chose new places to start, or had to move because of the animosity prevalent in postwar Australia. In 1988 Joe Murakami said:

The real psychological impact came after our release from camp directly into an environment charged with vehement anti-Japanism. I was never the direct victim of this anti-Japan mood, every magazine and newspaper was full of the reports of returning servicemen relating their experiences with the despised “inhumanly cruel, fanatical Japs”. Then came the occupation of Japan and the melancholy stories of a defeated, devastated nation, disarmed and vanquished forever and so on ad infinitum. This went on for years and years.47

Jimmy Chi from Broome was among a party of 10 people who left Tatura on 3 October 1946 to be released in Western Australia.48 There had been four Japanese air raids on Broome in March and August 1942.49 Chi was 43 when he returned to Broome. He recalled, “On Broome jetty white people yelled at me. They said, ‘Why did you come back? No house to live in!’”. He found his house and restaurant had been burnt down, his taxi commandeered for the army and his restaurant equipment sold.50 A postwar public meeting in Broome was reported in a local newspaper:

… the government could do nothing to prevent these persons, who were British subjects, from travelling or residing wherever they pleased. This point, however, was not received with enthusiasm by many of those present and many stormy interjections were forthcoming … It was suggested that … the people of Broome need not patronise the businesses they conducted. A boycott was suggested.51

Chi was determined to succeed again in Broome despite the fact that he was strongly rejected by the local white population for some years after the war. He said:

After the war I couldn’t go out on the street. They had meetings at the RSL hall and the Shire Council. They used to say, “Send the bastard to Japan”.52

He was unemployed for 3 years and forced to fish and collect cockles to feed his family. He was refused a union ticket, so went to Perth to lodge an official complaint. After a local MP intervened, he got a ticket and worked at the Broome jetty until he retired.53 He died in Broome in 1993. He was probably the only ex-Japanese internee who publicly spoke about his experiences in the newspapers, in a TV documentary, and on the radio. After internment, the Japanese community in Broome, which had numbered approximately 300 in December 1941, was reduced to nine people comprising Jimmy Chi and the Kanegae and Matsumoto families.

The Shiosaki family were to return to Broome and left Tatura on 28 November 1946.54 Alf Shiosaki, 16 in 1946, recalled the day they left camp:

In one way we were happy, but in another way a bit sad … the camp was our home … More or less we were happy. My mum was very pleased to come out. She was looking forward to going back north.55

In Perth they found that everything they owned in Broome had been destroyed, but still they wanted to go back. After a few weeks they got on a ship bound for Broome. Alf said:

When the ship entered Sharks Bay, the sea became very rough and Mum got very seasick. She couldn’t stand it. About that time the ship lost one of the propellers and had to return to Fremantle. When we arrived back at Fremantle, Mum made her mind up, packed everything up and told us to get off the ship. The captain said, “Where are you going, Mrs Shiosaki?” She said, “I can’t stand it. I’m not going back on.”

They decided to stay in Perth. There were friends waiting on the Broome jetty to welcome the family back, but they never arrived.56 The family was cared for by a welfare organisation until Mr Shiosaki found a job as a labourer with the railways. Alf said, “Dad didn’t know anything but laundry work. He had to work hard.” Alf married a woman of Aboriginal origin in Perth and is a grandfather many times over. He said, “I feel more Japanese than Australian. I don’t have many bad memories about the camp.” Peggy, Alf’s older sister, was 18 when she came out of the camp. She said that she felt 100 per cent Australian and resented internment. In 1986 Peggy said:

We lost everything. That’s the worst part, but we couldn’t do anything about it. We couldn’t fight against them (the Australian government). I guess some could, but we couldn’t. They just gave you war damage, but that wasn’t as much as you were supposed to get for what you did have. My parents weren’t bitter they just took it. They said, “If we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go. That’s all there is.”57

Those from Darwin were advised by the camp administration at Tatura not to go home because the town was very hostile to Japanese. During the war Darwin suffered 64 air raids which caused 243 deaths.58 One internee tried to go back but could not even get off the plane because of the hostile reception.59 Having learnt this, Masuko Murakami and her husband remained in the camp until they could decide their future. They were released on 10 August 1947 and headed for Cossack, Western Australia.60 “Stones were flung into their home, shots fired at them on the beach and their children were beaten up at school. Long after, they found acceptance once more in Darwin.”61 Masuko said in 1987:

We moved three times until we could finally go back to Darwin in 1956. The town was alright then, and we were not so conspicuous as things had changed there a lot with more people from various places … We lost two houses in our lifetime, one because of the war and the other because of cyclone Tracy.62

Masuko was 42 with two young children when she finally resettled where she had been born. She and her husband also lost the possessions which had been in their house before internment. They were stolen by troops stationed in Darwin, not necessarily because of their Japanese descent, as other Darwin houses evacuated during the war were also looted.63 Masuko’s mother and brothers were also released at the same time and stayed in Perth until they were able to return to Darwin in 1957.64 The two Murakami families were the only Japanese families who returned directly to Darwin. Joe Murakami was 18 and his younger brothers 16 and 13 in 1946. Joe wrote:

Being subjected to such mental trauma in the formative years of our lives, in constant fear of being about our ancestry, having no others around like us for mutual consolation, have left us socially incapacitated and unfulfilled to this day.65

In 1962, Joe decided to go to Japan to study Japanese and work as a translator. He was living and working there in 1995. Two of his sisters, one of whom was in Japan during the war, married and stayed in Japan. Masuko lived in Darwin until her death in 1988. The other family members, three younger brothers, stayed in Darwin.66

Former residents of Thursday Island returned to neglected and damaged homes. According to Captain John Foley, a local historian, armed forces personnel had occupied vacated homes on the island after residents left.67 Despite the heavy concentration of troops on the island, the island itself was never attacked during the war. However, nearby Horn Island was bombed several times during 1942.68 In the opinion of Foley, Thursday Island was not bombed because “Japanese nationals were still thought to be living there”.69

The release of the Yamashita, Nakata and Tanaka families of Thursday Island was delayed. They were first advised not to return to the island because of anti-Japanese feelings.70 On 6 December 1946 the Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Investigation Service reported to the Director:

I have to advise that the premises occupied by these internees before the war are no longer in existence (evidently having been demolished by the occupying forces) and that there is no accommodation for them on the island. Consequently if they were returned, there would be no accommodation or means of livelihood.71

The eldest son of the Nakata family, Tamiya, left the camp in January 1947 as he was able to find accommodation in Brisbane with his friend, Martin Wellington, who had also been interned. He stayed there for about 6 months doing some casual work, which included making wooden-soled shoes in a small backyard factory and building work for the Housing Commission. He was then told by his father that the rest of the family was to be released in August 1947. Tamiya went back to Thursday Island to find some accommodation for them.72 He did not experience much of the animosity on the island which the authorities had warned him about. He recalled:

I arrived on TI on 3 June. I was amazed at the desolation, there used to be six hotels … I stayed with the Dewis family who I knew before the war. They welcomed me and when I asked if there was any accommodation available; they told me that it was very scarce.73

Tamiya found work not long after he returned to Thursday Island. He was 19 in 1947. His first job was with Bowden Pearling Pty. Ltd., diving for shell. From 1952 until 1971 he was employed on a variety of jobs, including boat building and lugger repairs. As he was Japanese-born, he became naturalised after the ban on Asian naturalisation was lifted in 1961. In 1971 he was appointed to the Customs Department as the Thursday Island Launch Master.74 He was retired and still living on the island in 1992.

The other two families were also released in August 1947.75 Evelyn, the eldest daughter of the Yamashita family, wrote:

Thursday Island was not open to civilians over the war years and immediately after, so Sgt. Flowers found a house for us in a country town not far from Tatura. However, Dad decided that he wanted to return to TI at all costs. He contacted his Chinese friend who was only too pleased to assist.76

They lost their soy sauce factory. Evelyn said: “There was nothing left. As far as we know, the Army dismantled it during the war. Other houses too.” Her father worked in a general store owned by his Chinese friend and after 6 months he bought the business. Evelyn said:

Most Japanese were readily accepted back into the community by most people on Thursday Island, but there were a few New Chum people who had not lived in Thursday Island before the war. They didn’t like us.77

Harumi, Evelyn’s younger sister, was 16 in 1946. In 1992 she said:

People who knew us from before the war were always good to us after we came back. Old Islanders sort of protected us. They told their sons, “Don’t touch them (Japanese girls)”.78

Evelyn was 19 and went to do a secretarial course in Sydney when she left the camp. She shortened her name to Evelyn Yama. She said, “Everyone thought I was Chinese. I never tried to correct them.”79 There were several job offers for Evelyn when she returned to Thursday Island from Sydney. She chose the position of assistant to the secretary of the Catholic Diocese of Carpentaria. A local newspaper of 13 September 1947 wrote:

Is Thursday Island, one of the Commonwealth’s principal naval defence bases, again to become a centre of Japanese espionage as it was before the war? Commonwealth authorities have approved the return there of Japanese released from an internment camp in Victoria … Numbers of individual Japanese have also been allowed to return to the scene of their prewar activities.80

The prewar Japanese community on Thursday Island was almost destroyed due to the internment and eventual deportation of most of those engaged in the pearling industry. After the war, a community which had numbered approximately 580 in December 1941 was reduced to approximately 30, comprising five of the eight original families. They included the families of two PWJMs, Kyuukichi Shibasaki and Tomitaro Fujii, both of whom had Islander wives. Kyuukichi’s family were interned but were later released before the end of the war. Tomitaro’s family were never interned.81

George Kawano, born and bred in Innisfail, Queensland, was 12 years old when he returned there with his Japanese father and Aboriginal mother. George experienced no antagonism from other children at school. He said, “As far as I remember the local people accepted us back”.82 His father worked on a sugar-cane farm before the war, but never returned to his original work as he was too old. He died not long after the war. George never spoke anything but English. He was working in a sugar refinery in Innisfail in 1992. He said: “I was too young to understand what was going on then. Most of the things I remember are good memories. I had lots of friends to play with in the camp.”83

The Takagaki family were also accepted back by the local people. They were able to start farming their own sugar cane in Mackay as the farm had been looked after by a family friend during the war. They had four children. The two older boys were released to Kilmany Park Boys Home, while the youngest brother and sister were released to Kildonan Homes in Victoria during the war. Their father remained interned at Tatura until the end of the war. In 1946 the children returned home first. Jack, aged 17, had to look after his younger brothers and sisters until their father was released from the camp. In 1992 he said:

Neighbours were good to us. We didn’t lose anything. Nothing was stolen from the house. What we lost was those years we were removed from home. Dad had no money. I learnt many useful farming and domestic skills while I was at Kilmany. I learnt photo developing skills and sold many copies to other boys … I made rings and sold them to American soldiers. I saved £40 while I was at Kilmany. We were able to live on it until Dad came back.84

He took over the farm and married the daughter of a neighbour. He was living on the farm in Mackay in 1992.

One family from Brisbane had no place to go when they were released from the camp. They headed for Melbourne and had to live in a tent on the beach there until they found accommodation. The oldest daughter was 18 when released. She recalled the time:

My father had to say he was Chinese and changed his Japanese name to something more like Chinese. We were poor and had nothing … My mother was very sick in the camp, had a nervous breakdown. Very soon after we were released from the camp she died of a brain tumour. She suffered a lot in the camp. We couldn’t adapt to Japanese ways.85

Harry Suzuki, a laundry man from Sydney, was 29 when he left the camp. He first went to Melbourne where he found work:

No one around me knew I was Japanese. One day I was walking with my friend from work. I said to him, “Do you know I am Japanese?” He said, “Oh, yeah?” and didn’t seem to be worried about it.86

He was later able to return to laundry work in Sydney. He married Evelyn Yamashita from Thursday Island, whom he met in the camp at Tatura, and lived in Sydney until he died in 1991.87

Fifty years after the war most of the older generation of internees have died and the remaining younger internees are in their late sixties and seventies. Some former internees in Japan keep in touch with others, some do not. Any association tends to be because of common occupations from prewar days or because they lived in the same place before the war.

As most former PWJMs were from Wakayama prefecture, they have kept in close contact with each other. The Mokuyootoo-kai [Thursday Island Club], for example, was formed in Japan by former divers from Thursday Island. Some have visited TI, and in 1979 the club erected a monument in honour of the Japanese divers who died there.88 According to Ganter, “One family whose brother had died at Thursday Island contributed two million yen to the monument”.89 The Gooshuu-kai [Australian Club] formed after the war comprises mainly former business representatives, consular officials and their associates who were in Australia before the war and some who had been interned.90

While there have not been any reunions at either of the men’s camps, former internees of Tatura Internment Camp have had a number of reunions. The first one was held in Japan in April 1980. This was with a 98-year-old former warden, Ethel Punshon, who was invited to Japan by the Kobe Japan-Australia Society and ex-internees of the Tatura Internment Camp.91 In January 1987, a war-time guard officer, James Sullivan, also visited former internees in Japan and had a reunion there.92 Sullivan’s first reunion with an ex-internee was in 1985 when William Kondo, one of the younger sons of the Kondo family from NEI, visited Australia to find James Sullivan and to see the camp site.93 Sullivan took him there and later described the visit:

He said many times “I cannot believe this is true”. Neither could I … it was a very emotional occasion for both Kondo and myself. We walked over the old site, there were many relics still there, the concrete floors for the kitchens, the showers, the toilets … the barbed wire was lying in the grass rusting … He was quite taken with it all as he was only a child of twelve years … It was an emotional and strange day, very hard to believe that such a thing could happen after forty years.94

In 1988 Kondo’s older brother, Shinji, also visited the camp site with Sullivan who later wrote:

it was a very emotional occasion for him, he wandered over the area mostly on his own, but pointing out to me various things like where he used to cut wood, etc., and where his brother painted the picture of the camp.95

Shinji talked about the visit:

I felt as if I were in a dream or something. I had never thought I would go back to the camp … There wasn’t much left on the site, but when I saw the detention block all the memories suddenly came back to me. My heart ached.96

In January 1993, Sullivan had another reunion with approximately 70 Tatura internees from Japan, Taiwan and Australia at the camp site near Tatura. Don Vallance, once a guard at Tatura, and Frances Sprout, an ex-warden, also attended. Ninety-two-year-old Shimpei Murayama, a tailor from New Caledonia who was in charge of the clothing factory in the camp, also came. He said: “Now I feel I could put the experience behind me.”97 Masaichi Nabeshima, an internee from NEI, said: “It was like a bad dream. We were at war and nothing we could do.”98 Most attending had been children or teenagers during the war. The atmosphere was friendly and the participants reminisced about their internment. The conversation tended to concentrate on good memories of camp life. However, some have no interest in a reunion as it would remind them of painful experiences. For Shiro Yamashita of Thursday Island, a return to the camp site was out of the question. He was quoted by his sister as saying: “They put us in the camp against our will. How can you go? I’m not going.”99

The most resentful former internees seem to be among those “Japanese” who were Australian-born and remained in Australia after the war. Internment was something some would rather not remember. Ruby Lum, a Nisei of Japanese parentage, refused to talk about anything related to her wartime experiences. She said, “No one wants to have an old wound touched. I was born and educated in Australia. I am an Australian.” Her Chinese husband was also interned. After the war they worked hard and became owners of Chinese restaurants in Toowoomba.100 Hannah Suzuki, who was released in 1942 in Sydney, begged me not to contact her brother Joseph as it would upset him too much. She said:

It was a sad and futile war … and I pray that Australia will never again go to war. Joe was always a loyal Australian. The proof is that he got a medal from the Queen.101

Internment deprived the Australian-born children of some basic education. As schooling for Japanese children in the camp was left to the internees’ committee, children who did not adapt to the Japanese school were left out. One Australian-born from Brisbane felt strongly about this issue:

My father wanted me to become a doctor, or at least get higher education. I couldn’t adapt to the Japanese way of doing things. I missed out all the education. There was no schooling, nothing for people like me. There was correspondence school up to primary school, but nothing after that.102

She continued:

If they were doing it for our protection, why didn’t they give us notice that they were taking us? And why didn’t they allow us to take everything with us or to make some kind of arrangement about our property? The home was not ours, but the property was. They didn’t give a damn about our protection.103

In 1992 Evelyn Yamashita wrote:

I can only speak for myself, but, in hindsight, although I deeply regretted the gap in my formal education, it seemed to me that it was in our best interests to be interned because of the deep-seated and intense hatred directed against the Japanese. I think this would have applied in most cases to families who had one or more members who could not speak English like a native.104

For some internees their removal from society limited their ability to fit in after the war. In 1988 Joe Murakami wrote:

In the most vital years of our lives we never had the social opportunities nor engaged in the social activities so necessary for the development of normal social competence. We didn’t dare ask any girl for a date because we would have surely been rebuffed. We didn’t even get to know any girls … My brothers are still mentally bogged down in the war era, unmarried, discontented, unfulfilled, and financially and geographically restricted, now too old to change the course of their destinies.105

In the anti-Japanese climate prevalent in Australia after the war, most of those who remained in Australia kept silent about their wartime experiences and their racial origins. Joe Murakami wrote in 1989:

we tend to withdraw instinctively when such a subject is brought up. This withdrawal is a sort of conditioned reflex attributable to our experience in the early postwar era.106

Some hid their Japanese origins, even to the extent of taking Western surnames. According to a fourth-generation descendant of Ewar Dicinoski, the adopted son of the acrobat, Sakuragawa Rikinoske, who was the Australia’s earliest Japanese settler, the family tried to hide the fact that they were of Japanese descent.107 His father, uncles and great-uncles all served in either the military or merchant marines during the war. One Australian-born person of Japanese parentage thought: “Most Australian-born, especially of mixed parentage were ashamed of their Japanese ancestry.”108 Another of Japanese Spanish descent said: “I was quiet about my half-Japanese ancestry for some time after the war, but I am proud of it now. I know of others who try to hide it.”109 Iwao Takai, the son of a TI Japanese diver called Iwazo Takai and a woman of Islander Malay origin, said in 1992:

I didn’t feel comfortable for a long time to openly admit or talk about my Japanese origin, but only recently I began to feel positive about it and want to know about my past … my father left us when I was still a baby and never returned. I was told that he died in Japan.110

After the war a complete ban was placed on the entry of Japanese into Australia. In 1947 Arthur Calwell said:

Let me repeat for the last time that while I remain Minister for Immigration no Japanese will be permitted to enter this country. They cannot come as the wives of Australian servicemen for permanent or temporary residence, nor as businessmen to buy from or sell to us; they cannot come as pearlers nor as labourers to pearlers. I have no intention of granting interviews to anybody in matters concerning the entry of Japanese into Australia or into Australian waters. The memories of Japanese atrocities to Australian servicemen are too recent and too bitter to be as easily forgotten as some people would like.111

In December 1949, the Labor government was defeated at the federal election. On 8 September 1951 the San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed. Although the White Australia Policy remained after the war, some concessions were made as time went on. In August 1951, the Australian government decided to allow some former Japanese residents to return to Australia on compassionate grounds.112 Tokutaroo and Isune Iwanaga, 74 and 75, were the first in this category. They returned from Japan in 1953 to rejoin their adopted daughter in Brisbane. They had worked in Japan with the occupation forces as a cook and a housemaid. They claimed, “we are too old to go overseas but can’t make a living in Japan. We will probably not see Japan again”.113 Their daughter regularly sent food parcels to them from Australia and worked hard to arrange their return.114 They arrived in Melbourne and received a warm welcome from a group of former internees, including Evelyn Yamashita.115 In Australia the old couple befriended and welcomed Japanese war brides and were fondly called Ojisan and Obasan [Uncle and Aunt]. Ted Collins, now a resident in Melbourne, wrote in 1986:

Mr Iwanaga became like a father to me … They were among the first Japanese settlers allowed back into the country. During internment, their house in Cairns was burnt down, as well, they lost their business, all this, they were never compensated. This dear old couple have since died, but are always fondly remembered.116

Mrs Iwanaga died in 1958 and Mr Iwanaga in 1962. According to their daughter, they owned a house which was in her name, as the law prohibited non-white residents owning property or land.117

Between 1946 and 1952 the pearling industry made representations to the Australian government to permit the return of repatriated Japanese.118 The members of the Northern Australia Development Committee were concerned with the rehabilitation of the pearling towns. The industry at Darwin had completely disappeared with the deaths of prewar community leaders, including Jiroo Muramatsu and Yasukichi Murakami who died in the internment camp, and A.C. Gregory, Murakami’s long-standing friend. The Pearlers’ Associations in Broome and Thursday Island had failed to keep the industry organised.119 The industry expressed confidence that the Japanese would improve the take of pearls by up to 75 per cent and that the general running of business would improve under the guidance of experienced Japanese pearlers.120 The Torres Strait Islanders allied with the Australian Legion of Ex-Servicemen and Women to resist the re-introduction of Japanese.121 Nevertheless, in October 1952 Cabinet decided to permit the entry of Japanese pearling labourers under conditions similar to those prior to the outbreak of war. Thirty-five Japanese were admitted to work in the pearling industry at Broome.122 The party was headed by Toshio Fukuda, a former resident of Broome who had been president of the Nihonjin-kai there before the war and who had left Australia before the war broke out. Among the 35 were former PWJMs, including Katsuzoo Antaku and Masatora Okamura, who later married local Aboriginal women in Broome and were still living there in 1986.123

In 1958, 106 Okinawans were permitted to work on Thursday Island.124 Okinawa was then an American mandated territory. This could, according to Ganter, “satisfy Australian master pearlers without offending anti-Japanese sentiments” and it “could be argued that the recruits were not actually Japanese people”.125 However, the experiment with Okinawan divers failed and they were repatriated before the expiry of their contracts. Ganter wrote: “With the mass withdrawal of the Japanese workforce during World War II the industry gradually collapsed under strains which had long been present: a volatile world market, resource exhaustion, and finally competition from alternative materials.”126

A new Japanese community gradually grew again in Australia. The first of a new generation of Japanese settlers allowed into Australia were war brides who arrived in 1952.127 As further concessions were made, the numbers of Japanese gradually increased. These concessions included temporary residence of non-Europeans admitted for business purposes, naturalisation of non-Europeans, and the admission of non-Europeans and persons of mixed descent who had unusual potential to benefit Australia. By 1954, 966 Japanese born in Japan were living in Australia.128 In 1958 the dictation test of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was abolished.129 On 9 March 1966, the Minister for Immigration, Hubert Opperman, announced that permanent settlement of non-Europeans would be made easier.130 By 1971, when 4,929 Japanese resided in Australia,131 the number of Japanese had surpassed the population of 1901. The 1986 census showed that 11,160 people born in Japan resided in Australia. Of the total number, 98.8 per cent of them were postwar arrivals and most had come to Australia after the major change in immigration policy in 1966.132 The occupational profile was different to the prewar Japanese, most of whom had been labourers. More than half of the Japanese men in Australia were professionals and a majority worked for Japan-related companies.133 Thirty per cent of Japanese women were in professional or semi-professional categories, and 52 per cent were in clerical, service and sales work.134

Today the Japanese presence is strongly felt in Australia. Japanese communities are well-established and concentrated in major urban centres such as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.135 Most state capitals have a Nihonjin-kai and, although they are open to any Japanese resident in Australia, the membership mainly consists of short-term residents such as business representatives and their families. Presidencies of the Nihonjin-kai tend to be given to employees of major Japanese companies. Most Nihonjin-kai run Japanese schools, which generally cater for children of families who are short-term residents. There are now several Japanese language community newspapers. In 1986, 45 per cent of Japanese born in Japan and who had been resident in Australia for more than 5 years had taken Australian citizenship.136 The Japanese community in Australia today has few links with the prewar community.

Notes

  1. Internment in S.A., p. 28. ↩
  2. Ibid. ↩
  3. Colleen Eddie, letter, Adelaide, 28 Jan. 1985. ↩
  4. Ibid. ↩
  5. Woolmer, pp. 70B71. ↩
  6. Ibid. ↩
  7. Ibid. ↩
  8. Ibid. ↩
  9. Beckwith, p. 1. ↩
  10. Hammond, J., Walls of Wire, Tatura, 1990, p. 116. ↩
  11. James Sullivan, Melbourne, 1 Dec. 1985. ↩
  12. James Sulivan, letter, 20 Oct. 1995. ↩
  13. Department of Environment and Planning, Loveday Internment Camp Archaeological Report, 1992, p. 1. ↩
  14. Ibid. ↩
  15. The Murray Pioneer, 12 May 1992. ↩
  16. Rosemary Gower, Chairperson of Loveday Internment Camp Museum Steering Committee, Cobdogla, letter, 28 Jan. 1993. ↩
  17. The Murray Pioneer, 5 Oct. 1994. ↩
  18. Inoue, pp. 216–217. ↩
  19. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, p. 632. ↩
  20. Ganter, p. 278. ↩
  21. Ibid. ↩
  22. Etsuroo Chikanari, Koobe, 12 Jan. 1992. ↩
  23. The late Mari Kai, Kawasaki, 10 Sept. 1988. ↩
  24. Shinji Kondo, Kawasaki, 25 Jan. 1987. ↩
  25. The late Mari Kai, Yokohama, 11 Jan. 1987. ↩
  26. The late Albert Ueno, Yokohama, 16 Jan. 1987. ↩
  27. Haruko Namba, letter, 25 Aug. 1947, held by Francis Sprout, Melbourne. ↩
  28. Haruko Namba, Yokohama, 26 Dec. 1991. ↩
  29. Gotoo, p. 240. ↩
  30. Ibid., p. 256. ↩
  31. Yoichi Soneda, Kobe, 12 Jan. 1992, [J]. ↩
  32. Ibid. ↩
  33. Tatsuzoo Imaizumi, letter, 15 Jan. 1947, held by Colleen Eddie, Adelaide. ↩
  34. Tatsuzoo Imaizumi, letter, 20 Dec. 1947, held by Colleen Eddie. ↩
  35. The late Mari Kai, Kawasaki, 10 Sept. 1988, [J]. ↩
  36. Chu Tie Twan, letter, 8 Aug. 1946. ↩
  37. Harry Liang, letter to Sullivan, Taipei, 8 Dec. 1946. ↩
  38. Letter, writer‘s name illegible, Taiwan, 17 Sept. 1946. ↩
  39. Chu Tie Twan, letter to Miss Collins, Taiwan, 8 Aug. 1946. ↩
  40. Sai Kwie Kie, letter, Taiwan, 1 June 1946. ↩
  41. Albert Rocky Palmer, letter, Wellington, New Zealand, 3 Nov. 1986. ↩
  42. Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Apr. 1990. ↩
  43. AP 308/1, 19, Movements and dispositions of internees [1945–1946]. ↩
  44. Masaichi Nabeshima, Kobe, 16 Jan. 1987. ↩
  45. Shigeru Nakabayashi, Tokyo, 8 Jan. 1987. ↩
  46. Guan Guo Shi, Taipei, 5 Dec. 1986. ↩
  47. Joe Murakami, 16 July 1988. ↩
  48. PP 519/1, 241/3/122, 27 Sept. 1946 ↩
  49. Prime, M.W., WA’s Pearl Harbour: The Japanese Raid on Broome, the Royal Australian Air Force Association, Perth, WA, 1985, p. 22. ↩
  50. Jimmy Chi, Broome, 25 Aug. 1986. ↩
  51. Newspaper cutting kept by Jimmy Chi, dated Jan. 7, and almost certainly 1947. ↩
  52. Interview with Jimmy Chi, quoted in the Western Mail, May 31 – June 1, 1986. ↩
  53. Ibid. ↩
  54. PP 519/1, 241/3/122, 21 Nov. 1946. ↩
  55. Alf Shiosaki, Perth, 21 Aug. 1987. ↩
  56. Peggie Carlie née Shiosaki, Derby, 26 Aug. 1986. ↩
  57. Ibid. ↩
  58. McKernan, All In: Australia During the Second World War, pp. 111–112. ↩
  59. The late Masuko Murakami, Darwin, 29 Aug. 1986. ↩
  60. PP 519/1, 241/3/122, 8 Aug. 1947. ↩
  61. In Powell, A., The Shadow‘s Edge: Australia‘s Northern War, p. 41. ↩
  62. The late Masuko Murakami, 29 Aug. 1986. ↩
  63. McKinlay, p. 80. ↩
  64. Murakami Yasukichi in Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography, vol. I, to 1945, p. 219. ↩
  65. Joe Murakami, Yokohama, letter, 16 July 1988. ↩
  66. Ibid. ↩
  67. Foley, p. 66. ↩
  68. Ibid., p. 66. ↩
  69. Ibid., p. 66. ↩
  70. Evelyn Suzuki, 8 July 1992. ↩
  71. BP 242/1, Q 23993, 6 Dec. 1946. ↩
  72. Tamiya Nakata, Thursday Island, 12 July 1992. ↩
  73. Ibid. ↩
  74. Ibid. ↩
  75. A 373, 11505/48, 22 Aug. 1947. ↩
  76. Evelyn Suzuki, Cairns, 14 Aug. 1992. ↩
  77. Ibid., Sydney, 5 Nov. 1990. ↩
  78. Harumi Ahloy, Thursday Island, 12 July 1992. ↩
  79. Evelyn Suzuki née Yamashita, Sydney, 5 Nov. 1990. ↩
  80. BP 242/1, Q 23993, 13 Sept. 1947. ↩
  81. Daughter of Tomitaro Fujii, Thursday Island, 2 Sept. 1987. ↩
  82. George Kawano, Innisfail, 10 July 1992. ↩
  83. Ibid. ↩
  84. Jack Takagaki, Mackay, 6 July 1992. ↩
  85. Name withheld, Brisbane, 24 Aug. 1987. ↩
  86. The late Harry Suzuki, Sydney, 22 Aug. 1987. ↩
  87. Evelyn Suzuki, Sydney, 5 Nov. 1990. ↩
  88. Ganter, R., “Images of Japanese Pearl-Shellers in Queensland: An Oral History Chapter in Australia–Japan Relations”, Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal, vol. XIV, no. 7, May 1991, p. 268. ↩
  89. 89.Ibid., p. 268. ↩
  90. Naka Akiyama, letter, Zushi, 9 Mar. 1986. ↩
  91. Kangaria [Kobe Japan-Australia Society Newsletter], No. 18, 25 Dec. 1980, pp. 1–3. ↩
  92. Yuriko Nagata, organiser of the reunion. ↩
  93. Jim Sullivan, Melbourne, 1 Dec. 1985. ↩
  94. Jim Sullivan, letter, 11 Sept. 1985. ↩
  95. Jim Sullivan, letter, Melbourne, 26 April 1988. ↩
  96. Shinji Kondo, Kawasaki, 26 Oct. 1990. ↩
  97. Shimpei Murayama, 5 Jan. 1993, [J]. ↩
  98. Masaichi Nabeshima, Tatura, 5 Jan. 1993, [J]. ↩
  99. Harumi Ahloy née Yamashita, Tatura, 5 Jan. 1993. ↩
  100. Ruby Lum, Toowoomba, 13 Dec. 1989. ↩
  101. Hannah Matushik, née Suzuki, Adelaide, 31 Oct. 1990. ↩
  102. Name withheld, Brisbane, 24 Aug. 1987. ↩
  103. Ibid. ↩
  104. Evelyn Suzuki, letter, 8 July 1992. ↩
  105. Joe Murakami, letter, Yokohama, 16 July 1988. ↩
  106. Ibid., 5 Jan. 1989. ↩
  107. Jeff Dicinoski, Brisbane, 4 June 1992. ↩
  108. Evelyn Suzuki, 7 May 1992. ↩
  109. Name withheld, 24 Aug. 1987. ↩
  110. Isao Takai, Thursday Island, 12 July 1992. ↩
  111. Palfreyman, A.C., The Administration of the White Australia Policy, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1967, p. 44. ↩
  112. A 1838, T 184, 3103/10/8, PT1, 27 Aug. 1951. ↩
  113. Japanese newspaper clipping kept by Ann Iwanaga, no date. ↩
  114. Name withheld, Brisbane, 25 Aug. 1987. ↩
  115. Evelyn Suzuki, Sydney, 7 May 1992. ↩
  116. E. A. Collins, letter, Melbourne, 2 May 1986. ↩
  117. Name withheld, Brisbane, 10 Oct. 1992. ↩
  118. A 437, 46/6/72, 25 Oct. 1946. ↩
  119. Bain, p. 342. ↩
  120. Ibid., p. 344. ↩
  121. Ganter, p. 279. ↩
  122. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debate, 14 Oct. 1952. ↩
  123. Katsuzoo Antaku and Masatora Okumura, Broome, 25 Aug. 1986. ↩
  124. Palfreyman, p. 45. ↩
  125. Ganter, pp. 280–281. ↩
  126. Ibid., p. 282. ↩
  127. Atsumi, R., “A demographic and socio-economic profile of the Japanese residents in Australia”, Coughlan, J.E., ed., The Diverse Asians: A Profile of Six Asian Communities in Australia, Griffith University, 1992, p. 17. ↩
  128. Ibid., p. 13. ↩
  129. Human Rights Commission, Report No. 13 Human Rights and the Migration Act 1958, Apr. 1985, Part 2.2, Section 18, p. 5. ↩
  130. Hawkins, p. 33. ↩
  131. Atsumi, p. 13. ↩
  132. Atsumi, p. 18. ↩
  133. Ibid., p. 24. ↩
  134. Ibid., p. 26. ↩
  135. Ibid., p. 13. Forty-five per cent of the Japanese in Australia reside in Sydney, 20 per cent in Melbourne, 5 per cent in Perth, another 5 per cent in Brisbane, and the rest elsewhere including Adelaide and Canberra. ↩
  136. Ibid., p. 19. ↩