We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2016
From the late 19th century, a scattering of small Japanese communities gradually established themselves around the northern coast of Australia. These communities existed as ethnic minorities within already established communities of Europeans and indigenous Australians in towns such as Broome, Darwin and in the sugargrowing areas of northern Queensland. The largest of these communities were found on Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait, and Broome, in Western Australia. At the outbreak of World War II, Thursday Island was the largest Japanese community in the country.
1 Sissons, D.C.S., “The Japanese in the Australian Pearling Industry”, Queensland Heritage, 1974–79, vol. 3, no. 10, p. 9 Google Scholar
2 Major works on the Japanese involvement in the pearling industry in Australia include David Sissons “The Japanese in the Australian Pearling Industry”, Queensland Heritage, vol. 3, no. 10, 1979 pp 9–27, Mary Albertus Bain Full Fathom Five, Perth, Artlook Books 1982 and Regina Ganter The Pearl-Shellers of Torres Strait, Melbourne University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
3 Evans, G., Thursday Island 1878–1914: A plural Society, Honours Thesis, University of Queensland, 1972, Tables inserted between pages 26 and 27.Google Scholar
4 Steve, Mullins, Torres Strait, a History of Colonial Occupation and Culture Contact, 1864–1897, Central Queensland University Press, 1995, p. 157.Google Scholar
5 Shuji, Kyuuhara, Remains of Japanese Settlers on the Torres Strait Islands, unpublished research paper, 1977, p. 1. According to Kyuuhara, in the early stage pearling stations in Torres Strait were located at about ten sites, including Somerset on Cape York Peninsula, Albany Island, Roko Island, Possession Island, Friday Island, Goode Island, Waiweer Island, Prince of Wales Island and Mabuiag Island.Google Scholar
6 Ibid. Google Scholar
7 Palfreeman, A.C., The Administration of the White Australia Policy, Melbourne, 1967, Appendix, Table V.Google Scholar
8 Ganter, p. 99.Google Scholar
9 Kyuuhara, , pp 4–14. The oldest graves in Torres Strait are on Waiweer and Prince of Wales.Google Scholar
10 See Sissons, p. 16, Bain, p. 105 and Ganter, pp 107–109.Google Scholar
11 Loban, Ted and Filewood, Con, pers. comm. 31 August 1987.Google Scholar
12 Haig, K., By the Bounty of the Sea: Industry, Economy and Society in Maritime Japanese Immigrant Communities in Hawaii and Australia, 1890s to World War II, BA Honours thesis, Harvard University, 1999, p. 71.Google Scholar
13 Queensland State Archives POL/J2.Google Scholar
14 Nagata, Y., Unwanted Aliens, Japanese Internment in Australia, University of Queensland Press, 1996, p. 68.Google Scholar
15 Nagata, p. 51.Google Scholar
16 Torres Shire Council Literature on Torres Strait, year of compilation not known, obtained from the Shire Council Office in May 1999, p. 3.Google Scholar
17 Osborne, E., Torres Strait Islander Women and the Pacific War, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1997, p. 85; Thursday Island State High School (hereafter TISHS), Torres Strait at War: a recollection of wartime experience, 1987, p. 33.Google Scholar
18 TISHS, p. 32.Google Scholar
19 Australian Archives, BP 242/1, Q 23993, 6 Dec. 1946 in Nagata, p. 231.Google Scholar
20 Nagata, p. 230.Google Scholar
21 Nagata, p. 231.Google Scholar
22 Nagata, p. 89.Google Scholar
23 Capri, Sopia, pers. comm., 6 July 1992. Also see Nagata, pp 90–91.Google Scholar
24 TISHS, pp 33 & 43.Google Scholar
25 Amira Mendis, pers. comm., 6 April 1999.Google Scholar
26 Nagata, pp 226–229.Google Scholar
27 The ages of the returnees in 1947 ranged from forty to seventy- three years old. Their length of residency on the island ranged from twenty to forty years, including six years of internment.Google Scholar
28 Sadako Ike, pers. comm. 20 July 1999.Google Scholar
29 Australian Archives, ACT CRS A 373, 1/505/48. The reason why Nakata's Japanese wife and son were able to come to Australia has not been substantiated.Google Scholar
30 Australian AA 6122/40 Item 273, p. 11.Google Scholar
31 Burial list of Thursday Island Japanese Cemetery compiled in 1975 by Shuuji Kyuuhara.Google Scholar
32 Eccleston, P., pers. comm., 25 May 1997.Google Scholar
33 Murakami, Joe, pers. comm., 18 July 1988.Google Scholar
34 AA CRS A 373, 1/505/48Google Scholar
35 Nagata, Y., “A Foot In The Door: The Evolution of Australian Policy with regard to Japanese Immigration post-WWII” paper delivered at the JSAA Conference, Brisbane, 1991.Google Scholar
36 Ibid., p. 126.Google Scholar
37 Sadako Ike, pers. comm., 1 April 1999 Google Scholar
38 Singe, John, The Torres Strait: People and History, University of Queensland Press, 1989, p. 161.Google Scholar
39 Ike, Sadako, op.cit. Google Scholar
40 Kehoe-Forutan, S., Effectiveness of Thursday Island as an Urban Centre in Meeting the Needs of its Community, PhD thesis, University of Queensland, 1990, p. 79.Google Scholar
41 Haig, , p. 76Google Scholar
42 Singe, p. 230.Google Scholar
43 Shnukal, Anna, Broken: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Torres Strait, Australian National University, 1988, p. 169.Google Scholar
44 Island Cooking, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Print Unit, 1988, p. 8.Google Scholar
45 Shnukal, p. 169.Google Scholar
46 Shnukal, p. 152.Google Scholar
47 Kehoe-Forutan, p. 9.Google Scholar
