From DiscoverNikkei.org

Immigration & Citizenship - Australia

Exhibition of historical photographs documenting a century of bilateral relations between Australia and Japan. The section "Contact and Culture" contains especially rich documentation of the immigration of Japanese to Australia.
Research guide to the extensive holdings of the National Archives of Australia on relations between that country and Japan. Includes a useful introductory essay on Japanese immigration (pp. 14-15). The guide is described in a media release.
Describes the development of Queensland through its immigrant populations, including Japanese who migrated to Queensland to develop the pearl fishing industry.
"The relationship with Japan." Australia-Japan foundation provided this site for Japanese to learn more about Australia.
A brief illustrated history of Japan-Australia relations.
This film, directed by Solrun Hoaas, tells the story of six Japanese women who married Australian servicemen after the Second World War, their efforts to build new lives in Australia and the challenges they faced in an alien land. (邦題：八重桜物語-オーストラリアに渡った戦争花嫁たち)
"The aim of this article is to discuss recent trends in Japanese migration to Australia through an analysis of the characteristics of recent Japanese immigrants settling in Australia. The data presented in this article is primarily based upon information extracted by the Department of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs (DILGEA) from the 'arrival cards' which all people entering Australia from overseas must complete upon arrival in Australia. Information gained from this source includes basic demographic data such as age, gender and marital status. The cards also seek information on arrivals' current occupation, or in the case of immigrants settling in Australia for the first time their last occupation prior to arrival in Australia, and in which state they intend to reside. For immigrants settling in Australia for the first time the immigration eligibility category under which they have been granted entry is also collected. This article will use annual data for Japan-born people who immigrated to Australia during the period July 1982 to June 1991."
Includes a historical overview and photo gallery of Japanese migration to the Australian state of Victoria; overview graphs by age, population, and gender; and detailed graphs by age, gender, religion, occupation, and language.
  • Yuriko Nagata, "The Japanese in Torres Strait". (PDF) In: Shnukal, Anna, Guy Ramsay and Yuriko Nagata (eds.). Navigating Boundaries: The Asian Diaspora in Torres Strait. Canberra, Pandanus Books, 2004 (pp 138–159).
Nagata writes about the establishment of the Japanese presence in Torres Strait in the nineteenth century and the community's development from the 1880s to the 1990s.
Excerpt of Abstract: "This thesis is a broadly chronological study of representations of Japan and the Japanese in Australian novels, stories and memoirs from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first century. Adopting Edward Said's Orientalist notion of the 'Other', it attempts to elaborate patterns in which Australian authors describe and evaluate the Japanese. As well as examining these patterns of representation, this thesis outlines the course of their development and change over the years, how they relate to the context in which they occur, and how they contribute to the formation of wider Australian views on Japan and the Japanese."


Broome

Broome, on the Indian Ocean at the western edge of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, was a major source of pearls and mother-of-pearl by the early 20th century, supported by a strong community of Japanese and Japanese-Australians. The Nikkei community grew after the collapse of the pearling industry following World War I; by 1941, the Japanese outnumbered the Australians in Broome. The incarceration of Broome's entire Japanese community during World War II had a profound effect on the economy of this region, which only rebounded in the 1950s with the development of the cultured pearl industry.

Broome has the largest Japanese cemetery in Australia, with over 700 graves dating back as far as 1896.

Headstones in the Japanese Cemetery in Broome, Western Australia.
Headstones in the Japanese Cemetery in Broome, Western Australia.
Part of the web site, "Broome Pearling History", by students at St. Mary's College, Broome.
Illustrated history documents the role of Japanese in the commercial development of Broome.
"By 1910, nearly 400 luggers and more than 3500 people were fishing for shell in waters around Broome, then the biggest pearling centre in the world. The divers were mostly Japanese from the Taiji province."

Bibliography

  • 記念史編集委員会編, 『日豪友好記念史：オーストラリアの日本人ー一世紀をこえる日本人の足跡』 (Asquith, NSW: 全豪日本クラブ, 1998)
"Japanese in Australia: Japanese Footprints over a Century". This book was published to "preserve the dear history of Japanese pioneers who left their footprints in Australia by articles of themselves or those loseset to them" by the Japan Club of Australia. Books are written mainly in Japanese, and some in English.
  • Anna Shnukal, Guy Ramsay, and Yuriko Nagata, eds. Navigating Boundaries: The Asian Diaspora in Torres Strait. (Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2004)
Review: Jennifer Moran, "Mixed histories on Australia's northern border". ANU Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Quarterly Bulletin 5, no. 3 (September 2004).
Review: Adrian Carton, "Australasian Interactions: Contested Geographies of 'White Australia'". Australian Humanities Review 35 (June 2005).
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