Japanese pearl divers in Torres Strait remembered at Obon

Chiomi and Russell Fujii. Source: SBS

Seventy-five years ago, hundreds of interned Japanese pearl divers were deported from Australia at the end of World War Two. It largely ended a once-lucrative industry in Queensland’s Torres Strait. Now their descendants are preparing for Obon, the Japanese festival of the dead, to mark the economic and social contribution of what was once Australia’s largest Japanese community.

Siblings Chiomi and Russell Fujii are preserving legacy of Tomitaro “Tommy” Fujii, one of the most famous pearl divers of the Torres Strait.

His grave in the regional capital Thursday Island is surrounded by hundreds of other Japanese divers, seasonal workers, who died on the job.

Chiomi and Russell ensure they’re not forgotten on Obon, the Japanese day of the dead.

Between the 1880s and 1942, 6,000 Japanese divers worked in the Torres Strait.

Russell’s father was one of them.

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