The Japanese Cemetery, Broome, 1939
The Japanese Cemetery, Broome, 1939, possibly taken for Pix magazine, vintage film negative, State Library of New South Wales, ON 388/Box 077/Item 078 collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkPbDXY/AG5re6zozqlmj
These photos of the Japanese Cemetery in Broome were taken in 1939, possibly for a story PIx magazine intended to run on the Western Australian town. It is the largest Japanese cemetery in Australia, and dates back to 1896, and the beginnings of the pearling industry in Broome. Most of the Japanese men who worked as pearl divers came from Taiji and other villages in the Kii Peninsula in Japan. The cemetery contains over 700 tombstones mainly pearl divers but there are also a number of Japanese men, women and children who lived in Broome. The tombstones themselves were predominately made from local sandstone which wears more easily than the traditional granite gravestones used in Japan. A few original graves used imported granite from Japan and others were replaced in a major renovation of the cemetery in 1983. But these images from 1939 show many of the graves before they weathered too much. Fragments of those that were badly worn away are now stored in the Broome Museum.
The Japanese Cemetery, Broome, 1939
The Japanese Cemetery, Broome, 1939, possibly taken for Pix magazine, vintage film negative, State Library of New South Wales, ON 388/Box 077/Item 078 collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkPbDXY/AG5re6zozqlmj
These photos of the Japanese Cemetery in Broome were taken in 1939, possibly for a story PIx magazine intended to run on the Western Australian town. It is the largest Japanese cemetery in Australia, and dates back to 1896, and the beginnings of the pearling industry in Broome. Most of the Japanese men who worked as pearl divers came from Taiji and other villages in the Kii Peninsula in Japan. The cemetery contains over 700 tombstones mainly pearl divers but there are also a number of Japanese men, women and children who lived in Broome. The tombstones themselves were predominately made from local sandstone which wears more easily than the traditional granite gravestones used in Japan. A few original graves used imported granite from Japan and others were replaced in a major renovation of the cemetery in 1983. But these images from 1939 show many of the graves before they weathered too much. Fragments of those that were badly worn away are now stored in the Broome Museum.