Jiro Muramats (6 September 1878 – 7 January 1943) was a

pearler Pearl hunting, also known as pearling, is the activity of recovering pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in the Persian Gulf region and Japan for thousands of years. On the ...

who lived in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

's remote town of Cossack. Born in

Kobe, Japan Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

in 1878, he moved as a boy with his family to Western Australia's north-west where his father Sakutaro set up a business in 1891. Jiro attended the state school at Cossack, and from 1895 to '97 boarded at

Xavier College Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878. ...

, Melbourne. The family business prospered, importing goods for the Japanese community of Cossack, and when their father died in 1898 (leaving an estate of £1,101) Jiro and his brother Tsunetaro took control of the family firm. They re-branded it ''J. & T. Muramats'' and under this title imported and traded goods to the north-west for more than 50 years. His brother moved back to Japan to operate the exporting side of the business from there, until his death in 1925. In November 1904 he applied for a ''Gallon License'' for his residence in Perseverance Street in Cossack. This license was granted, but not after opposition on the grounds that he was a foreigner (despite being naturalised at this point) and also that there were already two other pubs in town. On 17 January 1905 Jiro married Hatsu Noguchi (originally from

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

) who had arrived in Australia in 1896. They had one daughter. The company also owned pearling luggers which operated from Cossack despite a number of racist policies of the state that prohibited "coloured aliens" from owning pearling licences. The pearling, combined with goods trading, and the supply of credit to many other firms, meant that by 1915 a large proportion of the freehold land in Cossack belonged to the Muramats brothers. A period of revitalisation in the pearling industry became one of defiance by a number of operators who did not join the federal government's voluntary ''Northern Territory Pearling Ordinance'' in 1931. Muramats had been granted naturalization in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

, but amendments to acts in Western Australia

disenfranchised Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

many people from non-English ethnic backgrounds. He was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

during World War II and died of cancer in 1943 whilst still locked up in

Tatura Tatura is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia, and is situated within the City of Greater Shepparton local government area, north of the state capital (Melbourne) and west of the regional centre of Shepparton. At the ...

Internment Camp. His wife returned to Cossack in 1946, and was its last resident when the town was abandoned in the 1950s. She later returned to Japan, and died in Yokohama on 12 August 1959 (leaving an estate in Australia of £7,670).

References

* 1878 births 1943 deaths Australian businesspeople Japanese emigrants to Australia Pearlers People educated at Xavier College People from Kobe People from the Pilbara {{WesternAustralia-stub