:Isokichi Komine
{{short description|Pioneer in New Guinea of Japanese origin}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2014}}
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| name = Komine
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| birth_date = 1866 or 1867
| birth_place = Shimabara, Nagasaki, Shimabara Domain, Tokugawa Shogunate
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| death_date = 3 October 1934 (aged 66 or 67)
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| citizenship = Australian
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| occupation = Pearl diver
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Isokichi Komine (1866{{efn|Another source says 1867. See "Early life" section.}}{{spaced ndash}}3 October 1934) was an Australian pearl diver, merchant, and trader. One of German New Guinea's earliest emigrants, he is known as "one of Rabaul's oldest pioneers".
Early life
"[O]ne of Rabaul's oldest pioneers", Komine was born in 1866{{cite web |url=http://163.209.180.106/bitstream/10232/15582/1/AN10088628_v15-1_P25-47.pdf |title=Nanshin and Japanese migrants in Papua and New Guinea : myth and reality of Japanese expansion in the South Seas |accessdate=March 16, 2013 |publisher=South Pacific Study }}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} or 1867,{{cite book|title=Collecting Colonialism: Material Culture and Colonial Change |first1=Chris |last1=Gosden |first2=Chantal |last2=Knowles |publisher=Berg |year=2001 |isbn=9781859734087 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/collectingcoloni0000gosd/page/92 92]–93 |url=https://archive.org/details/collectingcoloni0000gosd |url-access=registration |quote=Isokichi Komine. }} in Shimabara, Nagasaki, Japan. First working as a factory worker in Korea, he had already begun voyaging New Guinea's seas in the 1890s and first settled at Thursday Island, Queensland. An emigrant of Japan, Komine was the first recorded Japanese presence in German New Guinea; he arrived there in 1901{{cite web|url=http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/ajrp/remember.nsf/Web-Printer/52141185517141FACA256AC20083737B?OpenDocument |title=Remembering the war in New Guinea |first=Iwamoto |last=Hiramitsu |accessdate=March 16, 2013 }} or 1902, after being denied permanent residency in British New Guinea (now Papua).
Career and death
Komine is said to be "the most famous Japanese resident in the region [German New Guinea] of that time". A Japanese community leader in German New Guinea, Komine set up Nanyō Sangyō Kaisha,{{cite book|title=The Australians in German New Guinea 1914-21 |isbn=978-0522837254 |year=1958 |publisher=Melbourne University Press }} an independent business, there,{{cite web |url=http://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/bitstream/10232/55/1/iwa.pdf |title=Japanese Southward Expansion in the South Seas and its Relations with Japanese Settlers in Papua and New Guinea, 1919-1940 |publisher=South Pacific Study |accessdate=March 16, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222181030/http://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/bitstream/10232/55/1/iwa.pdf |archivedate=February 22, 2014 |df=mdy-all }} and employed up over a hundred Japanese workers. An extensive collection of Komine's rare finds in his voyages comprised more than 3,000 "valuables", although it was noted that a few gold-lip ouster shells in his collection were only worth up to $5. The collection was sold in October 1910 to A. B. Lewis, and is considered to be the largest single purchase of items from the Bismarck Archipelago,{{cite book|title=This Ingenious and Singular Apparatus |first1=Gerry |last1=Barton |first2=Stefan J. |last2=Dietrich |year=2010 |isbn=9783839168745 |publisher=Books on Demand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T9WhwlJLpu4C&q=Isokichi+Komine |page=142 }} which was where Komine resided in from 1902.{{cite web|url=http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Journals/17984/1403_complete.pdf |publisher=Australian Museum |year=2004 |title=A Century of Collecting: Colonial Collectors in Southwest New Britain |accessdate=March 16, 2013 }} When Japan declared war against Germany in 1914, Komine aligned with the Australians but also maintained close ties with German businesspeople to safeguard his business interests.{{cite web |url=http://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/bitstream/10232/110/1/ATL005.pdf |title=The impact of World War I on Japanese settlers in Papua and New Guinea, 1914-1918 |publisher=South Pacific Study |accessdate=March 16, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222181033/http://ir.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/bitstream/10232/110/1/ATL005.pdf |archivedate=February 22, 2014 |df=mdy-all }} Komine died on 3 October{{cite news|newspaper=Rabaul Times |date=October 5, 1934 |title=Death of a pioneer: Captain I. Komine }} 1934 of food poisoning, although one report claims that Komine "outlived his obituary notice" and was still alive after 1934.{{cite news|newspaper=The Straits Times |url=http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19090603-1.2.43.aspx |date=June 3, 1909 |title=(Untitled) |page=6 }}
See also
{{Portal|Japan|Australia|Biography}}
Notes
{{Notelist}}
References
{{Reflist|2}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Komine, Isokichi}}
Category:People from Nagasaki Prefecture
Category:20th-century Japanese businesspeople
Category:20th century in German New Guinea