The "History of Japanese Immigration to Hawaii Island" (published in 1971), published by the Hilo Times to commemorate the 100th anniversary of immigration, contains a list of Japanese people from all over Hawaii around 1941, including their prefectures of origin, occupations, and addresses.Using the "ship names" in the "occupation" column as a clue, I was able to find the names of 53 captains and ships belonging to Hilo Suisan Kaisha, including my relative Nishimura Shikazo, in the "Nippon-Hawaii Jiji Nenkan (1930/Showa 5).
1 The 53 captains were from Yamaguchi Prefecture (24 ships) (15 of which are from Okikamuro, marked with a circle in the attached table), Hiroshima Prefecture (13 ships), and other prefectures (16 ships). (See attached table for details.)
□ Captain from Okikamuro and ship name
| Yasutaro Furutani (New EbisuMaru) | Shotaro Furutani (KonpiraMaru) | Namihei Hata (MyojinMaru) |
| Tajiro Hayashi (TenryuMaru) | Suketaro Maruo (KonpiraMaru) | Iwamatsu Minatoishi (YahataMaru) |
| Hichizo Nishimura (MyojinMaru) | Shikazo Nishimura (EbisuMaru)* | Shikazo Nishimura (KannonMaru)* |
| Usaburo Kanai (OshimaMaru) | Hatsuzo Yanagihara (EbisuMaru) | Kyugoro Yanagihara (EbisuMaru) |
| Ukichi Nishimura (YahataMaru) | Manichi(Mankichi?) Nishimura (YahataMaru) | Heikichi Yanagihara (EbisuMaru) |
*The address confirms that Shikazo Nishimura owned two ships, the Ebisu Maru and the Kannon Maru.
(1) Yamaguchi Prefecture, centered around Okikamuro, accounts for 46% of the total, and 70% if Hiroshima Prefecture is included. This shows the history of the establishment of Suisan Kaisha in 1907, mainly by fishermen from Okikamuro Island in Yamaguchi Prefecture and Niho Island in Hiroshima Prefecture, even 23 years later.
(2) Sales in 1929 were $156,000 (equivalent to several hundred million yen today).
(3) There are approximately 250 to 300 fishermen working on the 53 ships. (Estimated from data from other years; exact figures unknown.)
(4) Most of the ships' names are derived from worshipped gods or shrines. Six ships, including those of Shikazo Nishimura and the Hawaiian Nabeahi, are named "Ebisu Maru恵比寿丸." Of the 15 ships from Okikamuro, five stand out as being named "Ebisu Maru恵比寿丸" This likely represents a prayer to "Ebisu-samaエビス様" (Ebisu God) for safe fishing in Hawaii and bountiful catches, and this wish likely resided at Okikamuro's "Ebisu Shrine蛭子神社."
(Although there's no certainty, the yearbook contains many typos, so perhaps it was actually "Ebisu Maru蛭子丸"?)
(5) During this research, we also found some sad stories.
*Shosaku Yagi, a native of Okikamuro who immigrated five years after Shikazo Nishimura, went missing off the coast of Ewa (1922).
* Ishitaro, the son of Kakutaro Maesaka(from Yamaguchi Prefecture), an advisor to Suisan Kaisha, drowned off the coast of a French frigate (1922).
*Shikazo Nishimura was also shipwrecked in Kumukahi Bay in 1948 and survived, but the Hawaiian sea is a harsh environment.
2. The situation surrounding Suisan Kaisha around 1930
(1) About 20 years after the Japanese at sea entered the waters of Hawaii, they became major players in the Hawaiian fishing industry, reaching their peak in the 1930s. However, due to the Great Depression, the aging of fishermen, and a lack of successors, their glory began to fade.
（２） In this context, in order to fully implement company reforms, Isojiro Kitagawa, who had previously been involved in company management in areas such as accounting, was appointed as the fourth president in January 1931. From then on, until the war interrupted, a system was formed in which President Kitagawa was supported mainly by people with connections to Okikamuro Island, including vice president Shikazo Nishimura, manager and accountant Kamezo Matsuno, auditors Kyuichi Hayashi and Hirokichi Nishimura.
(Auditor Kyugoro Yasukawa and secretary Kazuo Yoshiyama were from Hiroshima Prefecture.)
(3) Before the war, Hilo's fishing industry was busier than that of Honolulu. However, the war interrupted it, the retirement of most of the veteran fishermen, and the damage caused by the 1946 tsunami made it extremely difficult to resume operations after the war. However, as the industry gradually recovered, in April 1950, Kamezo Matsuno (age 72) became the fifth president, and the vice presidents and other executives were all children of past executives (e.g., Tsutae Kitagawa, Yoshio Matsuno, etc.).
* Of SUISAN's past presidents, the second-generation president, Heitaro Egawa, was from Nihojima, Hiroshima Prefecture, while the other four were from Okikamuro Island. (The photo is from an article celebrating the 50th anniversary of SUISAN's founding in 1957.) After the third-generation president, Shikazo Nishimura, Heitaro Egawa became president again (1911-1931).
* The wife (Tomoyo) of the fifth-generation president, Kamezo Matsuno, is the eldest daughter of Shikazo Nishimura and Towa(Yagi).(The sixth-generation president, Yoshio Matsuno, is Nishimura Shikazo's grandson, and the current president, Steve Ueda, is Shikazo's great-great-grandson.)
;)
Copyright kamuro partyAll Rights Reserved.