Jiro Muramats

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Jiro Muramats was a pearler who lived in Western Australia's remote town of Cossack.

Born in Kobe, Japan in 1878, he moved as a boy to the states far northwest. Along with his brother, he was to take control of the family firm as J. & T. Muramats which imported and traded goods to that region until the 1940s. He also owned pearling luggers which operated in that port, despite a number of racist policies of the state. A period of revitalisation in the pearling industry became one of defiance by a number of operators who did not join the national government's voluntary Northern Territory Pearling Ordinance in 1931. Muramats had been granted naturalization in Victoria, Australia, but amendments to acts in Western Australia disenfranchised many people from non-English ethnic backgrounds. He was interned during the second world war and did not survive.

His wife, Hatsu (Noguchi of Nagasaki), returned to Cossack and was its last resident.

[edit] References

D. C. S. Sissons (2006). Muramats, Jiro (1878 - 1943). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved on 2007-06-20. “Print Publication Details: D. C. S. Sissons, 'Muramats, Jiro (1878 - 1943)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, p. 618.”
Hélène Attrill (Ed) (2006). Allies, Enemies and Trading Partners. Australian National Archive Research Guide. Commonwealth of Australia 2004. Retrieved on 2007-06-20. “Jiro Muramats[u] – disqualification under section 39(S) A406, E1945/1 [of the Act], appeal before High Court, 1923 part 1, attachment This file documents the attempt by Muramatsu in 1923 to regain his right to vote in WA. He had been enrolled before Federation, but was disqualified from voting under section 39 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.”