From U.S.-ruled Okinawa to Thursday Island, Senshu Arakawa, the dream-chasing Uchinanchu pearl diver from Motobu who braved harsh conditions in northern Australia, “wants to visit again while I am healthy”

From U.S.-ruled Okinawa to Thursday Island, Senshu Arakawa, the dream-chasing Uchinanchu pearl diver from Motobu who braved harsh conditions in northern Australia, “wants to visit again while I am healthy”

Senshu Arakawa says “I want to go one more time” to Thursday Island, where he made a living pearl diving


November 19, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo
Ryota Nakamura

During U.S. rule of Okinawa in 1958, there were many Uchinanchu who went to Thursday Island in northern Australia with dreams of getting rich pearl diving.

Senshu Arakawa, 86, from Kenken, Motobu was one of them. The reality of a job at sea is a harsh one that sits side by side with death, and some of the divers that crossed the water with him from Motobu perished from things like decompression sickness.

Even so, Arakawa, for whom the memories of over half a century ago are starting to fade, dreams of visiting again, saying, “I would like to go as long as I am healthy.” It is common knowledge that high quality pearls can be harvested in the northern regions of Australia, which include islands like Thursday Island, and many Japanese divers flocked to the area in the 1950’s and 60’s.

At first, most of the divers came from Wakayama and were equipped with advanced diving technology for the time, however they were all recalled to Japan after World War II. Selected as replacements were the Uchinanchu living under U.S. rule.

Okinawa is surrounded by water and filled with fisherman. For Uchinanchu, pearl diving was an attractive job that was rumored to lead to riches.

Arakawa was at the time engaged in recovering fighter aircraft from the ocean, and applied to become a pearl diver when he saw they were hiring. In March of 1958, Arakawa set off across the ocean with his father Sentatsu and 150 people from his village.

“Uchinanchu in Australia,” which shows the pearl divers visiting from Okinawa

Arakawa had a contract with the pearling company Whyalla Shell, and worked at gathering shells in teams of six people on three boats.

Arakawa dove into the ocean wearing a diving mask that looked like a spacesuit, while his father Sentatsu oversaw the operations as an engineer.

“The pearls were clumped together in the sand.” Often he was able to fill his basket with a single two-handed scoop. When that would happen, they would raise the big catch flag on the mast of their pearling boat and return to port.

Arakawa reflected on his experiences, boasting, “The shellfish were tasty. The pearls were fantastic, they had a shine to them that farm-raised pearls do not.” However, pearl diving in the area around Thursday Island had already peaked. “They had already been picked out,” says Arakawa, noting that the volume of pearls steadily decreased. Even though he had a three year contract, he returned to Okinawa after only a year.

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

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