Morizo Yanai

Morizo Yanai was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1889. He migrated in 1910 to New Caledonia, where he initially worked as a blacksmith but later became a tailor. He fathered two children, including a son whom he listed as Next of Kin. Yanai was arrested in late December 1941 in Koumac on the main island of New Caledonia and transferred to the Nouville internment camp outside Noumea. He arrived in Australia on the Cap des Palmes in May 1942. Once in Australia, Yanai was interned in Hay, NSW, but a year later was transferred to Loveday. He was repatriated to Japan in February 1945 on the Koei-maru.

Yanai’s return to Japan was rather brief, as he was one of the few former Japanese internees from New Caledonia to return to New Caledonia. Yanai returned to New Caledonia on 12 January 1950 but sadly he passed away in Koumac just two months later on 10 March 1950.