Patrick Yoshio Ahmat

Japanese internees at the wood-cutting camp at Woolenook, where Patrick Yoshio Ahmat worked for some time. State Library of South Australia B 550120.
Japanese internees at the wood-cutting camp at Woolenook, where Patrick Yoshio Ahmat worked for some time. State Library of South Australia B 550120.

Patrick Yoshio Ahmat had a Malay father and a Japanese mother. He was born in Onslow in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in April 1916 and was brought up there. At the time of his arrest on 11 April 1942 he was working as a taxi driver in Perth. A couple of weeks after his arrival at Loveday in early November 1942 he was taken to the wood-cutting camp at Woolenook.

When he applied for release from internment in May 1942, he claimed of course to be an Australian and British Subject. He complicated matters for authorities by seeking permission in July 1942 to marry his fiancé, Miss L. White.

At Woolenook the Officer Commanding noted that Ahmat mixed only with other Australian born internees, ‘none of whom have much in common with the Japanese Internees’. The officer also noted, ‘From incidents noted there is quite a bit of friction and argument with several of the more intellectual Japs.’

Ahmat was not released from internment until March 1946.

 

Sources:

NAA: D1901, A1036 Patrick Yoshio Ahmat - Japanese internee

NAA: MP1103/1, WJ19507 Prisoner of War/Internee: Ahmat, Patrick Yoshio; Date of birth - 26 April 1916; Nationality - Japanese

NAA: MP1103/2, WJ19507 Prisoner of War/Internee; Ahmat, Patrick Yoshio; Year of birth - 1916; Nationality - Japanese