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The Northern Japanese: A Forgotten Community

In the 1920's there grew up in the North East of England a community of Japanese seamen who are now largely forgotten. Many of them stayed and married local women and had families. Although this community has now disappeared the descendants of the seamen still live in the North East.

The Japanese seamen did not appear by accident, but were a product of the close relationship between Japan and the North East of England from the 1850s to the fist part of the Twentieth Century. Large numbers of ships were built for the Japanese Imperial Navy in the Elswick yards on the Tyne. Japanese students also studied engineering, mining and the railways as the Japanese government sought to absorb western technology.At Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Hartlepools merchant ships were being built for Japanese companies. Although a substantial community of Japanese technicians, naval officers, officials and students was established around the yards, they all eventually returned to Japan when their ships had been built. The Japanese merchant seamen however settled permanently in the port areas of Middlesbrough, Blyth and North Shields.

The Japanese seamen arrived aboard British ships in which they served as ‘donkeymen’, stewards, carpenters, firemen, boatswains and cooks. They were recruited in foreign ports in the Far East and represented the vast pool of foreign labour that Britain used to run its merchant navy. The men arrived in Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Cardiff and London then migrated to Blyth, and North Shields. Middlesbrough was a prime site for settlement, being the principal port for the Nippon Yusei Kaisha (NYK) shipping company and its eastern trade since 1896. The (NYK) docked on a fortnightly basis bringing more seamen to the port and maintaining contacts with Japan.It became so important that in 1899 Waynman Dixon of the local shipbuilding firm, Sir Raylton Dixon and Co was appointed, Honorary Japanese Consul.(1)

A large number married local women and established thriving communities in the North East port towns. In the 1930s there were as many as sixty three families living in Blyth and North Shields. Middlesbrough accounted for another sixty nine families. Boarding houses and businesses were run by the wives of these seamen who largely served on local ships.

In Middlesbrough the boarding houses were centred around the Marton Road area close to the docks. The earliest was run by 'Tommy'(Tsuenisaburo) Aomori at 96 Marton Road. (2)This was to accommodate the large numbers of Japanese seamen who were flooding in to the area.

(1) Marie Conte-Helm, Japan and the North east of England. London: Athlone Press Limited, 1989. p111 (2) Wards Directory 1917-18 Middlesbrough, Newcastle-on-Tyne, R Ward and Sons 1917.