Darwin community mourns prominent Australian-Japanese reconciliation link Senichiro Fujita

The Top End community is mourning the loss of a key figure in Darwin’s history. Read the touching tributes.

Senichiro Fujita helped clear Darwin Harbour from 1959. The Fujita Salvage Company spent two years salvaging the sunken wrecks and processing the scrap metal to be taken back to Japan. Picture: Northern Territory Library Senichiro Fujita Collection

Senichiro Fujita will be remembered by the Darwin community for his compassionate spirit, generosity, and love of black cockatoos.

Australian-Japanese Association of the NT president Kathleen Bresnehan said Mr Fujita’s “sad passing” on Christmas Day meant the Territory had lost a “key link in the chain of history between Darwin and Japan”.

“The Fujita story is a heartwarming story of his father Ryugo Fujita’s company salvaging the shipwrecks after World War II in Darwin Harbour, and consequently, the strong bonds formed with the Darwin community afterwards,” she said.

Part of Mr Fujita’s connection to the Territory was forged when his family donated 77 bronze crosses to the Darwin Memorial Uniting Church, where they can be seen at the end of each pew and throughout the church.

The crosses were made of scrap metal from ships the Fujita family salvaged.

Senichiro Fujita was a close friend of the Parker family, including Emma Parker (pictured). Picture: Supplied

Anna Parker, whose family had a close relationship with Mr Fujita, said he was an avid collector of exotic birds.

“(He) was thrilled to see so many black cockatoos in the Townsville beach areas, cracking nuts in the tress, along the grass, and on the long street lamp posts,” she said.

“We were saddened by his passing at his time on Christmas Day ‘22.

“We offer our condolences to Yoshiko and family, for the passing of such a pillar of society.”

Senichiro Fujita attended the opening of the Darwin Memorial Uniting Church in 1960, where his father donated 77 bronze crosses to the church as a symbol of peace. The crosses were crafted from scrap salvaged during the Fujita salvage operation, and one is on display in Luke Gosling's Canberra office. Picture: Supplied

Luke Gosling said he got to know Mr Fujita and his family over the “last five or six years” and was glad to be entrusted with one of the Fujita family’s bronze crosses.

The cross hangs on display in Mr Gosling’s Parliament House office in Canberra.

“I think we can learn a lot from the family and from the example of practical reconciliation,” he said.

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Originally published as Darwin community mourns prominent Australian-Japanese reconciliation link Senichiro Fujita