19 Amakusa Marine Products Industrial Company, 1942
HF: “By December 1942 around 18,000 Hong Kong Chinese fishermen were reported to be receiving instructions from the Amakusa Marine Products Industrial Company.”
Snow, Philip, The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Japanese Occupation, Yale University Press, 2003
I can find nothing out about this company which if the above is correct was prominent in the HK fishing industry during the Japanese occupation, WW2.
I see you got an answer to this from David on Gwulo, linking you to http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CADAL/B38629537.pdf
From his link, page 5, I note reference to Amakusa Suisan Kaisha Ltd. (天草水産会社; Amakusa Marine Company Ltd.) and Nippon Kaiyo Toze Kaisha Ltd aka Ninami Nippo Nyonyo Kaisha Ltd.
The former, I’m presuming is related to — or a variant translation of — Amakusa Marine Products Industrial. Two companies called Amakusa Suisan (Amakusa Marine) seem to exist currently, in Amakusa and Osaka. No idea if they’re related.
http://www.researchmint.com/version-201458/SelectDatabase.serv?_cid=1&context=9AZFA1O9Q3E37QR&SearchTerm=amakusa+suisan
For the latter, I’m guessing the more recent name has gotten corrupted, and *should* be Minami Nippon Nyonyo Kaisha Ltd., with “Minami Nippon” translating as Southern Japan (南日本), and Kaisha (会社) just meaning company. I find nothing searching on Ninami Nippo other than this one initial reference.
That said, I can’t figure out what “Nyonyo” would be, nor can I find any record of a company by that name. Nor can I figure out what “Toze” in the earlier name would be, but Nippon Kaiyo would be Japan Marine (日本海洋).
There are quite a few companies using “Minami Nippon” or “Nippon Kaiyo” in their name:
http://www.researchmint.com/version-201458/SelectDatabase.serv?_cid=1&context=9AZFA1O9Q3E37QR&SearchTerm=nippon+kaiyo
http://www.researchmint.com/version-201458/SelectDatabase.serv?_cid=1&context=9AZFA1O9Q3E37QR&SearchTerm=minami+nippon
Perhaps this info is of some use to somebody else in getting closer to an answer.
Thanks Mike
Sorry I missed David’s reply to my initial enquiry about Amakusa Marine Products.
I’ve put what he wrote and your supplementary comments and information into an article The Hong Kong Fishing Industry during World War Two. And posted a link to that also on Gwulo.com