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Hundreds of thousands of people enjoy scuba diving in Australia every year, but few may know about a Japanese immigrant who devoted himself to inventing safe diving equipment about a century ago.

Now, people are shedding light on the life of the unsung father of scuba diving, who lost the patent for his invention and died during the Pacific War.

“I would like to convey the story of a pioneer who tragically died during the war and became buried in history,” said Mayu Kanamori, an Australia-based photographer.

Kanamori organized an exhibition highlighting the life of Yasukichi Murakami (1880-1944) being held in Osaka until Jan. 21.

The exhibition showcases Murakami’s photographs, which had been stored in his parents’ home in Wakayama Prefecture. It also traces Australian society and the lives of Japanese immigrants at the time.

Murakami was born in Tanami, now Kushimoto, in Wakayama Prefecture. He moved to Australia in 1897.

As a prominent Japanese immigrant, he managed a photo studio and a store in the northwestern town of Broome. He also worked as a photographer.

In the early 1920s, he also ventured into pearl cultivation, but police demolished his research facility after facing fierce opposition from his business rivals, who feared a collapse in the price of natural pearls.

Many local Japanese immigrants were pearl divers at the time.

There was no safe diving equipment, and many divers got decompression sickness caused by bubbles forming in the bloodstream due to rapid pressure changes.

Murakami, who had lost many friends to the sickness, worked to improve diving suits.

In the 1920s, he developed a new diving suit by introducing a mouthpiece and valves to control the airflow, replacing the conventional one that pumped air into a large helmet.

After making some improvements, he obtained the patent in Australia and the United States by 1928.

However, the start of the Pacific War led to Murakami and his family being interned in the inland Tatura Internment Camp as “enemy aliens.”

While in internment, Murakami was unable to renew his patent, which expired in 1943.

That same year, Frenchmen Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan obtained a patent for a nearly identical scuba, trademarked as the Aqua-Lung.

Today’s scuba-diving equipment is based on their patent.

Murakami worked to improve the treatment of Japanese immigrants as a leader of the internment camp, but he died of chronic myocarditis in 1944.

His legacy has been re-evaluated in recent years. In Broome, there is even a street named after him, “Murakami Road.”

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