Kenai Peninsula Borough AK Archives Cemetery ..... Cannery Cemetery in Kenai, Alaska

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
The Kenai Totem Tracers Genealogy Society
totemtracers@hotmail.com. 
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CANNERY CEMETERY
Kenai, Alaska

The Cannery Cemetery in Kenai, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska is located at the end of
Cannery Road. The four graves are in a grove of trees between the cannery and the Kenai River.
It is unknown when these Japanese men were buried. Libby, McNeil and Libby cannery was built
in 1912. It became Columbia Wards in the 1950s and Wards Cove Packing in 1988. It is now 
called Kenai Landing. 

In 1983 four graves were noted. In 2003, only two of the grave markers remain. The inscriptions
are old style Japanese characters. The first part tells that the person has died. The surname is
given next and finally the first name. The upright inscription poles are the size of railroad ties.
The graves with the remaining markers are fenced with wooden pickets. Kotome Miyata, age 16,
of Nagoya, Japan identified which poles remain. Read March 14, 2003.

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#  Name                    Note
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1. Kichitarow Sikiguchi    (This pole is missing in 2003)
2. Shunzaburow Matusshita  (This pole is missing in 2003)
3. Igirow Sukuda
4. Asagirow Katayama

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This information is transcribed from "Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Death 
Records and Cemetery Inscriptions" compiled by Kenai Totem Tracers, 
copyright 1983, page 29.

Near the mouth of the Kenai River, off Mile 13 of Kalifornsky Beach Road 
near Kenai, are four mysterious graves.  Four carved posts, the size of 
railroad ties, mark the graves.  For years it was thought these were the 
graves of four Japanese men who had been imported from California to work 
at the cannery in the 1920's.  This was a common practice in Kenai's 
early years.  The deaths were apparently accidental drownings while the 
men were crossing the Kenai River in a skiff.  Crossing the river in 
small boats was common as there was no direct road or bridge at the time 
and it was over 20 miles by dirt road.

The mystery of who these Japanese people were was solved when a local 
Japanese resident translated the carvings on the posts.  They were not 
Japanese at all, but old style Japanese characters.  The common ending, 
"row", on each name is an old custom of naming that is now obsolete.

The site of these four graves is a grove of trees off Cannery Road near 
Columbia Ward Cannery and is respected for what it is.  Each grave is 
fenced off and is neither maintained nor vandalized.

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