Barrow on Japanese TV

A JAPANESE TV unit spent the Easter weekend shooting scenes about Japan’s historic links with Barrow.

Producer Kishi Yamamoto and a three-man crew were guided around the area by local historian and county councillor John Murphy.

And on a sunny Easter Sunday they headed straight for Mikasa Street on Walney.

The street is named after the Vickers-built battleship which became to the Japanese what Admiral Nelson’s HMS Victory is to the British, after it played a decisive roll in Japan’s victory over Russia in the war of 1904-5.

One of the people the Japanese wanted to meet was North West Evening Mail newspaper sales manager Paddy McAteer who lived in Mikasa Street for 30 years.

Mr McAteer, of Shearwater Crescent, said: “It was very interesting to meet them because they were really interested in Barrow and the shipyard.

“I think Mikasa Street was the main focus of their visit.

“I lived there for 30 years and the amount of Japanese tourists who came down there to take photos or shoot film was incredible.

“You just had to look out of your window and you would see Japanese tourists year after year. It’s a big focal point for them.”

The Mikasa is preserved as a museum and monument in a park in Japan.

Ms Yamamoto said: “We are from KYM, which is the Japanese broadcasting corporation and our equivalent to the BBC.

“ We are making a documentary about Anglo-Japanese relations over 150 years. It is quite a big project and we are making several programmes. Our programme centres on military alliances and that is why we are in Barrow because quite a few battleships for the Japanese navy were made here, the Mikasa being the most famous one and the first one.

“We wanted to see where Mikasa was built and the street named after it, and talk to the residents and to see whether they know about the history or not.

“It was quite impressive because all the residents we asked knew about it.”

Ms Yamamoto, whose quick tour included a visit to Furness Abbey, said she was impressed by Barrow.

She said: “Shipbuilding was a boom industry here and the people who worked at the shipyard were a very close knit community, and that feeling is still here which is amazing really. Also it has a small feel which is very friendly.

“I think it’s a lovely place and I am not just saying that.

“Furness Abbey was amazing.”