Animal rights activists have for years criticised Broome in WA because of its ties to Japan, despite the true origins of the relationship that date back more than a century.

In 1981, the remote Kimberley town became sister cities with Taiji, the coastal village from where many skilled divers had migrated during Broome's pearl shell boom.

But Taiji's contemporary notoriety stems from its annual dolphin slaughter — a graphic tradition that turns the seas red with blood and was depicted in the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.

The film triggered an intense campaign of calls, emails and letters from around the world that targeted Broome because of its association with Taiji.

Graeme Campbell, the shire president at the time, said councillors received hate mail, including racial harassment of those with Japanese heritage.

"We were getting 9,000 emails a day," he said.

Every year the fishermen of Taiji drive hundreds of dolphins into a cove to be sorted for sale and slaughter. ( Reuters: Adrian Mylne )

Perhaps because of the intense pressure, councillors voted to suspend the sister-city relationship in September 2009.

But after two months of upheaval in the community, including the cancellation of an annual parade that celebrates Broome's predominantly Asian pearling history, councillors reinstated ties with Taiji.

Curious Kimberley, which invites people to suggest questions they would like the ABC to investigate, was asked to explain the origins of the towns' relationship.

Animal lover Gail Worth from the United States said she was horrified by the hunting of dolphins at Taiji, and could not imagine why Australians would want to associate with such a controversial practice.

"Why would Broome remain a sister city with Taiji, Japan, with their current situation of killing hundreds of dolphins every year?" she said.

"The horrible killings that occur every year is something that is being protested worldwide."

Taiji Road in Broome was named when the sister-city relationship was established in 1981. ( ABC Kimberley: Ben Collins )

Unique Australian town

By her own admission, Ms Worth does not know much about Broome.

"I have been to Australia, but not to the north-western part," she said.

The town was settled on the shores of Roebuck Bay after European colonisers realised the shallow seas were rich in the world's largest pearl shell oyster.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Broome rapidly grew to become the world's biggest exporter of pearl shell for buttons, cutlery handles and many other applications that would later be filled by plastics.

There were some years when Australia's pearl shell exports were worth more than the entire wool export.

Broome's fleet of pearling luggers grew to almost 400 boats and the skilled crews and divers were mostly recruited from Asia.

The result was an Australian town where Asian people vastly outnumbered European and Indigenous Australians for decades up until World War II, and the largest section of Broome's Asian community were Japanese.

Asian pearling workers vastly outnumbered European Australians. ( Supplied: State Library of WA )

Author John Lamb found that one part of Japan supplied the vast majority of immigrants who came to work in the pearling industry.

"Most of the pearlers over time, in fact about 80 per cent of them, came from the prefecture of Wakayama," he said.

"Because of the nature of pearling and the introduction by the head diver by somebody he can guarantee, it got into families and groups and tended to come from certain areas."

For Broome, that certain area was around Taiji on the Pacific coast of Japan's main island Honshu, historically known as a whaling town.

But physician and amateur historian Peter Stride said the decline of Taiji's centuries-old industry coincided with Broome's pearl shell boom.

"So the message got back to Taiji that there was lots and lots of diving and pearling in Broome," he said.

The extent of Japanese influence on Broome before WWII can most readily be seen at the town's Japanese cemetery, where more than 900 graves make it one of the largest in the world outside of Japan.

The graves tell the stories of the lives lived and lost and how they shaped their adoptive home.

"There's a couple of specific memorials there; one to a lot of people who died in a storm," Mr Stride said.

"And another to the Catholic nun who died of some infectious disease working in the Japanese hospital looking after them."

For almost 20 years until 1928, Broome had two hospitals — the regular public hospital and a Japanese hospital with a Japanese doctor and the Sisters of St John of God nuns working as nurses.

"It's the only hospital that has been staffed and funded by a non-English-speaking people in the whole history of Australia," Mr Stride said.

The largest section of Broome's Asian community were Japanese. ( Supplied: Broome Historical Society, Murakami Collection )

Family ties

Whether it was husbands, parents or grandparents, Broome's connection to Taiji runs much deeper than a sister-city relationship.

Stephen "Baamba" Albert, a local musician and actor known for his work in the popular musical Bran Nue Dae, also has a strong connection to Taiji.

"My father Okumura, he came from a small village near Taiji."

Masataro Okumura's story is typical of many Japanese people who came to Broome.

Growing up in a poor fishing family, he followed a path laid by many before him who sought a better life in a town where Japanese people were, if not welcomed, wanted as tough and skilled workers.

An exemption from the White Australia policy allowed Japanese men to live in Broome, but strict regulations governed their lives.

"Blacks weren't supposed to mix up with whites, whites were supposed to not mix up with Asians, and Asians not with the blacks," Mr Albert said.

Despite the risk of deportation, Okumura was in a romance with an Aboriginal woman, only for it to be severed when he was interned during WWII.

It was more than 10 years before Okumura was able to return to Broome and learned that his love had since had two children, one of which was Mr Albert.

The man Stephen "Baamba" Albert calls dad came from the Taiji area to work as a pearl diver. ( ABC Kimberley: Ben Collins )

In time, the couple were together again and Okumura became a father to Mr Albert.

"We were poor but I had a wonderful life," he said.

"I had all these Japanese uncles, so like when I had a birthday, I didn't get one present, I got about eight or nine presents."

Broome's history of being an Asian-majority town still shaped the modern community, Mr Albert said.

The stories he recently heard children tell at a local school illustrated why he felt it would be impossible for Broome to cut ties to Taiji or any other place with family connections.

"They had all these kids come up and tell their stories, 'Oh, my grandfather was a taxi driver and he came from China', 'Oh, my father was a pearl diver and he came from Japan', 'My grandfather was Malayan'.

"I felt so proud."