Interviews

1. Activities growing up in Peru

2. Family's deportation from Peru to U.S. after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

3. Conditions aboard U.S. transport ship while being deported from Peru

4. Learning English upon discovering that family could not return to Peru

5. Playing baseball along with American Nisei and Kibei

6. Denied redress as a Japanese Peruvian

7. Thoughts on the post-9/11 atmosphere in the U.S.

Art Shibayama

(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.

Denied redress as a Japanese Peruvian

I got a letter from Office of Redress saying that I was denied because I wasn't a citizen or a permanent resident at the time of internment. So then I appealed it. I appealed and then they came back saying that I didn't get my permanent residency until 1956. So I was denied again. And then there was another one that said that I went to Canada voluntarily. Now, I mean, the immigration office said the only way I can get my permanent residency is by leaving the country and re-enter. So, how can that be voluntarily? Just like when I got classified illegal alien. How can I be illegal when we didn't want to come here in the first place and the government brings us, brings us here, force us, force us to come here, and they bring us at gunpoint, and then they classify -- and not only that, there were, some of the Peruvians were businessmen, so some people had passports. And those passports were confiscated when we boarded the ship. And then when we come, when we got off the ship they said we didn't have any papers so we were illegal.

Peru Redress movement

Date: October 26, 2003

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei male. Born June 6, 1930 in Callao, Peru. Grew up in Peru, raised by both parents and grandparents. During World War II, taken with parents to the United States on a U.S. troop transport ship. Lived in the Crystal City internment camp, Texas, until family moved to work at Seabrook, New Jersey, a produce work company camp. Drafted into the army in the 1950s, even though considered an illegal alien, and served in Germany. Raised a family in Chicago, Illinois, and San Jose, California after military discharge. In recent years, attended several pilgrimages to Tule Lake incarceration camp, California, as well as reunions of Japanese Peruvians. Involved in the Campaign for Justice, an effort to obtain redress for Japanese Latin Americans. He passed away on July 31, 2018 at age 88. （July 2018)

*The full interview is available Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.