Interviews
Prejudice in Japanese school (Spanish)
(Spanish) When I entered the school for Japanese, I remember during recess time on the first day everything started then. I did what all the other children did: I ran to the playing field but nobody wanted to play with me. I realized how strange, because nobody wanted to play with me. Afterwards I found out that those kids didn’t want to play with me because my mother was Peruvian, which in nihongo (Japanese) is ‘ainoko (half).’ Needless to say, they didn’t want to be near me. I was discriminated against by both sides: by the townsfolk, the children of the town (particularly the older ones, the zambazos, whom I admired because they played soccer so well, they hit us, others ran away), and at school they also treated me…they did not hit me, except that I did not enter, I did not fit in.
Date: September 6, 2007
Location: Lima, Peru
Interviewer: Harumi Nako
Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)
Explore More Videos
Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard
Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Expressing herself through poetry
(b. 1923) Japanese American poet, activist
Being Confused about Racial Identity in Postwar United States
(b. 1932) Nisei American stage, film, and TV actress
Her brother’s reasons as a No-No Boy
(b. 1923) Japanese American poet, activist
Forcibly deported to the U.S. from Peru
(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
About Escobar (Spanish)
(b. 1962) Nisei Japanese Argentinian, currently residing in Japan
Her definition of Nikkei
(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States
Memories of childhood in Peru
(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Understanding anti black racism in high school
(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney
Racial discrimination prepared her in becoming the first transgender trial lawyer
(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney
Impact of Coming Out on Her Family
(b. 1957) Jusice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.