Interviews

1. We go to America (Spanish)

2. Memories of my infancy: Japanese 1, Japanese 2… (Spanish)

3. Mistreating the Japanese community (Spanish)

4. Prejudice in Japanese school (Spanish)

5. Hiding out to avoid the concentration camps (Spanish)

6. Help from fellow Japanese (Spanish)

7. Iron discipline at home (Spanish)

8. Education Japanese style (Spanish)

9. Closing the Japanese school and deportation (Spanish)

Shinki,Venancio

(b. 1932-2016) Peruvian painter

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.

discrimination education identity interpersonal relations Peru racism

Date: September 6, 2007

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Harumi Nako

Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)

Interviewee Bio

Venancio Shinki (born 1932 in Supe, Lima, Peru) is one of the most outstanding Peruvian painters. The son of a Japanese father (Kitsuke Shinki of Hiroshima Ken) and a Peruvian mother (Filomena Huamán), Venancio was raised on the San Nicolás hacienda in Supe, north of Lima, an area with a large concentration of Japanese immigrants in the early years. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts of Peru, and graduated with the best grade in his class in 1962.

His paintings recall Eastern, Western, and Andean traditions, with a distinctive surrealism that shows an unknown and intriguing universe, set off by a purified technique and a renovated figuration, which links Venancio with other great Latin American artists. Venancio has received many accolades and has participated in a variety of individual and group exhibits in Peru, Japan, Italy, United States, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico, among others. In 1999, the year of the centenary marking Japanese migration to Peru, Venacio was invited to exhibit his work in the Museum of Man in Nagoya, Japan. His most recent works were displayed in November 2006 during the 34th Annual Japanese Cultural Week in Lima, Peru. He passed away in 2016. (October 2017)

Explore More Videos

Interviewee

Tag

Keywords

Okasaki,Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi

Looking at your country from the outside

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

Okasaki,Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi

Wife's family in Japan

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

Takeshita,Yukio

Lack of notion of citizenship in Japan

(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.

Yamano,Jane Aiko

Lack of language skills

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Yamano,Jane Aiko

Preserving traditional Japanese culture

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Yamano,Jane Aiko

Having patience in Japan, being both

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Glaser,Byron

Supporting art because it's essential

Illustrator and designer

Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Being on the outside

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

Yonamine,Wally Kaname

His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

Yonamine,Wally Kaname

Working in cane fields as teenager, and how it helped in his athletic training (Japanese)

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

Matsumoto,Roy H.

Nickname

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

Matsumoto,Roy H.

Treatment of Kibei after return to United States

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

Abe,George

Realizing Importance of Birthplace

(b. 1944) taiko and flute performer

Matsumoto,Roy H.

Mixed emotions after declaration of war on Japan

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

Bain,Peggie Nishimura

Getting citizenship back

(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII

Interviews

Watch more clips

Shinki,Venancio

Prejudice in Japanese school (Spanish)

Explore More Videos