Interviews

1. Parent's immigration to Peru

2. Finding family’s barrack on map of Crystal City

3. His sister Kiyo was like a second mother to him

4. His sister secured reparations for the family

5. Help received in fighting deportation

6. Seabrook Farms sponsored Japanese Peruvians for cheap labor

7. Checking in with Immigration once a month

8. Relating to Hispanic immigrant families at detention center in Laredo, TX

9. Proud to be Japanese Peruvian

(b. 1942) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Finding family’s barrack on map of Crystal City

The map of the entire Crystal City camp. We were really in this area here. I started to look at this because I wanted to know where we were, and I was surprised to see that our name is on there. I thought, oh, great, first time I know we were there, I mean, I had no clue. And the map itself, you have no clue. So now I know where we are, you know, we were.

It really told me that it wasn't just a vague "we were in camp," specifically we were in a spot. And speaking to Jimmy, my brother Jimmy, he could say, "Oh, yeah, we knew this family over here," and that started to put things together. It really made sense of where we were. The orchard, sugar cane that we used to know at when we were kids, had to come from that orchard. And so everything started to come together just a little bit more, started to crystalize so that I could get a sense of what the camp was like.

Crystal City internment camp Department of Justice camps geography Japanese Peruvians maps Texas United States World War II World War II camps

Date: September 20, 2019

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda and Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum and Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Kazumu Julio Cesar Naganuma was born in Lima, Peru to his Issei parents on July 28, 1942. Before World War II, his parents ran a laundry business and father was a prominent community leader. When the war started, the FBI arrested his father and sent the entire family to the Department of Justice camp at Crystal City, Texas. They remained there even after the war had ended, without a place to go, becuase the family was not allowed to return to Peru. They were able to leave the camp with a sponsporship of Seabrook Farm in New Jersey, and later with the help and sponsorship of a Shinto church reverend in San Francisco, California, where they were able to find jobs and housing. Kazumu established successful design firm. (June 2020)

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