Interviews

1. Search of family home by the FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor

2. Not recognizing father after reunion at Crystal City, Texas

3. Living conditions at Crystal City, Texas

4. A child's memories of activities at Crystal City, Texas

5. Thoughts on relationship between Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Americans at Crystal City, Texas

6. Message for future generations

Mako Nakagawa

(1937 - 2021) Teacher

Thoughts on relationship between Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Americans at Crystal City, Texas

I don't remember any animosities or any breakouts or any kind of a conflict, but I do as a little kid felt like we were kind of benevolently nice to the Peruvian folks. We were told to be polite to them even if they were a little bit crude, and a little bit... their Japanese language, the language they spoke was a little cruder if I remember correctly. They let their children run around with no clothes on. “Isn't that embarrassing,” but we pretend like we overlook those things in their lives and... I think we had a little superior attitude towards them. I really do. It was a classist. The Japanese culture is pretty classist and I think that it is not a, just a mere recollection on my part, I think there was some feelings of American people feeling superior to the Peruvian Japanese people.

Crystal City internment camp Department of Justice camps discrimination imprisonment incarceration interpersonal relations Peruvians Texas United States World War II World War II camps

Date: May 27, 1998

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Lori Hoshino

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born February 1937 in Seattle, Washington. Spent prewar childhood in Seattle. Incarcerated at Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington; Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho; and Crystal City internment camp, Texas. In postwar years, became a teacher, principal, and multicultural specialist for Washington State's Superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction. Developed and directed the Japanese American Cultural Heritage Program and the Rainbow Program, one of the first multiethnic educational programs in the country. She passed away on April 4, 2021 at age 84. (July 2021)

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Mako Nakagawa

Thoughts on relationship between Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Americans at Crystal City, Texas

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