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

We go to America (Spanish) Memories of my infancy: Japanese 1, Japanese 2… (Spanish) Mistreating the Japanese community (Spanish) Prejudice in Japanese school (Spanish) Hiding out to avoid the concentration camps (Spanish) Help from fellow Japanese (Spanish) Iron discipline at home (Spanish) Education Japanese style (Spanish) Closing the Japanese school and deportation (Spanish)

Transcripts available in the following languages:

(Spanish) I was born on the San Nicolás Hacienda, where there was a place for the Japanese community, let´s call it “of the north,” one of many such places. I recall one in Cañete and then another called…well, I don’t remember, perhaps near Trujillo I believe, forgive me, Chiclayo, places where the Japanese settlement was near. The hacienda belonged to a Peruvian, naturally, and what he needed was cheap labor.

And I remember that one of the things that I considered amusing– I don’t know if you will also find amusing what I am about to tell you – I was a child who walked alone, and on Saturdays I remember going to the site where the workers received their pay; then they finished paying the Peruvian workers -- of course by their respective names, Luis Collantes, what I recall, and then when they began to pay the Japanese, they shouted out not a name but rather “Japanese number 1,” “Japanese number 2,” which made me laugh aloud because they [the Peruvian bosses] couldn’t say, for example, Shinki, Hitotuishi, these are difficult names for them to pronounce, and even worse to write. This is the strange thing that I saw when I was a child, I realize now.

Date: September 6, 2007
Location: Lima, Peru
Interviewer: Harumi Nako
Contributed by: Asociación Peruano Japonesa (APJ)

discrimination peru

Get updates

Sign up for email updates

Journal feed
Events feed
Comments feed

Support this project

Discover Nikkei

Discover Nikkei is a place to connect with others and share the Nikkei experience. To continue to sustain and grow this project, we need your help!

Ways to help >>

A project of the Japanese American National Museum


Major support by The Nippon Foundation