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Mistreating the Japanese community (Spanish)

(Spanish) A somewhat terrible situation developed terrible for those of us in the Japanese community. Why? The Peruvian government broke off diplomatic relations with Japan, and we were mistreated by our neighbors.

I was six years old and going to school; I was one of the youngest, dressed in a children’s military uniform, all dark clothes with a kepi and a shaved head. This was a rule back then, everything just so. The Second World War had not yet started; it was three years before the outbreak of the war [when] they [the Peruvians] started to bother the Japanese community. This is the saddest part of my story that I had to experience. Why do I have to run? Why do they hit me? Why do they make me cry?


discrimination 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)

Virgil Westdale
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Westdale,Virgil

Discrimination in Air Corps

(1918-2022) Hapa World War II veteran, pilot

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Ben Sakoguchi
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Sakoguchi,Ben

Allyship after camp

(b. 1938) Japanese American painter & printmaker

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Toshiro Konishi
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Konishi,Toshiro

What Makes Japanese Cooking In Peru Interesting (Japanese)

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

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Toshiro Konishi
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Konishi,Toshiro

What’s Next as a Chef (Japanese)

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

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Toshiro Konishi
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Konishi,Toshiro

Japanese-Peruvian Cuisine (Japanese)

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

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Toshiro Konishi
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Konishi,Toshiro

Delivering Dinner for Former President Fujimori (Japanese)

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

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Toshiro Konishi
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Konishi,Toshiro

Inspirations for Living Abroad (Japanese)

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

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A. Wallace Tashima
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Tashima,A. Wallace

“I could never get a job offer from a private law firm”

(b. 1934) The First Japanese American Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals. 

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George Kazuharu Naganuma
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Naganuma,George Kazuharu

Memories of the ship heading to the U.S.

(b. 1938) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

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Hikaru “Carl” Iwasaki
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Iwasaki,Hikaru “Carl”

Visiting Deep South

(1923 - 2016) WRA photographer

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Tamio Wakayama
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Wakayama,Tamio

Resettling in Chatham

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

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Tom Yuki
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Yuki,Tom

Felt no hostility in Los Gatos, California after the war

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Prosecution of Japanese Peruvians during the war

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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