Interviews

1. General reasons why people left Japan for Peru

2. Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler

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

4. Prosecution of Japanese Peruvians during the war

5. Where parents went to school in Peru

6. Parents leaving Peru to move to California

7. Reflections on childhood

8. Okinawan cultural appreciation

9. Prejudice against Okinawans from mainland folks

10. Okinawan Americans

11. Parents identification as Peruvian Okinawan

12. On Nikkei identity

13. Japanese values that she aligns with

14. American values she aligns with

15. Working together in Okinawa using three languages

Yamashiro,Michelle

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

Prosecution of Japanese Peruvians during the war

The only people that were really targeted were folks who were in a community leader…similar to here…community leader powers who were educated; scholars, or who had some sort of power in either the business world or the community world. And I think besides my great-grandpa Arakaki, the other folks were able to lie low pretty well. I have heard of a story though from a group where there was a Japanese Peruvian person working in the…was it…in some government office, I don’t know if it was like an ambassador’s office or something like that, but he got a list of Japanese Peruvian folks who were supposed to be kidnapped and taken to the United States, and he was sort of like a “Schindler’s List” and he would take some of these folks and just sort of try to hide them as best as possible or try to find a way to make sure that they escaped or that they got fake IDs or fake whatever identification in order to stay. So I have heard stories like that.

Japanese Peruvians Okinawans Peru World War II

Date: August 30, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sharon Yamato

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Grew up in Gardena, California. Her parents moved to the United States from Lima, Peru where they grew up in the Japanese and Okinawan Peruvian community. Because of this diverse background, she was exposed to a mixing of different cultural traditions. She is involved with the Okinawa Association of America and has visited Okinawa and Peru.

She received her teaching credentials but with an opportunity at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute (GVJCI), she turned to non-profit work and is a volunteer at GVJCI and the Okinawa Association of America. (August 2018)