Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Art Shibayama Interview
Narrator: Art Shibayama
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: October 26, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-sart-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

AI: Well, I'd like to back up a little bit because now, you were mentioning about you school day, too. And before you went to camp you were in the eighth grade in Peru? Is that right?

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: And so by the time you got to Crystal City, then, and started school, what grade did you go into?

AS: When was that...

AI: That was April or May and...

AS: Yeah, well, March.

AI: Let's see... oh, March?

AS: No, no, it was --

AI: March you were on the ship.

AS: No, no, May, no, March. Yeah, it was March, March of '44, yeah.

AI: Of '44. So when you first got to camp, did you start school right away or...

AS: Yes. We started school right away. But, since, in camp, since they only had Japanese and English schools, no Spanish school. So we had to go to Japanese school. So we, I think we had to back up a little bit because... although I finished eighth grade in Peru, but the last... '44, so last three years were all Spanish. So then, so then when we went back to school in camp we had to back up a little bit, because... so I think I went to fifth or sixth grade in Japanese.

AI: At the Japanese school.

AS: Japanese school.

AI: Because at that point then, since your last three years of school in Peru had been all Spanish --

AS: Spanish.

AI: -- then you were kind of behind on the Japanese.

AS: Right, Japanese, right.

AI: So then, in camp, your school, you were, were you put in with younger kids then in the Japanese school?

AS: No, no.

AI: No?

AS: No, because it was mostly Peruvians, not too many Japanese Americans. So, the Japanese Americans were a little bit younger, but the rest of us were about all around the same age.

AI: So most of the Japanese American kids were in the English language school. Is that right?

AS: Yeah, right.

AI: So you had a few of the Japanese Americans in your school, the Japanese school.

AS: Yeah, school, Japanese school, yeah.

AI: And then mostly Japanese Peruvians?

AS: Peruvians.

AI: And then were there some other kids of Japanese ancestry from other places?

AS: There were supposed to be but I, I don't know of any. But I think most, most, they were, they were taken from thirteen different countries, but the mostly, probably just the men or just the men and women, just the parents, or whatever. And they were put, they might have been put in the different camps.

AI: So your...

AS: Like my grandparents. They were in Seagoville and not Crystal City.

AI: Right. So then your school day at camp school, what was that like? You had your classes in the morning?

AS: Morning, morning and afternoon.

AI: And you would go home for lunch and then you would go back to school.

AS: Go back to school, yes. And then after school we'd play baseball or basketball and then you'd go -- oh, and I was taking judo twice a week. And then after that, we'd go home and study, do our homework.

AI: Well, how was it?

AS: It was just like on the outside, I guess.

AI: And did you find the classes difficult? Was it hard for you to be catching up with the Japanese?

AS: Oh yes, because it was all Japanese and we weren't that fluent in Japanese. So it was kinda hard.

AI: Because, among you and your brothers and sisters, did you speak mostly Spanish at home?

AS: Spanish, yeah.

AI: And what about with, between you and your parents, did you speak mostly Spanish or some Japanese?

AS: Some Japanese because we went to Japanese school so we had to use more Japanese, so, so we'd try to use Japanese.

AI: So it sounds like it was kind of a struggle for you there adjusting to going to the Japanese school and using more Japanese and catching up with the language?

AS: Yes, it was.

AI: And what were your parents doing while you were in Crystal City? Did they have any activities or, I guess some of them might've had work?

AS: Yeah, my father was a policeman in camp. But my mother was just taking care of the rest of us. But I guess she was taking cooking classes and other things, crocheting, crocheting classes and whatever they had to stay active. Because while we were in school she had nothing else to do.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.