<Begin Segment 2>

AI: And what is your birthday, when were you born?

AS: June 6, 1930.

AI: And what was, do you know what name they gave you when you were born, your birth name?

AS: Isamu Shibayama. And then when I got baptized, because in those days we were all Catholics, so they gave me, I was baptized as Carlos Arturo Shibayama.

AI: And so when you were a little kid, what did they call you?

AS: They called me Shiba, 'cause I guess we had other Isamu and we had all the Carlos Arturos and so they called me Shiba.

AI: So that was your nickname.

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: Well, tell me a little bit more about what you remember of your really early days when you were living with your grandparents. What, what do you recall from those days?

AS: I don't recall too much from those days but... 'cause I used to fool around a lot at the store or in the, with the neighborhood kids there in the Peruvian neighborhood, Peruvian kids.

AI: And so do you remember, were you speaking mostly Spanish or Japanese?

AS: Spanish, mostly Spanish because, like, Spanish is a lot easier for the Issei to learn. So, so the Isseis were learning, speaking pretty fluent Spanish.

AI: So your grandparents and your mother spoke a pretty fair amount of Spanish?

AS: Oh yeah, because they were in business, so, so they had to use a lot of Spanish.

AI: What about when you were living with your grandparents, did you speak to them mostly in Spanish or Japanese, or both?

AS: Both, but mostly Spanish.

AI: And then what about when you, it was time for you to start school? Can you tell about that?

AS: What do you mean?

AI: About the school?

AS: You mean speaking the language?

AI: Right, and the language?

AS: Well we, school we went to a private Japanese school in Lima. And we had fifteen hundred kids, so it was a real big, big school. And, but it was a co-ed but the girls were on one side of the camp -- of the school and the boys were separated, although we were able to go in and out of, on both sides. But...

AI: And so was that, your classes, were they conducted mostly in Japanese or Spanish or both?

AS: They were both, every other period was Japanese and Spanish.

AI: So it was a bilingual school then?

AS: Right.

AI: Well, I'm wondering about some of your classes. Because it was a school for Japanese students and a lot of Japanese immigrant families had their kids there, I'm wondering, did they teach you very much about Japan or about, did you get instructions in being Japanese?

AS: Well, we learned a lot about Japan but they didn't, they didn't... they didn't push too much about being a Japanese, just the, just the language.

AI: Because I know some of the Japanese language schools in the United States, they did have some of this instruction about, well on the emperor's birthday you had to behave very properly and sing songs and have some prayer for the welfare of the emperor and that kind of thing. Do you remember doing anything like that?

AS: No, we didn't have that. No.

AI: Well, and so then you also, I guess, were having lessons that any other Peruvian kid would have at school, abut Peru, learning about Peru and regular Spanish language and reading and math.

AS: Yeah, it was, it was like a regular school teaching different things. So, like, like math, we became a lot easier because we were getting it from both sides.

AI: You mean both Japanese and...

AS: Japanese and English.

AI: Or Spanish?

AS: I mean, Spanish.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.