<Begin Segment 24>

AI: Well, so then time is going on and then you had moved up to this northern area of Chicago. Tell me about that neighborhood. What did that neighborhood look like?

AS: Well, that neighborhood was, just, there were no, no African Americans around there. They were mostly on the south side. So there were, and then there were quite a few Japanese Americans --

AI: So a lot of Japanese Americans had --

AS: -- over there, yeah.

AI: -- moved into that neighborhood?

AS: More so.

AI: Well, so there --

AS: There were lot of, lot of Caucasians there, too.

AI: And there again, I'm wondering how did, did Japanese Americans notice that you had an accent of any sort, or did they ask you about your English, or did they notice that you were different from Japanese Americans?

AS: You know, that never came up. Something, but, like if, people that we mingled with, right away they knew that we were from Peru. I mean, we would talk about it and so, so they never asked after that.

AI: Right. So it would come up right away that --

AS: Yeah.

AI: -- that you were Peruvian.

AS: Or whoever introduced us would say, "These people from Peru that the U.S. government brought up, brought here and put them in camp," like that, so, so after that, it doesn't come up.

AI: What kind of reaction did people have when they heard that?

AS: They couldn't believe it. People can't believe that the U.S. did this kind of stuff.

AI: Wow.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.