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-01-0042

<Begin Segment 42>

AI: Well, so then, of course, the Civil Rights Act of 1988 was finally passed, and that was the redress legislation, and so when you heard that was passed, what was your reaction?

AS: Well, my reaction was, well, finally somebody's gonna get compensated for, for the, all the trouble we went through.

AI: And so you applied?

AS: So I applied, yeah, just like the rest of 'em.

AI: And then what happened?

AS: Then after they started paying, I got a letter from Office of Redress saying that I was denied because I wasn't a citizen or permanent resident at the time of internment. So then I appealed it. I appealed and then they came back saying that I didn't get my permanent residency until 1956. So I was denied again. And then there was another one that said that I went to Canada voluntarily. Now, I mean the immigration office said the only way I can get my permanent residency is by leaving the country and re-enter. So, how can that be voluntarily? Just like when I got classified illegal alien. How can I be illegal when we didn't want to come here in the first place and the government brings us, brings us here, force us, force us to come here, and they bring us at gunpoint, and then they classify -- and not only that, there were, some of the Peruvians were businessmen, so some people had passports. And those passports were confiscated when we boarded the ship. And then when we come, when we got off the ship they said we didn't have any papers so we were illegal.

AI: So, when you were denied, what did you think? What did you feel?

AS: Well, here we go again, getting discriminated against. So then I went to, to Asian Law Alliance and Richard Konda tried to help me and he sent a few letters to, to the Office of Redress but I still got denied.

AI: And you weren't the only one who was denied?

AS: No, there were a few of us. Quite a few, I don't know how many total. I don't know how many got denied. So then they said that we can sue the government so, so that's how the Mochizuki case started.

AI: Right, so that was, I believe that was in 1996?

AS: '96, yes.

AI: That the Mochizuki case was, was brought, was started. And when that case was underway there was also some community support that got organized as the Campaign for Justice --

AS: Campaign, yeah.

AI: -- for Japanese Latin Americans.

AS: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.