<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Well, so tell me about the friends you made at Crystal City. Because when you talked about Peru, it sounded like you didn't have very many friends other than just family.

JN: Exactly.

TI: Now you had other people, so tell me about that.

JN: Yeah. Well, across from where we lived, a family named Shibayama, and they were from Peru. (Three) brothers, the older brothers were old enough, but there was two other brothers that were about the same age. And everyplace we went, we were together. But there were other friends besides the Shibayamas.

TI: Before you, would that be like Art Shibayama?

JN: Yes, that's the family.

TI: Okay, we interviewed him also.

JN: Yeah, Art Shibayama. I can't remember the two younger brothers' names, but I'm sure I can recognize them because they looked much like Art. There was another family, there's two boys again, their (last) name was Dozohara. I don't remember their name anymore, but they were friendly, just normal people.

TI: Now, when you would be around other Japanese Peruvians, were their experiences kind of similar to yours in Peru? Did you ever talk about that, how you had to stay in your house? Did they also have similar things like that?

JN: No.

TI: So their life was different than yours.

JN: We didn't talk about that.

TI: Oh, you didn't talk about it. Well, how about when you guys played? Did you guys speak in Spanish or Japanese?

JN: Oh, probably Spanish. If they couldn't understand, maybe I spoke in Japanese.

TI: Did you come across very many Japanese Americans who spoke English?

JN: You know, I didn't know there were people, Niseis, Japanese Americans in camp, I thought they were all like us.

TI: Oh, really? So you didn't know about any Japanese Americans?

JN: Because the sections where we stayed, and the sections where all the Niseis were, being different area.

TI: So there wasn't much mixing between them. How about Germans or Italian families? Did you ever see them?

JN: Well, I didn't see the Italians, but once, at night, when the light was off, it was outside playing basketball, they were playing basketball. And wow, I never saw Caucasians that tall. They were tall, the basketball players were tall, and wow, that was the first time, and I would go home. Always spent time playing by myself every place I went.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.