<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Any other stories that you remember from Peru that was... well, no, you were too young. I was going to say, your older brother died when he was three, so you probably don't remember that.

JN: I was not even born.

TI: Yeah, you weren't even born, so he died. But any other big events that you remember growing up? That when you think of Peru, it's kind of a special thing or a hard thing?

JN: No, being that young, you don't think of that. Like I told you before, next to the main gate, there was a window that I always looked out to see what was happening. Certain times of year, there were some festivals. And a group would come and set up a merry-go-round. It was right in front of, at the time, was an open lot, there's nothing there.

TI: This is right outside your window?

JN: Yeah, across the street. A merry-go-round, yeah, my sister and I were always looking at it.

TI: And you never went on it?

JN: But never went on it, just admired it. Yeah, that was probably once a year that group would come and set up the merry-go-round.

TI: That's a powerful image, to have you looking out the window at the merry-go-round.

JN: And I remember looking out, behind the merry-go-round there would be a park, like any park here. To the right, I would see a big, tall building, it was a beer factory, and I forgot the name. And right behind this building, across, it was a theater, Peruvian theater. And that's the time I couldn't understand, but a cartoon was showing images of, I believe it was Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse, they were buck teeth with the glasses., and that was telling us, the Peruvians, that the Japanese were hated. I remember that. But I didn't think it was anything for me to understand because I didn't know. I was only (six).

TI: Did you have any concept that things like Donald Duck, those cartoons, were being made in the United States, they were American?

JN: Oh, maybe it was not Disney.

TI: I think they probably were, I mean, they had racist Disney cartoons back then.

JN: But now you realize it must be, that was during the war.

TI: Something you said earlier, I wanted to follow up. When you talked about the workers, you referred to them as the "locals." How did you think about being Japanese and then the locals? I mean, was there a clear... did you ever think that you were, I guess, Peruvian, or did you always think of yourself as Japanese?

JN: No, no, you don't think anything of that, no, you don't. If I were older, probably, I would have some kind of feeling, but no, it's nothing that I (be) prejudice or anything like that.

TI: So if you had not been taken from Peru, what do you think your life would have been like in Peru if you had stayed there and grown up? What do you think would have happened in your life?

JN: Well, I'd be a Peruvian, period.

TI: What would that mean, what would that look like? Would you be like a businessperson?

JN: There were a lot of Japanese, too, so you would be, since my parents were Japanese, even though you feel you're Peruvian, you will be learning more of the Japanese culture. That's how I feel. At the time, I don't know, we were so young.

TI: Like when you look at your brother, what was his life like? I mean, did he have Peruvian friends and...

JN: Oh, probably, oh, yeah. He was about fifteen years old.

TI: Right.

JN: So I'm sure he did have some friends, Peruvian or Japanese. But you don't think about being prejudiced.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.