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TI: Okay, so let's move on. From Crystal City, what memories do you have? Do you remember leaving or going to either Los Angeles or San Francisco?

GN: I don't remember leaving. I remember when I got to San Francisco, we had a sponsor that took care of us, I remember them. Afterwards, we were able to find a place to stay, the church that helped us get the sponsor in San Francisco. Was kind enough to get the family a place to stay.

TI: This is the Konko...

GN: Church, Konko church. And the reverend was, wow, he was a very powerful man. When he spoke, wow, I still remember him, he was really...

TI: Yeah, so tell me about that. When did you hear him speak? Was during his sermons?

GN: Sermons, yeah, during this sermons, go to church there. During his sermon, he was very powerful the way he spoke. He was a big man.

TI: And this was, I'm sorry, Reverend Fukuda?

GN: Reverend Fukuda. Big man and typical Japanese face, horn rimmed glasses. Really big, and he spoke with a lot of emotion, wow. I remember that as a child.

TI: And this was all in Japanese, could you understand what he was talking about?

GN: Yeah, some. That's the only language I knew is Japanese, so it's kind of hard for us to live in the U.S.A. Our friends were all Issei, they're Japanese Americans. And I was from Peru, so even going to school in San Francisco, I always felt that I was, like, I always felt like a foreigner. I had this thing, I would try to pretend that I was a Japanese American, although I wasn't. But inside, deep inside, I know I was different, and that was with me all through my life whenever... as I was growing up, I pretend like I'm being a Nisei, but I always had an accent, my English was... and I couldn't pronounce the word right. And so I'd try to not talk too much. So a lot of my friends didn't know I was from Peru.

TI: And so growing up, most people just thought you were Japanese American?

GN: Right.

TI: And you never told them? So explain to me why... did you think there was a stigma attached to being Japanese Peruvian, that there was something maybe wrong with that? Or what was your thinking? Why was that difficult for you?

GN: Not that I thought it was wrong, it just felt... I just felt that I was a foreigner living in the U.S.A.

TI: So you didn't want to really be different, or you just wanted to be kind of treated the same in some ways?

GN: Yeah, I wanted to be like the others. That's why I didn't speak too much English in front of my friends, I was always quiet.

YN: Do you still feel the same way?

GN: I still do; it's still with me. So I try to, not to show that I'm a foreigner. I'm a citizen of the United States now, and that kind of makes me feel better, but always with me, this foreigner. Even at school, always at school I had that in my mind. And I was afraid to speak in front of people, it held me back.

TI: So how does it feel, like even today, when you have a group like us interested in you because you are, because of your background as Japanese Peruvian, or were they interested in differences, how does that feel for you?

GN: Oh, now that we all know about this, Peruvian Japanese, it doesn't bother me as much, like before.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.