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VY: So Art was originally Japanese Peruvian.

DC: Yes, and he was born in Lima, and, of course, kidnapped by the American government, smuggled into the United States, imprisoned in Crystal City, and it was a devastating experience for him, although this was a man I never heard complain, never. And he used to be driven to school by a chauffeur, and the lifestyle that they knew was quite leisurely and elegant, I think. And here they come and they go, they're thrown into Crystal City, they're stateless because their documents have been destroyed, and then the war is over and America has no use for them in prisoner of war exchanges. And the way I tell the story is at the beginning of the war, the Americans were losing in the Pacific. And the Japanese had American captives, and they were probably diplomats that were caught in Japan or on Japanese territories. So there were American citizens that were there, and America wanted to bring them back, and I must stipulate that they were white and of a special status. So FDR wanted to get them back, but because Americans were losing the war, and because it was very difficult to take Japanese soldiers as captives, first of all, they're very fierce fighters, and they were instructed to commit seppuku if they were going to be taken captive, so they were told, they were instructed to commit suicide. So it was very difficult for Americans to have any prisoners of war to trade for these white Americans that were caught abroad.

Now, the reason I always say "white Americans," is because I know, in many instances, Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans were also caught in Japan, but nobody tried to get them back because they were quite happy that they were gone, right? So, at first, FDR thought of trading us, in the camps, but there was some resistance. [Interruption] So he went hostage shopping in the Latin American countries and he bribed them with money. And so they were quite willing to get rid of the Japanese immigrants because they were doing extraordinarily well, and they had already been riots there in the '30s where some Japanese Latin Americans had actually been killed. So there was already anti-Japanese sentiment there that the Peruvian government could use to rationalize this deportation. And so these ships would show up in the harbor at Callao, and Mr. Shibayama would escape into the mountains, he was very clever. And he held out until 1944, I believe, and that was when the Peruvians officials decided to arrest Mrs. Shibayama and put her in jail as a way of getting him to come out. And the sad story there, besides the fact that they would revert to that kind of barbaric behavior, was that Fusa Shibayama, Art's younger sister, refused to let her mother go to jail alone, so she went with her mother. She was that kind of person, she was an extraordinary person, just beautiful and loving and kind, and also extremely talented as an actress and as a dancer. But anyway, she was in prison with her mother, and then, of course, Mr. Shibayama had to come out, and that's the undue circumstances by which Art was deported and taken prisoner.

VY: How old was Art at the time?

DC: Oh, dear, I think he was thirteen. And even when you look at his pictures when he was young, and I've looked them recently, you can see what an extraordinary physicality he had. He looked well-fed, athletic even then, because I think he swam quite a bit when he visited his grandparents. So he looked like a very sturdy specimen and he was. I mean, he was very athletic and very attractive, and he goes to Crystal City and he becomes a member of the baseball team there. So then America wants to get rid of them and Peru won't take them back. And so they become, they could stay in America as long as they had a sponsor, so Seabrook Farms opportunistically, I would say, became their... what do they call that? Sponsor. So they went there and were treated virtually like slaves, basically. They received pittance for the kind of work they did, and of course, these were children working, Art and Fusa were working. And they couldn't go to school, which is just a tragedy for Art, who was a very intelligent person who always valued education. But he knew he had to do this because there was a baby on the way, the father couldn't support everyone because the mother couldn't work, so the eldest two worked and sacrificed their education. And Art did that for most of his life; he was constantly giving money and support to members of his family, and being kind to the Morita family in particular and allowing me into their lives. Like I'm surprised they didn't take me on their honeymoon. [Laughs] But I remember, after they were married, I was often taken out to eat with them, I would sleep in the same bed with them, if I had a tummyache he'd rub my tummy for me, I mean, it was just incredible the generosity of this individual. And me going along with all this, because I was totally ignorant of what he had gone through. And then, of course, being denied official status for so long, although they were happy to take him into the army, and then him having to go to Canada, to come in to get official status that way. Because as far as the American government, they wanted to deny that incidence of extraordinary rendition ever happened. To this day they still deny it. And so there was no official apology made to them when we received our redress in 1988. So Art just kept fighting the good fight despite the fact that many people accepted the settlement of five thousand dollars after the Mochizuki lawsuit was settled out of court. And he decided, no, that he didn't need the five thousand.

VY: That was later, right?

DC: That was after the Civil Liberties Act because the Japanese Latin Americans were not included in the apology. And when he saw the letter that was given to the Japanese Latin Americans, he said they didn't even mention the specific incidents. To him, it was a cover up, which it was, (in my view). I think he was absolutely right. And where I live in Canada, we can all relate to this, because this is an act of extraordinary rendition. And Maher Arar, I don't know if you know about that case, he was a Syrian who was at the JFK airport and the American government abducted him, even though he was a Canadian citizen and took him to Syria for torture. So that's another case of extraordinary rendition where America acts in total denial of the rights of citizens from another country. As far as they're concerned, these are people to be used for their means. And so they were never going to apologize and fully recognize what they had committed during the Second World War.

And so, but Art kept fighting the good fight, and his picture is in the San Jose museum, and he's received many awards for his courage. And then his case was never heard in an American court, even though he tried to get legislation passed (through) Congress, and instigated a lawsuit in the States, but it was always dismissed on technicalities so his case was never heard in the American courts. And so once you exhaust all avenues of remedy, you may then go to the international courts. So I believe it was the year before he died that he testified before the Inter-American Commission (of Human Rights) of the Organization of American States, along with his daughter, Bekki. They went to Washington, D.C., and actually talked about what happened to him. And it's recorded, but they're still waiting for a ruling, the OAS has not come out with a ruling, and of course, I believe that the OAS really is an instrument of the American government, it's highly influenced by the Americans. And the American commissioner who was supposed to be sitting on that tribunal never showed up. But that's all been recorded, and the testimony that my niece, Bekki, gave, Bekki Shibayama, was inspiring, and it made me feel so proud because I had changed her diapers and fed her milk from a bottle because I was her babysitter, not only her aunt but her babysitter. And she just stood there and she just quietly said, when someone asked her, "What did you feel when you learned about what happened to your father?" And I think she was eleven at the time when she heard the story and she said, "I wondered about the Pledge of Allegiance, the phrase, 'with liberty and justice for all,' what does it really mean?" And she said this without any vitriol, just very calm, just like her dad, standing up in front of all those people. And it was a significant moment in my family's life and in Art's life, and I'm so glad he went there with her, that he had her support. And it's all recorded, and I talk about that. Now, we will be talking about his story at the Greenwood Public Library later this month, I've been invited, because many people do not know his story because it's been hidden from view. That's why they call it the "hidden internment," or they call his DVD documentary, Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story.

And so he died when he was eighty-eight, never getting the apology he deserved, but honored and much beloved by the community, especially in California. His life, although I sometimes despair over it, he was a very popular man. He was a talented baseball player, so whenever you're an athlete as a male, you get special status, right? And he was able to drink California wine, and he had very good taste in wine. So whenever I go to visit my sister, I always sneak a bottle of his wine because it's so good. And they often went dancing in San Francisco with Fusa and her husband because they were very good dancers, and he has two wonderful children. He was even able to own a Cadillac once. But an extraordinary individual in many, many ways. We're so lucky to know him.

[Interruption]

VY: We were just talking about Art Shibayama and your sister, Betty, and what is this a photograph of?

DC: This is their wedding in 1955, and I was the junior bridesmaid, so it was quite an elaborate wedding party. And so there are people in this picture that are members of Art's family. So, of course, there's Art and then his brother, Kenbo and his youngest sister, Kazu. And there's another fellow, Japanese Peruvian besides, of course, his brother, it's Shiro Kudo, and he too was smuggled into the United States under the same circumstances, so they became part of Art's coterie of friends, and then Joe Nishimura his brother-in-law. And then next to me is my niece Candy, who is Ruth's eldest daughter, she now lives in Florida. And then Betty's maid of honor was Flora, my sister Flora, and then in the middle is May Ikeda, who was Betty's best friend in Chicago. And I believe they went to Wells High School together. And then the other bridesmaid is Mary Jane Ito, who I got to know in Chicago. And the ring bearer is my nephew Kevin Kaneko, who's Dorothy's youngest son. Youngest.

VY: That's a great picture, thank you.

DC: Yeah, you're welcome.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.