Interviews
Early life in Brazil (Japanese)
(Japanese) Copeiro (butler) and Jardineiro (gardener) [were my first jobs]. So [I worked] from 5 in the morning till 12 at night. I woke up early and got tea ready from everyone. At night, I’d have to wait till everyone fell asleep after drinking tea or coffee. So that’s why I had to get up at 5 am and work until after 12. But they treated me well, as a human being. I was there for a year, and I collected a good amount of money. I then went back to Sao Paulo, since I was able to make enough money to go to school in Sao Paulo for a year. After that I went every which way, all over the place… from one Brazilian factory to another. It was for about a year or two. Then, I got married and had kids… we couldn’t [afford to] eat so we had to move to the countryside out of necessity. So, we came to Pompéia.
Date:
Location: Brazil
Contributed by: Caminho da memória - 遥かなるみちのり. São Paulo, Brazil: Comissão de Elaboração da História dos 80 Anos de Imigração Japonesa no Brasil, 1998. VHS.
Explore More Videos
Government urged Japanese Canadians to go to Japan
(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.
On returning to post-war Peru (Japanese)
(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum
Facing discrimination in America (Japanese)
(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner
My daughter couldn’t fit in Japan, so I decided to go back to America (Japanese)
(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner
Tough life at boarding house (Japanese)
Shin Issei – owner of izakaya (Japanese-style tavern) and kappo (small Japanese diner) restaurant, Honda-Ya
General reasons why people left Japan for Peru
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.