Entrevistas

1. Grandfather migrating to Colombia

2. Family having to hide guns during World War II in Colombia

3. Stories of Grandfather at a concentration camp in Fusagasuga

4. Keirokai, the biggest celebration in the Cali Nikkei community

5. Food preparations for Keirokai

6. Japanese reputation in Colombia

7. Her definition of Nikkei

8. Identification as Colombian, feeling closer to JA than Japanese

9. Interracial marriage trends

10. Her grandfather in a concentration camp in Fusagasuga (Spanish)

11. Japanese were treated with dignity during WWII (Spanish)

Teisher,Monica

(n. 1974) Colombiana japonesa que actualmente reside en los Estados Unidos

Her grandfather in a concentration camp in Fusagasuga (Spanish)

(Spanish) When World War II erupted, I imagine, the United States government decided that some citizens needed to be controlled. Germans, Italians, and Japanese in Colombia, heads of households, mainly, were taken to a concentration center in Fusagasugá, in Cundinamarca. They were held there while their families stayed on the land where they lived.

My grandpa had to leave my grandma living on the farm and when that happened, my grandma wrote a letter in Japanese to my grandpa, where she said she had to go... She left out certain things, so he wouldn't worry, so they would let him out to visit them.

Then she wrote letters in Spanish, so the men guarding my grandfather would know. She wrote things like “Little Lily is very sick, we don't know what to do, please try to help us.” Then they let my grandpa out for 15 days to visit my grandma, to make sure the situation went back to normal. Then they sent him back to the concentration camp.

They had some freedoms, but obviously they were under constant police supervision.

Colombia Segunda Guerra Mundial campos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Fecha: September 22, 2019

Zona: California, US

Entrevista: Yoko Nishimura

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Entrevista

Monica Teisher nació de un padre issei y de una madre nisei en Cali, Colombia en 1974. Ella y su familia vasta eran activos en la comunidad japonesa de Cali, la más grande en Colombia. Ella se mudó a los Estados Unidos tras casarse con un ciudadano estadounidense de ascendencia judío europea del este. Ellos y sus hijas pasan las vacaciones en Colombia, en donde participan en eventos de la comunidad. (Mayo de 2020)