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Parent's immigration to Peru

He went there with, he said, hundreds of Japanese men on a ship, so that takes a long time to get there. They said there's all this work in Peru, and he said immediately they found out there was very little. He said people starved. It's not like people could just pay and say, "Oh, I'm going to go back and fly back." There's no even taking a boat back. So he quickly went from his trade, which was being a carpenter, and did some farming, and then got into the laundry business and was successful with that. He ended up with three different laundries, and he was quite involved in the community there as well.

So when you're involved with the community and you start to grow his business, you became successful, and that's one of the reasons why he was targeted. And he was at a point where, I don't know for a fact how many people worked there at the three laundries, but to the point where he had a nanny to take care of the younger kids, a cook, they didn't drive them, but they would call their limo, so they were wealthy. Yes. And he was at his prime when they took all that away from him, the business, the property, of course, all the money that he had. That's probably the hardest part.

My mother, being the typical Japanese wife, just went along. She's a picture bride, and so she went along. It's not like she had a choice either.


brides business economics generations immigrants immigration Issei Japan Japanese Peruvians management migration Peru picture brides wives

Date: September 20, 2019

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda and Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum and Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Kazumu Julio Cesar Naganuma was born in Lima, Peru to his Issei parents on July 28, 1942. Before World War II, his parents ran a laundry business and father was a prominent community leader. When the war started, the FBI arrested his father and sent the entire family to the Department of Justice camp at Crystal City, Texas. They remained there even after the war had ended, without a place to go, becuase the family was not allowed to return to Peru. They were able to leave the camp with a sponsporship of Seabrook Farm in New Jersey, and later with the help and sponsorship of a Shinto church reverend in San Francisco, California, where they were able to find jobs and housing. Kazumu established successful design firm. (June 2020)

Shunji Nishimura
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Nishimura,Shunji

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