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Proud to be Japanese Peruvian

I was always proud to be a Japanese Peruvian, citizenship or not. And now that the stories are coming out, I get together, Hiro Shimizu and I, we all grew up together, so our group gets together once every two months or so. And they hear the story and say, "Oh, I forgot, you're from Peru," things like that are coming up. And so it's fine, but as far as the impressions or anything, like I said, my racquetball club group, they're having fun calling me Julio. And I had fun with that, too, because they see me differently. It's more they know that I'm from a different country. And some people say, "Where are you from? You look Japanese," or, "You look Asian." [Laughs] But it's all in good spirit, I think, I like that a lot. It hasn't changed anything as far as my inner feelings. I think I've always been good about who I am and I go back to, I know it's from my parents. And my older siblings, they have a big influence in me, a lot more than I had imagined until I became older and I realized all the things that they've done that's influenced me being the youngest.


identity Japanese Peruvians

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)

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