Interviews

1. Parent's immigration to Peru

2. Finding family’s barrack on map of Crystal City

3. His sister Kiyo was like a second mother to him

4. His sister secured reparations for the family

5. Help received in fighting deportation

6. Seabrook Farms sponsored Japanese Peruvians for cheap labor

7. Checking in with Immigration once a month

8. Relating to Hispanic immigrant families at detention center in Laredo, TX

9. Proud to be Japanese Peruvian

Naganuma,Kazumu

(b. 1942) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Seabrook Farms sponsored Japanese Peruvians for cheap labor

Having a sponsor family, having a job, was one of the criterias of being able to stay here. Seabrook Farms that hired one, two hundred Japanese Peruvians, they became like the sponsor.

They took advantage of…everything they're doing with the Hispanics right now and other foreigners, dirt cheap, nothing, they're breaking the law. It was a way of them getting cheap labor, but they were good labor. They didn't know that.

farms Japanese Peruvians New Jersey Seabrook Farms United States

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)