Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki

General reasons why people left Japan for Peru Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki Prosecution of Japanese Peruvians during the war Where parents went to school in Peru Parents leaving Peru to move to California Reflections on childhood Okinawan cultural appreciation Prejudice against Okinawans from mainland folks Okinawan Americans Parents identification as Peruvian Okinawan On Nikkei identity Japanese values that she aligns with American values she aligns with Working together in Okinawa using three languages

Transcripts available in the following languages:

So he told me my grandma Arakaki’s side, that’s the grandpa that was college educated, from mainland, at that time, so that’s like in the tens and twenties, nineteen ten, nineteen twenties, and I don’t know if it’s Waseda or Todai, but it was a pretty prominent, big university – still is and because he’s well-educated he of course had different political views than the Japanese government at the time. And so for those reasons he left Japan and went to Peru. And so that’s just a really interesting story and because he was so well-loved by the Peruvian community, and well-loved and well-respected the communities who protected him from getting kidnapped by the Peruvian government to go to…I believe he was supposed to go to Crystal City, as a professor, as an educator in the community and they hid him very well so that he didn’t get taken and he would do some secret night teachings, like Japanese language or even just history and things like that. So I think because that story’s so interesting, my grandpa would always tell me about that.

Date: August 30, 2018
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Sharon Yamato
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

community crystal city grandfather japanese peruvian migration okinawan peru university World War II