The Japanese-Peruvians interned in the US during WW2

[Pete]

The Japanese-Peruvians interned in the US during WW2

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31295270

"Blanca Katsura will never forget the night of 6 January 1943.

She was 12 at the time and living with her parents and two siblings in northern Peru.

On that night, two officials came to their home and took away her father.

Mr Katsura, who owned a small general store, was arrested because he was part of Peru's prosperous Japanese community...."

I would think just about everyone knows about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II but this is a little twist I didn't know about. Interesting.

[MR2]

Interesting.

[Golf1echo]

Never heard that before but am not completely surprised. It is hard to imagine in this day and age but thumb through an old Life magazine between 1942 and 1945. The evil hairy fingered Jap was sub human and a scourge to be defeated at all costs.....


with that all out commitment we did win that war and the peace.

[mark46th]

I worked for a seafood company that was owned by an American of Japanese descent. There were several Japanese-Peruvians working for us. Kinda took me by surprise to hear perfect Spanish coming from an Asian...

[Flagg]

Interesting.

Yeah, not unexpected considering what I've read about strong Japanese/Peruvian ties related to Peru/Shining Path/Alberto Fujimora that go WAY back.

Makes sense the US would be focused a bit on Peru's Japanese community during WWII.

[Go For Broke]

Not just Peru ... Not just Japanese ...

A lot of people of Japanese (and Italian or German) ancestry were deported from their home / adopted countries. Some Central & South American countries cut deals with the United States to remove the "threat" based on FBI reports. With the confiscation of their passports, at the end of the war, many of them were Stateless due to their adopted / home countries (issei vs nisei etc) refusing to allow them back in for various reasons, to include the money and property that had been confiscated. To this day, Brazil (which did not deport) has the largest Japanese diaspora.

E.O. 9066, as terrible as it was, "fortunately" "only affected" residents in the western states, primarily Washington, Oregon, and California ... and a small number in the Territory of Hawai'i.) Some states, like Colorado (which was home to the Granada "War Relocation Center" [Camp Amache] aka concentration camp) even welcomed the AJAs to the state (Which may have cost Governor Carr election to the US Senate) before the camps were established. During the war, AJAs lived both in the camp (the evacuees) and outside the camps (Colorado residents.)

V/R,

[Golf1echo]

Originally Posted by Go For Broke

Not just Peru ... Not just Japanese ...

A lot of people of Japanese (and Italian or German) ancestry were deported from their home / adopted countries. Some Central & South American countries cut deals with the United States to remove the "threat" based on FBI reports. With the confiscation of their passports, at the end of the war, many of them were Stateless due to their adopted / home countries (issei vs nisei etc) refusing to allow them back in for various reasons, to include the money and property that had been confiscated. To this day, Brazil (which did not deport) has the largest Japanese diaspora.

E.O. 9066, as terrible as it was, "fortunately" "only affected" residents in the western states, primarily Washington, Oregon, and California ... and a small number in the Territory of Hawai'i.) Some states, like Colorado (which was home to the Granada "War Relocation Center" [Camp Amache] aka concentration camp) even welcomed the AJAs to the state (Which may have cost Governor Carr election to the US Senate) before the camps were established. During the war, AJAs lived both in the camp (the evacuees) and outside the camps (Colorado residents.)

V/R,

Those Japanese Americans interned in Colorado did wonders to convert the Eastern Plains into an agricultural power house. The sugar beet crop is a great example as well as food crop farms and landscape stock across the area, to this day you will still find enclaves of that industry still alive and well. The result of this transformation is a politically strong and productive agricultural economy for everyone here in Colorado.