California Story Fund
Assembly on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project of the National Japanese American Society
National Japanese American Historical Society
San Francisco
Project Director: Grace Shimizu
The testimony of Japanese Latin Americans and others interned by the U.S. government during World War II
This project was a public forum in San Francisco in April 2005 that presented the personal testimonies and decades-long redress efforts of Japanese Latin Americans, abducted and interned by the U.S. government during World War II.
The forum also included the testimonies of former Japanese American internees still denied redress, the little-known stories of German and Italian American internees, and personal accounts of Arabs, Muslims, South Asians and others who have been affected by post 9/11 events and the subsequent implementation of the Patriot Act. The forum also featured a distinguished panel of experts and community leaders.
“The forum was important in that it served as an historic record of the witnesses’ first-hand experience,” said Project Director Grace Shimizu of the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project. “We hope that it demonstrated the importance of making these stories a part of the internment narrative.”