Isamu 'Art' Carlos Shibayama (イサムカルロス柴山, 1930 – July 31, 2018) was a

Peruvian Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century; Peruvian p ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

civil rights activist who fought for the rights of Latin Americans of Japanese ancestry who were illegally

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Biography

Born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

, Peru in 1930, Shibayama was 13 years old when he, along with his family, were rounded up by the Peruvian police and shipped to the United States. Upon their arrival in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, they were arrested by the

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

and transported to the

Crystal City Internment Camp Crystal City Internment Camp, located near Crystal City, Texas, was a place of confinement for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II, and has been variously described as a detention facility or a concentration camp. T ...

in Texas, where they were held as hostages, to be used in

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

exchanges with Japan. They were part of a group of over two thousand Latin Americans of Japanese descent who suffered a similar fate, the large majority of which were Peruvians. In 1946, a year after the war ended, Shibayama’s family was finally released from captivity, only to find themselves stranded in the United States because Peru refused to take them back. They fought

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

to Japan and were allowed to remain in the United States on condition that they obtain the support of a sponsor. Shibayama finally achieved legal alien status in 1956. In 1972 he was finally allowed to become an U.S. citizen. In the

Civil Liberties Act of 1988 The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (, title I, August 10, 1988, , et seq.) is a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been wrongly interned by the United States government during World War II. The act was ...

the U.S. government provided

reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from G ...

of $20,000 to Japanese Americans who were similarly interned acknowledging its wrongdoing and apologizing to them. However, this act did not apply to those who were not U.S. citizens at the time of the war. Years later, a coalition of Japanese Latin Americans called the Campaign for Justice sued for reparations and won its case. In 1999, the federal government expressed regret and awarded each of them $5,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit, ''

Mochizuki v. United States ''Mochizuki v. United States'' 43 Fed. Cl. 97 (1999) was a class action lawsuit brought by survivors of Japanese Latin Americans interned during World War II by the United States government. The lawsuit alleged forcible kidnapping and imprisonmen ...

''. Shibayama, however, declined the payment and sued on his own demanding equality with the reparations to Japanese Americans. After he lost in federal court, he and his brothers filed a petition before the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ...

(IACHR ) in 2003. Shibayama died on July 31, 2018 in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. His case was still pending as of the date of his death. The IACHR eventually ruled in his favor on August 4, 2020.

Documentary

A documentary detailing US involvement in extraditing and forcibly interning Japanese-Peruvian nationals during WWII including a biography of Isamu Shibayama was produced in 2009 by Peek Media and the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shibayama, Isamu 1930 births 2018 deaths American civil rights activists Peruvian emigrants to the United States People from Lima Japanese-American civil rights activists Peruvian people of Japanese descent People interned during World War II People from San Jose, California