Presentation: One Family's Story from Crystal City, Texas Internment Camp

Hear a descendant’s firsthand account of the Crystal City Family Internment Camp. 

Bekki Shibayama shares her family’s history of wartime incarceration, including her father’s abduction from Peru and imprisonment at Crystal City, and her mother’s forced removal and incarceration at camps in Oregon, California, and Idaho. Drawing on her work with community remembrance and justice efforts, Bekki illuminates the little-known internment of Japanese Latin Americans and reflects on the lasting impacts of forced displacement, incarceration, and the ongoing pursuit of justice. Kazumu Julio Cesar Naganuma and Hiroshi Shimizu will join Bekki as panelists. 

An overview of Crystal City Family Internment Camp

From 1942-1948, the US government imprisoned over 3,500 men, women, and children of German, Italian, and Japanese descent—residing in the U.S. and seized from Latin America—in this Department of Justice camp at Crystal City, TX. The program will explain what led to their unjust imprisonment and explore the devastating impacts and experiences from their forced displacement and detention. A panel of former internees and a descendant will share their families’ untold stories and their continuing efforts through the Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee concentration camp, and its unique aspects will be covered. From 1942-1948, the US government imprisoned over 3,500 men, women, and children of German, Italian, and Japanese descent—residing in the U.S. and seized from Latin America—in this Department of Justice camp at Crystal City, TX. The program will explain what led to their unjust imprisonment and explore the devastating impacts and experiences from their forced displacement and detention. A panel of former internees and a descendant will share their families’ untold stories and their continuing efforts through the Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee.

Bekki Shibayama is the daughter of Carlos Isamu Art Shibayama, who was abducted from Lima, Peru and imprisoned at the Crystal City Family Internment Camp, and Betty (Morita) Shibayama, who was forcibly removed from Hood River, Oregon and incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka. Through her work with the Campaign for Justice: Redress NOW for Japanese Latin Americans! and the Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, Bekki carries forward her father’s legacy of activism by educating the public about the often-overlooked internment of Japanese Latin Americans and continuing the pursuit of justice in solidarity with other social justice movements. She also serves on the boards of the Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee and the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee.

Kazumu Julio Cesar Naganuma, the youngest of Iwaichi and Isoka Naganuma’s eight children was born in Callao, Peru. At 20 months of age, he and his family were kidnapped at gunpoint by the FBI. His father was given three days to pack up his family and belongings. They were taken to board an Army transport ship not knowing their destination.They landed in New Orleans and were taken by train to the Crystal City concentration camp in March 1944. Three and a half years later, they were released in September 1947. Reverend Fukuda and Attorney Wayne Mortimer Collins assisted to stop their deportation and helped them settle in San Francisco. 
Kaz formed NDD Creative, a communications and design firm in 1968. He is semiretired and continues to donate his professional services to his community. He is married, with a daughter, two sons / wife and partner, a granddaughter and a grandson. Kaz is the President of the Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee. 

Hiroshi Shimizu was born in Topaz War Relocation Center, UT and passed through Minidoka, ID, Ellis Island, and Rohwer, AR before arriving at Tule Lake, CA at six months of age. His parents spent a tumultuous two and a half years at Tule Lake, where they renounced their U.S. citizenship and thus, were refused release back to their home. Six months after the end of the war, the family, which now included a younger sister, was sent for continued incarceration to Crystal City Family Internment Camp. They were released in September 1947, two years after the war officially ended. Since 1966, Shimizu has served leadership positions in the Tule Lake Pilgrimage Planning Committee and the Tule Lake Committee Board of Directors. He is currently Vice-President of the Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee.

Image Credits: Densho Digital Repository. Used with permission. 

Presentación: La historia de una familia del campo de internamiento de Crystal City, Texas

Escuche el testimonio de una descendiente sobre el campo de internamiento familiar de Crystal City.
Bekki Shibayama comparte la historia de su familia durante el encarcelamiento en tiempos de guerra, incluyendo el secuestro de su padre en Perú y su encarcelamiento en Crystal City, así como la expulsión forzada y el encarcelamiento de su madre en campos en Oregón, California e Idaho. A partir de su trabajo en iniciativas comunitarias de memoria y justicia, Bekki arroja luz sobre el poco conocido internamiento de japoneses latinoamericanos y reflexiona sobre los efectos duraderos del desplazamiento forzado, el encarcelamiento y la continua búsqueda de justicia.
Bekki Shibayama es hija de Carlos Isamu Art Shibayama, quien fue secuestrado en Lima, Perú, y encarcelado en el campo de internamiento familiar de Crystal City, y de Betty (Morita) Shibayama, quien fue expulsada por la fuerza de Hood River, Oregón, y encarcelada en Tule Lake y Minidoka. A través de su trabajo con la campaña Campaign for Justice: Redress NOW for Japanese Latin Americans! y el Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project, Bekki continúa el legado de activismo de su padre al educar al público sobre el internamiento de japoneses latinoamericanos, un episodio a menudo pasado por alto, y al seguir impulsando la búsqueda de justicia en solidaridad con otros movimientos por la justicia social. También forma parte de las juntas directivas del Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee y del Nihonmachi Outreach Committee.
 

Connect: Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project - Website

Stretching from California’s southern border to northmost tip of Washington state, One Book, One Coast is a brand-new, multi-state community reading initiative that brings readers together around a shared book, sparking conversation, programs and reflection across the West Coast.

Our inaugural selection is They Called Us Enemy (2019), a graphic memoir by George Takei that recounts his childhood experience of incarceration alongside more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most of whom were U.S. citizens, following Executive Order 9066 in 1942. 

Read along March–May 2026 and join the programs and discussions it inspires.