Densho Digital Archive - Seichi Hayashida Interview (denshovh-hseichi-01-0006)

<Begin Segment 6>

SN: You were talking about your father leasing 10 acres of land, initially, when they went to Bellevue? Could you explain why they could not purchase land?

SH: He could have purchased the land, he just didn't have the money to buy the land. There was only about $500 difference what my dad offered, he told me later, and what the man owned it wanted to sell it for. Now, $500 today is... week's pay for some. But $500 was the difference, and he said, "Well, if you want that much, I'll just lease it." So he leased it so many years, and never did buy it. If he had've, it would've been nice... if he was able to buy it. But, I guess at that time they didn't have that kind of terms, $500, say a $100 a year, now that's be more like $100 a week. I'm talking about 1926, '7, '8, right during the Depression, so he said, "Okay, I'll just lease it." And he never did... he ended up paying over the price that he wanted for several times, at $300 a year lease.

SN: And, was this typical for other Issei farmers?

SH: It's not typical. Half of the farmers, or more than half, probably owned their land. The other percentage, I don't know what the percentage split is, I would say, 60 percent owned, and 40 percent leased or rented the land, from what I could remember, what I've heard.

SN: And, my understanding was that the Issei could not purchase land. Do you know if they were able to buy this land? How did they, how did other farmers purchase this land?

SH: When their oldest child became old enough, eighteen I think it was, they purchased it in their offspring's name, son or daughter. Lot of titles were in the daughter, the oldest was a daughter, well, the title, they could buy it in their name.

SN: This is due to the alien land laws during that time?

SH: Right.

SN: Did he actually have to clear the land?

SH: No, my dad didn't have to clear the land. The first Isseis that started farming in Bellevue area cleared the land.

SN: Do you know how they did that?

SH: No, I'm not familiar with it. The people... they used a lot of dynamite to clear the stumps and stuff. And I have heard of people getting hurt pretty bad, some accidents, blasting accidents. I'm surprised the kind of work they had to do with the limited knowledge that they had, when they first started. And the farms in Bellevue were as good as any farm in the area, in the state, western Washington.