Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Seichi Hayashida Interview
Narrator: Seichi Hayashida
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), Sheri Nakashima (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: August 21, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-hseichi-01-0008

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SN: And, can you tell me a little bit more about the other businesses that were in Bellevue? I'm just trying to get an idea as to how self-supporting the community was. You talked about, like the public hall, and the schools and the farms. Were there other Japanese-run businesses in the area that you can tell me a little bit about?

SH: Yes, there was a... the farmers got together and decided to build a co-op. Today, it would be called a co-op. They built and called a... the group, the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association, Inc. They built their own shed on, on a railroad siting, and they did hire a Caucasian plant manager, shed manager, but they shipped cauliflower, peas. Mainly the products were cauliflower and peas. Strawberries weren't shipped. Strawberries were hauled daily to the Seattle Public Market, or Seattle wholesale houses.

AI: Speaking of strawberries, I think you had mentioned at an earlier time, that there were a lot of strawberry growers among the Japanese farmers. Can you tell a little bit about that?

SH: Yes. I would say most of the strawberry... well, all of the strawberries in Bellevue was grown by Japanese. There were very few, if, any Caucasian farmers that raised strawberries that I, I could recall. We furnished the strawberries free to the Bellevue Strawberry Festival, which was an annual fair. I don't know if... do they have it now?

AI: Well, now, I heard that it was stopped during World War II.

SH: Oh.

AI: Perhaps that was because...

SH: Because they didn't get the strawberries. It was an annual affair.

AI: And, did the entire Bellevue community attend, both Caucasian and...

SH: Yes, uh-huh, both Caucasian and... It was a much awaited, anticipated affair, it was about the biggest thing that was happening in Bellevue in those days, I'm talking about in the '20s through the '40s. But after the evacuation, the farmers left and didn't come back. I think that's about the time the Strawberry Festival ended in Bellevue. It was a well-known festival at that time. People came from all around.

AI: Well now, also, speaking of before the war, can you tell me a little bit more about the relations in general between the Caucasian community and the Japanese American community?

SH: Oh, I think that it was probably... I would say we didn't have any trouble, I don't recall. There was once in a while, somebody would make some wisecrack, or call us "Japs." I've been in a few fights because of that. I was fortunate to have a little judo. I didn't mention earlier in the interview, but we did have a judo club. And about a half of those that were eligible showed up, took judo lessons for several years up until we left. I was fortunate, I did it until I got a first-degree black belt, and I have used it only once, that was to protect myself. One day while I was still going to high school -- I was in senior year -- there used to be a, just like in any school, it was a bully. He'd always pick on me because I was smallest in the class. So one recess, he, he picked on me, he kept picking on me every day. And we used to take the same bus to school, and he'd work on me on the bus, and I kept up, tried to protect myself. But in the meantime I was learning judo. And, I think in my senior year I got a black belt, shodon rank. So, in school one day he came around the corner to school and started the same thing, and I picked him up and threw him over my head and sat on him and choked him until he gave up. And, you know what happens in a schoolyard fight, every kid, they come around and gather round. Once the principal heard about it, we got called up and called on the carpet, and I think I had to stay after school for a whole week, hour or so after school. But the kids saw that happen and nobody bothered me after that incident. That was my... about middle of my senior year in high school.

AI: So it sounds like that was a, that one particular guy was a bully, but in general, relations were good?

SH: In general... I would say, I've met other people from other parts of the state during the time I was in camp and it seems that our relations in the community were probably better than most.

AI: And in your high school class, about what number of Japanese Americans were there in comparison with the rest of the class?

SH: I graduated in the class of '37, Bellevue High School, and I think there was, ten or eleven were Japanese Americans.

AI: Out of a total of...

SH: Fifty.

AI: And, were there any other ethnic minorities at that time, in your class?

SH: There was one Armenian. That was about all. There was no African American in our class at that time. That was class of '37.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.