Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Norm Hayashi Interview
Narrator: Norm Hayashi
Interviewer: Virginia Yamada
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: March 12, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-468-6

<Begin Segment 6>

VY: Yeah, so tell me... well, actually, let's go to Topaz. So how old were you when you were in Topaz?

NH: Two years old.

VY: Two years old?

NH: No, well, two and a half, probably, '42, early '42 we went.

VY: So do you have any memories at all of that time?

NH: It's just like kids, I remember being hot, too much noise, because we were so clustered together. Separation of showers, clanging of the dishes, a bully.

VY: A bully?

NH: That really stands out. I went to a preschool they had, and I had to cross into another barrack area. And coming back, there's kind of (borderline between barrack groups), there's two guys waiting for me. And I forgot if they extorted... you know, I didn't have money in those days, I don't know what they wanted. They looked ten feet tall, probably only sixth graders or so. And one day I didn't come home when I was supposed to, my mom came back, when to school, and (I was in) the school, killing time. She found out that these guys were bullying me. (Narr. note: After that she would wait for me at the barrack line.)

VY: So you were staying at school to kind of stay away from them?

NH: Yeah, I didn't go home when I was supposed to.

VY: You must have been so little at that time.

NH: Yeah, about four years old, maybe. I remember that. I was a shy kid, sickly. So I got kind of picked on all the time or something.

VY: Well, and you were the oldest of all your siblings, so your mother and father had a lot of little children to take care of.

NH: Correct.

VY: Were any of your siblings born in camp?

NH: My other brother, yes, Patrick, the third one, was born in '43, '44, I believe.

VY: Do you remember that?

NH: No. And my dad, after a certain amount of time in the camp, they were okay to go outside of camp and work. So my dad and my uncle went to Chicago, they actually lived there, worked in the shipyards and machine shops, and occasionally they would come home, and my dad, I'd run away from him. That was the hard part, he was a stranger to me. And I think, in a way, that affected my whole relationship with him growing up.

VY: Because he was gone most of the time?

NH: Yeah. There's a certain level of intimacy that (we never attained as father and son). Even working with him over the years is just... I don't know, could have been our personalities (don't jive), too.

VY: So when you say that your dad and your uncle would go to Chicago and work in the shipyard and then come back home, home was Topaz.

NH: Correct.

VY: I see.

NH: And it's only for a short (visit). So in that period, too, then essentially my mom was taking care of my grandparents and the kids, a big burden for my mom.

VY: How old was she at this time?

NH: She must have been late twenties... wait a minute, she was born in '20, 1920, so she was fairly young yet. And my mom had a heart problem so she was sickly all the time, sick, at that time. I didn't realize it 'til later.

VY: Do you remember your grandmother helping out?

NH: No, I don't. I guess I kind of, lot of those things just kind of took for granted.

VY: You were very young.

NH: Yeah.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.