Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

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MP: Today we're interviewing Ted Hachiya on March 4, 2003. And Ted, you indicated that your memory goes back as far as when you were two and a half years old, so I'm curious, what is it that you remember from that time?

TH: Well, I could tell you where I was raised up to that two and a half years old, which is on Ninth and Couch, Northwest Ninth and Couch. It was a block away from the armory, the old armory, and I remember the rabbits that my grandfather used to raise in the backyard. And when we, when Dad bought a rooming house in Portland, I remember moving. And he was, he exported, besides being a bell hop and a cook, I think he was exporting motorcycles, Indian motorcycles. In part, there was a duty on it if you send it whole, so you used to part it. And I remember he stepped on a nail one day, and he was out for about two or three weeks there with an infection for stepping on a nail, went right through his foot. That's all I remember. Oh, I remember Grandma. I used to give her fits, I guess. She used to chase me around the kitchen, and she dropped her false teeth on the floor, and it broke. I thought is it was so funny, and I laughed and laughed, and she got madder and madder. That's about all I remember, but I did have a grandmother and a grandfather here, I guess, in America. It either has to be back in 1923 or '4.

MP: You, I liked to hear what, you know, you remember about your father. You indicated that he was pretty strict.

TH: Yes. He was a disciplinarian more or less according to Japanese custom. I was the firstborn son, and he taught me from the time I can remember things that an oldest son had to take care of the affairs of the family if he passed on, and he, I guess, he made rules as he went along of what he wanted done if something ever happened to him. But he was a young person at that age. That's about all I can remember of my father. But he was a disciplinarian, and he, boy, he didn't lay off the switch or the... he used to use a rubber hose with lead inside that he used to keep as a safeguard, you know, the rooming house that he ran because he used to get a lot of riffraff, you know, in that area. And he hit me a couple times with that darn thing, and I prayed to God, you know, I didn't die.

MP: What did he hit you for?

TH: Well, the one particular time that, I remember the last time he hit me was when one of the boys in the neighborhood stole money from his family. I don't think I said it before, but he took the money, it was ten dollars. They were barbers, they ran a barbershop and the laundry down below our newly acquired hotel, and I think I was around eight or nine years old at the time. But this family found out that the boy took the money, but we helped him spend the money. But I was more or less a kind of a leader, I guess. See, he didn't want to take the money home, what change there was. I think we spent I think maybe five or six dollars of the ten, original ten, but there was four silver dollars left. And god, of all places to hide it, I put it underneath the rug that led up to our rooming house. And by, the folks found out that the boy stole money, and they called my dad, and my dad asked me if I stole it. I said, "I didn't steal the money. I helped spend it." But he said that's just like stealing, and he whipped me with that rubber hose. I actually rolled under the bed to escape him. I remember praying to God at the time. It's the first time I ever asked God besides, oh, I guess it was the first time I prayed to God to save me. I didn't know anything about God, but I did go to, you know, church and knew that there was a higher being.

[Interruption]

TH: What part do you want to hear? You want to hear about my, taking a bath with glasses on? My eyesight was so bad that I couldn't even shower without glasses.

MP: When you got in a fight, what did you do with your glasses? Did you take them off?

TH: Oh, yeah. If I broke my glasses, they were made out of glass in the old days, and now it's plastic, plastic lens. And we don't have that problem, but I used to just throw 'em aside so they wouldn't break them because my dad would give me old age. He was really strict. I used to break glasses all the time because I was always in a scrap. But I was kind of a, oldest brother. I had a younger brother, Hiram, and he'd start fights and always bring it to me to finish. But being the oldest brother, I suppose I took care of most of his problems.

MP: What were Hiram's fights about?

TH: He always got in an argument. He, you know, he liked to talk a lot, and he used to get into arguments with guys. People used to tease him. He was almost as big as I, but he wasn't, wasn't the kind that defended himself. I was a boss in my neighborhood.