Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

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MP: Yeah. That's a question I wanted to ask you. What were you allowed to take in? What did your family take?

TH: My family were a healthy people. They didn't take in any food, but they took in lots of clothes, you know, because they knew it's going to be winter back there when they, they had, there was no rooms around, the Heart Mountain was started before Minidoka, and they found out where they were going, the interior, and the country is pretty wild, so they made sure that they had heavy shoes and, you know, heavy clothing.

MP: And then how did, I mean when that notice came, how much time did, was there to decide what you're going to take and, you know, what, how to dispose of things?

TH: Yeah. I don't remember exactly how much time we had, but I think, after United States declared war against Japan, I remember December 7th. That's when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. But I went back to school, my dad told me to finish school which I tried to finish, but I didn't, and I was going back and forth every weekend because my dad was ill in the hospital. I think, I think they had less than a month.

MP: Did, but you looked after the hotel, and meantime, your sisters and your mom and your brother went to the assembly center?

TH: I went with them.

MP: And you went with them?

TH: Yeah. I had to take them out there.

MP: And did they take mementoes with them at all?

TH: No, hardly anything. You were allowed what you could carry as an individual, so everybody had a duffle bag and a suitcase for some of the personal things. The duffle bag, you had clothing and shoes and stuff like that, but you couldn't take, they didn't know whether they had to have cooking implements. They didn't know what to take except clothing.

MP: And that was it?

TH: That was it, their personal things.

MP: Did they, then was it possible to buy things in the camp?

TH: Yeah. They, afterwards, I think they, I recall that they had, I don't know what you call it. They had a first aid station. They had a repair shop for radios which was a no-no too. But for local station, you couldn't get shortwave, that's all. You can get radios that played local stations. But they had a, what do they call these, a PX, like a PX, a store you could buy things, and people run that, and the government took all the profits off of that. But there was a fellow by the name Don Sugai and Roy something, I couldn't recall his name before, but they ran a fresh fruit stand. And they called me one day and asked me if I could drive a truck, and I said, "Yeah, how big?" And they asked me to bring out a load of watermelon and oranges in July from Pacific Fruit. I said, "Well, how come they won't deliver it?" He says, "Well, the truck drivers, the union won't allow them to take it out there because you're enemy aliens." Okay. "Well, I'll drive it out there, but somebody got to come after the truck. I'm not going to drive it back." And I took the load out there, and they drove it in, and they parked it outside the compound after they got through unloading it, but they had a great time. They had to get ice special to cool the watermelon.

MP: It was hot then?

TH: Yeah. It was very hot in that building. And I think to supplement whatever refreshments, they actually bought, bought that with their money.

MP: So you drove this semi truck load of fruit out to the --

TH: I think it was approximately five tons on that thing. That's a lot of fruit.

MP: And you could come and go in and out of the camp?

TH: Yes. I had a pass, so they recognized me in the end. I didn't even bother showing it. The main guard, I would always go a certain day and time. I went usually in the afternoon, and then in the evening, I went home. I visited my dad again, and I ran the hotel there.