Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

<Begin Segment 16>

MP: And then what did you do during that month in camp?

TH: I didn't do much really because my dad was so anxious to get well. He was out exercising all the time. I think that's what killed him too because he's supposed to be resting. I don't remember too much. But I used to remember the rations were so slim that we, Jack Yoshihara, Bill Saito, and Will Sata, there was four of us that ran around from one mess hall to the other.

MP: Doing what?

TH: Eating.

MP: Was that allowed?

TH: Well, we were big guys, and we didn't threaten them, but we looked tough. And the head cook was good friends of my family, you know, so hey, feed them if you have leftovers. They used to take all the leftovers home anyway, you know.

MP: So they'd either take it home or throw it out so they might as well --

TH: Well, they didn't throw anything away, I tell you. They had a pig farm where they fed, the pigs had all the leftovers. They didn't, they were very cautious about throwing food away.

MP: But, so it would be the cooks that would take the food, the extra food home to their own pig farms?

TH: Well, the pig farm was a community thing anyway.

MP: You mean in the camp?

TH: In camp. There was big gardens and big enough to be self-sufficient.

MP: So there was a vegetable garden and a hog farm or the hog operation. What else?

TH: And a dairy farm. That's all I remember on that because I wasn't a farmer then. I know a lot more about it now, but I have my own farm.

MP: Were you gambling in the camp too in Minidoka?

TH: Yeah. I gambled until I learned my lesson down there in Vegas. I played a little poker sometime, and I played a little bridge sometime. I don't find it too amusing anymore.

MP: So when did you give up the gambling after the Las Vegas --

TH: Yeah, yeah. After the $8,500 crap --

MP: Fiasco. How old were you then?

TH: Well, I must have been twenty-two or three.

MP: Well, you got cured young.

TH: Yeah, I did. My brother, god, he was kind of an addict there. I used to win all his money back gambling. I don't know, play stock market as a freebie. If I don't put any money in, I make money. When I invest in it, I lose money. That's strange, so I don't play the stock market.

MP: So I'm curious, was this gambling thing, was that a particularly Japanese deal or did all kids do that?

TH: No. I think the Chinese and the Japanese and the Filipinos are pretty heavy gamblers. The Caucasian people are big gamblers, are big, really big. When you say big gamblers, you know, they think nothing about dropping five, six hundred dollars. I've seen guys in Vegas lose a million, two million.

MP: Do you go to Las Vegas now? I mean --

TH: I don't have any interest in it. I go see the shows sometime. The last time I was in there was for my brother-in-law's 100th birthday. He had a birthday party given to him. He lives in Los Angeles so it isn't too far. It's a four-hour ride for him. But for us to go fly down there, well, fly down is only about two hours I guess, not quite two hours.