Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

<Begin Segment 18>

MP: And then you said, you'd made a statement about the, when the evacuation came that the Italian produce, well, producers, whatever, weren't too, I mean, nice to you.

TH: No. See the Japanese people were truck, berry farmers and truck gardeners if they were in the farming business, and they controlled a lot of the market people. The Italians were the strongest in there because they were peddlers, you know. They took, bought the fresh vegetables, they didn't raise it, but a lot of them were farmers. But they occupied, they acquired Japanese farms. The Japanese farms weren't owned; they used to lease them. Japanese couldn't own land, so they were leasing them. But they acquired their leases, and they acquired their crop, you know. And we had to evacuate in, most of them in April and May, and that's when strawberries start to come out. Strawberries used to come out a lot earlier than now. Nowadays, it's late June before you start to pick strawberries here in this country. This is a different variety and it doesn't mature as fast.

MP: They're probably now raised more for shipping or something than --

TH: Our berries don't ship. We raise the sweet berries that don't keep too long. It's the California berries that are the everbearing that they have down there that is being shipped all over. I got some strawberries that are a week old, they look fresh yet. I just haven't opened it. I didn't know what was in the container. My daughter brought it I guess Monday, last Monday. That's a whole week, through the weekend, but they look fresh yet, and that's the advantage of California strawberries. They can ship the thing and demand the price for it because it's looks fresh all the time. So grocery stores don't lose money on strawberries, but they do on local. That's why they will not sell locals.

MP: And that's why the berry crop here is going, disappearing practically?

TH: Well, no. What they're doing is they make beautiful jam, frozen or, you know, regular preserves, and there's a call for jams. It gets mixed with California berries, and they put it out. The raspberries are good here. But like loganberries, some of the old berries that they used to raise, they're gone. The farmers don't raise them. There's no market for it.

MP: Because they don't hold.

TH: Well, if you don't see it, you're not going to buy it or try it.

MP: So also, what about, so that was the, so the Italians sort of took advantage of this opportunity and purchased, did they purchase the crops or --

TH: I say steal it. They stole a lot --

MP: Why?

TH: Well, the people couldn't harvest it anyway, you know. They were here, I mean, they were evacuated, and the farmers just took over the lease.

MP: They weren't, nobody was paid for those crops or --

TH: Some of them paid. Some people paid, but they didn't pay a fair price.

MP: And were they, did they just pay you a part of what it was worth?

TH: Yeah. They, yeah, I would say so. I'm not too familiar with the farms. But in town there, I could have bought brand new cars for seven or eight hundred dollars. They didn't have hardly any mileage on them. And our hotel was big enough where you could store two, three cars. There used to be a garage there on the main floor, and I told my dad, I'd like to buy two, three of those cars. I don't know how long the war is going to last, but it's cheap.

MP: And why was it so cheap?

TH: Well, there's seven or eight hundred dollars. That's all they were offered for the cars that they were paying maybe $1,200 or $1,300 for, brand new ones, practically new. A lot of people bought cars just before the war.

MP: So was that just because of the economy that everything was cheap, or was it --

TH: No, no.

MP: I'm missing something here, I think.

TH: It was a chance, it was mostly Jewish people that bought those things, you know. We had over a hundred hotel operators in Portland. Most of the hotels were all leased, not, all of them were with the exception of ours. They couldn't buy us out because it was ours. But people bought the leases back off of the owners of the building, but they didn't pay them anything for it. Lots of them had to just up and leave with whatever they could carry.

MP: That's why I was curious how long that period was. I mean to dispose of property particularly, how was that done?

TH: They had a very short time, I remember, because they had to sell, well, whatever they could get for it, they sold. I know a lot of people bought brand new refrigerators and, I could have bought dozens of those darn things cheap. I told Dad, "Here's your chance to make money." He says, "You don't want to make money on the misery of others." "But how about a retail store? They make money." "Yeah, but they don't have to have a conscience. You know the people that you're buying it from." So in there, he would never stand for that.

MP: So were those the cars of Japanese that had to leave then?

TH: That's right.

MP: That's why they were cheap.

TH: I had a car available because one of my employees, at the hotel employee had a car, and he allowed me to use it any time I wanted.