Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

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MP: Then your family was in Minidoka for how long then?

TH: My mother stayed through the bitter end.

MP: '45?

TH: Yes, to the end of '45. I think it was September is when I went after her.

MP: Did you go back and visit them then? You were outside working then?

TH: I was taking care of the hotel already. See, I was the first one back after they, you know, revoked the exclusion act, and I can't think of the guy's name yet. To this day, he ran Packer Scott. He was president of Packer Scott. He came to welcome me back when I got my picture in the paper. Because of that I said, "Gee, is that necessary?" He says, "Well, we want to welcome you back." And he says, "If you have any problems, you give us a call." He was a nice fellow. That's why I went in the janitorial business that he would, he would sell me stuff, so I could resell it and make money.

MP: So were there people then that, I mean, Caucasian people that felt this was like not, this evacuation, whole thing, was just a little over the top, I mean that it was unfair?

TH: Well , I think, well, there were a lot of educated Caucasian people that were well aware of what was going on, and they, they thought it was unfair to do what they, the government did. I had a schoolteacher that I was a teacher's pet you might say, and she was a dean of Lincoln High School, and she never married until late in life. But she was a nice teacher, and I was a star student in her class. When I came back and I called her, she said, "Why don't you come and visit me at school?" She didn't want me to go to her home which I always did before. I used to sit there, eat with her. I used to go to her home freely, but she didn't want me to go, be seen with, you know, outside of public gathering, so she had me come to school. I said, "Thank you," but I never did go back to her.

MP: Was this after the war?

TH: Yes. When I first came back, I called her, and she was happy to talk to me, but she didn't want to be seen in public with me, I mean, want to be seen in public with me.

MP: She didn't want a Japanese coming to her home?

TH: That's right. So I felt ostracized and figured, I never went back to see her again.

MP: So do you think she then changed her attitude after, through the war?

TH: Yeah. I don't think that she felt any animosity towards the Japanese people, but that's the way she made me feel. I might have taken it wrong.

MP: Well, was that, was that a common reaction that Caucasians didn't want to be with Japanese? I mean, was there, was there, was there any interaction at all?

TH: I got crucified in the Presbyterian church one day. They asked me to come and talk about my experiences in camp. And they asked me some pointed questions, you know, that were kind of touchy as far as I was concerned. I didn't think it was very fair for a learned person to put me on a spot like that.

MP: Do you remember what, anything that he asked you?

TH: No. I just wiped him out of my mind, but I do know that he tried to embarrass me.

MP: So they invited you there to speak and then kind of embarrassed you?

TH: He asked questions that were a little touchy. I wasn't too happy anyway.

MP: So just, you know, going, I mean, was there, did you, yourself, associate with any Caucasian, or were you mostly with your Japanese friends?

TH: No. I had a lot of Caucasians friends that I actually grew up with. I think, I consider my association with Caucasian, I think more and more with Caucasian than with my own people. Not so much today because there's, most of them have passed away. But I go to all their funerals. And all the Jewish kids that I grew up with, I go to their funerals, and most of them came to my wife's funeral.

MP: Tell me about when you did come back and you went up to Seattle, too, right?

TH: Yeah. My in law, father-in-law owned an apartment up in Seattle, and he wasn't getting any money off the darn thing, and he was always delinquent in his payment that he was making payments on the thing. But anyway, I went to a real estate company, and they offered me a price that I thought was fair considering what he paid for. I think he only paid 8,000 for the thing before the war, and they offered me something like 14 or $15,000, and so I said, "Well, it's okay, cash." He paid me cash, and I took it back to him, and he was happy to get it. But the following year, that property sold for $60,000, and boy, he really held it against me and always mentioned it. He said, "You know, I give you a lot of credit. I thought you were a good business man."

MP: At the time.

TH: Yeah. At the time, I was. It was a good price for it.