Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

<Begin Segment 21>

MP: So okay. Let's talk about this, the year rule and the Alien Land Law repeal. Because you, when you came out, that law was still in effect when you came back --

TH: Well, there was a fellow by the name of Takeoka who had a, he had a law degree, but he wasn't a practicing attorney, and a lot of our people in our community don't realize how important this man was. Of course, he solicited business. That was a way for him to exist. But he organized the Alien Land Law committee, and there was I think, I had a picture of it, and people I loaned it to lost it.

MP: A picture of the committee?

TH: Yeah. I published a directory for JACL, the first one in 1948, and I had pictures of every committee that was organized in town, and our committee was on that. I was the youngest in there. So there was five Niseis our age and there was about five Isseis, and we formed a committee, and we ran around and raised money. You know how they raise money, the Japanese people?

MP: No.

TH: They get the most likely good looking guy to donate the most money to sign up first. He puts his name and the amount.

MP: And then that encourages others to --

TH: Yeah, to donate accordingly. "Well, if Ted's donating this kind of money, we're worth just as much. We'll do the same."

MP: So it gets to be a competition?

TH: Yes. But that's the way they collect money.

MP: You get the big donation first.

TH: Yeah. I was first because I was the only land owner.

MP: Because of the hotel?

TH: Yeah, here in Portland. I'm not talking about some of the farms. But anyway, we solicit all the Japanese in the State of Oregon, every place we thought there was Japanese existing. We went to Vancouver, Washington. There were a lot of them living over there, but they cared less about what we were doing.

MP: And you were raising money for?

TH: Yeah. We raised $17,000 to pay to Mr. Dusenbury.

MP: And Mr. Dusenbury was?

TH: He was the attorney that argued the case. I, there was another attorney that did all the dirty work. He did all, I forgot his name. I got it someplace.

MP: So you drove around the state?

TH: Yeah. And I used my car, my gasoline to run these gentlemen. I had three Issei people riding in the car. They had friends back in Ontario. I had friends, but I didn't stay with them. I stayed in a motel. I had paid my own way. I spent a lot of money, my own money. That's what my mother disliked. She said, "You know, you don't get paid for it. You're spending your time, aren't making money for us."

MP: So you basically volunteered your services?

TH: Yeah. Well, I thought it was important because we were the only owners of land at that time. But there were a lot of farmers that own land back then. They were old enough to buy land. See, when we bought ours, there weren't too many fellows of age that could buy or could buy land even if they were of age.

MP: So tell me how you then, what was your pitch? What did you say to people when you, to ask for money?

TH: Well, we explained the law to them as it was understood by us, and they agreed that it was well worth fighting, and most of them were very generous. In $17,000, there was only maybe five or six hundred subscribers, so, you know, we come up with a lot of money.

MP: And you made the directory of all the Japanese in --

TH: Yeah. It was an address book, see, with the phone numbers, and then I had pictures of all the organizations. And all the guys that advertise was all the hotel people, the grocery stores, and what not, you know. Even Meyer and Frank was in there. I had Robert Brothers, Rosenblatt's.

MP: How long did it take you to collect that $17,000?

TH: It took us about three, four months.

MP: Three or four months. What would be like an average donation? What were people able to give? You said they were generous.

TH: Well, some of them donated up in the four or five hundred dollars, but they didn't know, I don't talk, I was the one that first signed up to put $100 down. I had to fatten it to $500. [Laughs]

MP: Why?

TH: I felt a little embarrassed. I didn't have the money really, but I put it up.

MP: And then it was given to Dusenbury, and then how it was, then there was this lawsuit?

TH: Yeah. It was argued in court in Judge Solomon's court, I think, and I was too busy working. I didn't go to the hearings, but all the transcripts were, I could read if I wanted it. It was in his law office, says, "You can have it or we will make copies for you if you wish it." I said, "I don't want it as long as we beat them."

MP: And what was the result?

TH: Well, they rescinded. My parents could go out and buy land. And any foreigner could go out and buy land if they wanted to, and they didn't necessarily have to be citizens.

MP: So that was a major shift?

TH: The major, the bad part of that law read that they could, the State could confiscate land that was bought even by a citizen if their non-citizen parents were living with them. They could assume that they had an interest in the place.

MP: So they, you could, if you had a non-citizen...

TH: My father lived with me, for instance, who was born in Japan and wasn't a citizen. He wasn't allowed to become a citizen until the war was over, quite a bit longer. We fought for citizenship for our family, our Issei parents, and a lot of them became citizens. My mother never could because she never learned to read or write it.

MP: So you had to read and write to become a citizen?

TH: Yeah. But most, I think most of them were questioned in the immigration office in their native tongue. Some couldn't speak English. That's where Clinton, in a way, he did a service for the people that are minorities, you know. They could give testimony or answer questions in their native tongue. But when he passed the federal law requiring the government to put out, you know, like a voter's pamphlet or something, it's got to be in bilingual language. I had a list of languages there. There's ninety-seven or eight languages recognized. That's a lot of languages to interpret and, you know, for anything, for voting or for referral. I didn't believe in that. We're in America; you speak English. My dad used to tell us that all the time. He said, "You were born here. You American citizen. You speak English." And he used to speak English.

MP: So you don't think that, that speaking, I mean, that speaking, retaining the native language is --

TH: It's all right, but it should be a secondary language and not the primary one. You should learn to go out, be able to shop in English and be able to talk to somebody in the English as long as you are living in America.

MP: So when that, when that land law was repealed, were you, did you celebrate? Was it a happy time?

TH: No. It cost me a lot of money I thought at the time. [Laughs]

MP: So is there anything else you want to say about that?

TH: No. Well, I think I, I think there's a young fellow that's a veteran, a war veteran. He's running around giving speeches about that thing before different groups that want to hear about the evacuation claim, I mean not the evacuation claim but the Alien Land Law, and I think he's taking a lot of credit for which he didn't really earn. I'm not going to even name names.

MP: Well, I want to thank you for this --

TH: Well, you're welcome.

MP: -- this fabulous interview.