Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

<Begin Segment 22>

MP: You told me this story about you were called up to the war by the army, and then what happened because I forgot to --

TH: I know I was a poor effort to begin with because I had been rejected once. But when I got to final, everybody, while they were, you know, dragging in people that were disabled and whatnot, you know, and I got called to report to Fort Douglas for induction. So I made, I got my wife ready to go back to camp, you know, stay with the family and, or with mine, it didn't matter. Anyway, I went through this health check-up, you know, it was that bend over process, and I should have got a pink slip at that time because he asked me to read the thing. I can read the E, that's all. But I rattled off about three or four lines, and he says, "It's not correct." God, I didn't know they had changed eye charts. I memorized the one in Jerome, you know, and I read the chart, and it was different than the one at the Hart Hospital. He says, "You want to get in the army that bad?" I says, "Well, I figure I got to go do my duty, you know, just like the rest of the guys." I was not afraid to go, and I was the oldest son. My dad didn't want me to go because he had, he figured I should take care the family. But I, my brother and I actually fought over that. I said, "One of us should go, you know, and do our share." He was going to Boise College at the time. He didn't want to go, but he's not a fighter. He's a big boy, just as big as I am, but he's not a fighter. He will back off, try to talk you out of it.

MP: So when you, when they sent you to Fort, they sent you then to Fort Douglas and what happened?

TH: I don't know. Anybody that's been inducted know that you're quartered in the barracks. And the sergeant that took care of the barracks was playing cards one day, and I was playing cards with the boys, and he asked me to run the table for him, which means that you furnish the cards and the chips, and you take a percentage out of each pot. But he found out I was adept in making money for him. He didn't give me my pink slip right away. I could have left there, you know, right after physical. He kept me just because I was making money for him that first night. He kept me almost two weeks without a pink slip.

MP: So after you had the physical and you didn't, and the eye chart was all, you couldn't even read the eye chart, what did they tell you? How did he keep you there?

TH: Well, he can keep you for stenographic work, you know. I told him, "Hey, I can't even take a bath without my glasses. I can't see my toes."

MP: But you still had to stay there and wait for this pink slip?

TH: Yeah. They give you what they call a pink slip. It's a rejection form, and they mark it 4-F, reaffirm the 4-F again. But he found out I was adept at running a table, card table. I made money for him the first night that we were quartered there. See, after they quarter you, they, I don't know. It took a couple days before you took your physical anyway. But I spent a lot of time in the barracks. I didn't go anyplace, and I played cards.

MP: And then how long did you have to stay --

TH: Two weeks he kept me, and my wife was afraid to go back because she didn't know, I didn't leave, you know, the Fort Douglas there. That's in, right by the campus there. By the way, I went to University of Utah too.

MP: Oh, that's one you didn't tell me about. [Laughs]

TH: Hey, I was making more money than the professors. And the girls in the office told the professors, and they raised heck, and I got fired, not fired. They cut my hours down.

MP: At University of Utah?

TH: Uh-huh.

MP: What were you making money there?

TH: You know, the average wage was around seventy-five cents an hour, but I was making a lot of money because my time, you know, you're supposed to check out on the time card, I never went out. I worked there 24 hours a day, and I collected it because I organized their kitchen. They had what they call a, I think a V-9 program. It was a navy program. I had 1200 students there they were feeding. And I had applied for a job there as a kitchen helper. They found out that I can do a lot of things in the kitchen that the women volunteers couldn't do, and they had me order equipment in there. Yeah, I ordered a lot of equipment. We made our first pancake batter out of a, we used a garbage can and a canoe paddle. We had the women stir it, and they couldn't stir the darn thing. I had to hire boys to do it, you know that?

MP: So you just punched in and you didn't punch out?

TH: I went to school, come back, and worked again.

MP: Twenty-four-hour shift?

TH: Yeah. How can a man work twenty-four hours? I says, "Well, I'm thinking all the time." My brain never shut down. But then, you know, I think the law, I mean the professors were only making around $300, $350 a month, that was tops.

MP: And how much were you making?

TH: Well, around $400. [Laughs]

MP: How long did you last?

TH: Two months, then they cut my time down. "You work six hours, and that's all." "That's all. I don't want to work." I can make more money in the produce market. I don't think I was money mad, but I was always adept at making money.

MP: Definitely.

TH: Well, I don't flash it around, you know. A lot of kids, they have an idea that I got money, but I don't drive the world's biggest car. My wife had the Caddy, and I don't buy a car every other year or anything. I don't have the best home in town either, you know. My kids have better looking homes than I do. Can you beat that? See that big TV screen, that's brand new. You know, the kids gave me that for Christmas. I said, "What are you guys doing?" I said, "I don't want, I don't want clothes." They buy me the wrong size. I got to go change it, you know, and I don't look good in it. I don't like it. Buy me food instead. Well, the food don't last very long around here. Well, you guys get the food back. I says, "Why don't you buy the canned stuff that you know I use." That's why I got all those big canned stuff there.