Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

<Begin Segment 5>

MP: Were you required to go to language school? I mean, was that pretty much a requirement in the Japanese community for everybody?

TH: Yeah. Almost everybody had, if they had children, they went to Japanese language school. It was two hours after you got out of school. School usually let kids out by three o'clock. We went to school about four until dinner time.

MP: So that was in grade school between, when you finished school then you went to the language --

TH: As long as you wanted. I guess you could, they allowed you to go up into the high school, but I didn't make it. I went as far as the sixth grade, then I went back to third grade, but I learned it well.

MP: Do you think you were like a rebel?

TH: Yeah, I guess so. I was kind of, yeah, self-appointed bully, I guess. There was two, three guys that were growing up in our neighborhood. One is a pretty well-known fellow. He, I don't think he invented the plastic lenses, you know, but he has a big factory back there in Chicago. And there was a Jimmy Hongo, was a great fisherman, and Tom Oki who, I don't know what he did, but he was back in Illinois too. But those guys were the bullies, and they used to take our pants off and take our shoes off, make us walk home.

MP: Was that in grade school?

TH: Yeah. We were, they were in high school, but we were in grade school when I became a bully. When they, when they graduated high school, I took my turn.

MP: What grade school did you go to?

TH: I went to Ladd originally, and then I transferred to Shattuck. A lot of people don't remember that school, but where the Portland Museum is, that's where the Ladd School used to be. And I went to Shattuck, and I actually graduated from Lincoln High School.

MP: So you were in the, you were living at that time in the, in the hotel. In the Columbia Hotel?

TH: That's when I was sixteen, I guess. That's about the time that we bought the hotel and moved into it.

MP: And that's how you could go to Lincoln High School because you were in that neighborhood then?

TH: Yeah. I think, well, the Hachi Rooms was on Third and, I mean Second and Taylor. The building is still there where the old sign down there is. It's called Hachi Rooms, but it's empty because it's been condemned. It's an old brick building. A woman by the name of Mrs. Wood owned the darn thing, but I think it passed down to her estate. I don't know why they don't sell it or tear it down. It's kind of just junky. It's got a bar downstairs, secondhand store on the main floor, and the upper floors are empty, I understand. It was condemned.

MP: Have you been there to look at it? Did you go?

TH: Oh, yeah. I pass by there so, you know, every time I go downtown, I pass by there.

MP: Is that nostalgic for you when you look at it or --

TH: No. It isn't, doesn't hold a, that's where I took a beating. [Laughs] It doesn't hold good memories for me.

MP: What's all that about?

TH: I'm not going to, I'm not going to say.

MP: Now, you mentioned your brother, Hiram?

TH: Yeah.

MP: Did you have other siblings?

TH: I have two sisters. One is named Yoshiko, and she's in Hawaii, and Masako was married to Dr. Oyama here in town. You know, strange part of it, I have four boys in the family, and I have one 6' 4" and the other one is 6' 2" and the other is 5' 11", same height as I am. But my sister's boys are all 6 feet. I don't know why my oldest sister, well, I say older, she's below Hiram. She has two sons and both are 6 feet. My sister, Masako, she has three boys, and they are all 6 feet.

MP: Were your parents tall?

TH: My mother was considered tall. She was 5'3" or 4", and Dad was about 5'8", but they were considered tall for our people.

MP: Did the girls in your family get off easier than the boys?

TH: Oh, yeah. I had to look out for, they led a protected life, I tell you. My dad always made me look after them. I even had to tutor the youngest one. She didn't remember it, but then I said, "I tutored, I had to tutor you in reading. When I was in high school, you were in grade school having a tough time."

MP: That was in English reading, obviously?

TH: Yeah. But Yoshiko was pretty, well, she was a better than average student, and she got along real fine, but she was a domesticated. She didn't go on to college. She's the only one that didn't go on to college because she didn't want to. She went to business school.