Densho Digital Archive - Ted Hachiya Interview (denshovh-hted

<Begin Segment 8>

MP: Let's go back. You said something about being a "woman hater" in college, I mean, quote, unquote.

TH: Yeah. I was a football player and a wrestler and a judo man, and we just didn't date girls those days. We paid to, more time to working out all the time. I don't think I disliked women, it's just that I didn't know how to get along with them, you know, having associated with men or boys all my life. I had sisters, but I had nothing to do with them.

MP: Did you date at all?

TH: Yeah. When I graduated high school, that was the first date I made, and she was the prettiest girl in town. Her name was Ruth Nishino. But I didn't know how to dance, you know, and I had a friend that was there. He danced with her most of the time, and I thought to myself I'm not, I'm either going to learn how to dance or I'm not going to date anymore. And I had paid all the expenses, you know, like the little dinner or whatever, refreshment we enjoyed. I remember going to Jolly Joann with her.

MP: Jolly Joan?

TH: Jolly Joann they called it. There was a little soda fountain, you know, hamburger place on Broadway. That was a kind of hangout for a lot of high schoolers in those days. I don't think they had Dairy Queen, but they had soft ice cream place. I forgot what they called it. Anyway, you didn't spend a lot of money. Of course, kids didn't have a lot of money in those days. I remember the first job I got, $85 a month I worked, and I worked like a dog.

MP: What was that job?

TH: I worked under my dad after school, you know, working at the Arlington Club. Dad was a great believer in doing a lot of things, you know. I went to Alaska in 1936 and worked at the cannery, and my first paycheck was $450 for the season. That was three month's work. That was a lot of money. First thing I bought was a bicycle that he wouldn't allow me to have because the city streets were too dangerous he used to say. I rode it for about three months, and I gave it to my brother. [Laughs]

MP: How old were you then?

TH: Let's see. I remember I was a sophomore in high school, so I had to be thirteen or fourteen.

MP: That was very young to be working up in Alaska.

TH: Oh, yeah. Well, my dad was, I was a big boy. You wear overalls and you look older than you really are. I don't know why. But anyway, I told them I was eighteen, and they allowed me to go up to Alaska. I went up there three years.

MP: But your dad said you could go?

TH: Well, he's the one that got the job for me. He had a friend who was, I guess they called him, I forgot what they called him. What he does was supply the labor, and he runs the kitchen and the paychecks. He be sure that he gets his money first, then whatever is left was given to you. But I remember the older fellows. They all gamble when they're up there and nothing to do in the evenings. But when the fishing season was on, you worked eighteen hours a day at the cannery. You had to can them as fast as you can; otherwise, they spoil. That was way up in the, I guess in the Bering Sea. Bristol Bay is where I went. I was way up north.

MP: Did, were there other Japanese there?

TH: Oh, yeah. There was other canneries too up there. There was two or three canneries that operated in Bristol Bay, and most of them had Filipino and Japanese workers. I didn't see too many Chinese people there. The Chinese people were down there around Ketchikan area.

MP: What were they doing in Ketchikan?

TH: Well, they were working the canneries, canning the salmon. You had to butcher them first. And you slammed them which means washing it out, and then they had a, cut the salmon in the right size so they fit inside the can, and they hand pack them.

MP: What part did you do?

TH: I was a, I have to put the lids on the cans. They had a, upstairs on the second floor, they used to have a machine that put the lids on the, the cans came flat, and the machine would widen it and, you know, permanently seal the bottom.

MP: No place to spend your money either?

TH: Well, I had an uncle that went with me. He was about three years older than I was, and he talked me out of loaning him money, and he wouldn't pay it back. It was small amount of money. It was $20. And when I got too insistent, I saw him playing, gambling, and he was ahead. I says, "Pay me back the money you owe me," and he tore a twenty dollar bill, cut it in half, just gave me half. He said, "I'll give you the other half when we hit Seattle."