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Harry Taiju Hayashi

Detained Alien

World War II

Carrington, North Dakota

Official photograph taken at camp for detained aliens

Taiju Hayashi was born in a small town near Tokyo, Japan, on April 24, 1894. He came to Seattle alone in 1908 at the age of fourteen. He "Americanized" his name to "Harry" and worked his way across the country and settled in Carrington, North Dakota.

He married Anna Firlus in 1924. They had six children.

At right is a photo of the Hayashi family. Harry and Anna are seated in the middle holding Baby Robert. The sons standing are Harry Jr., George, and Frank (Mrs. Perkins' father). Mary Ann and Alfred are seated on either side of their parents.

In North Dakota, Harry worked in a bakery and later as a bus boy. While working, he gradually picked up the English language. He was not permitted to become a citizen because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1894 denying citizenship to immigrants from Japan because of their "non-white" status.
Harry became a businessman, opening a restaurant called The Hotel Cafe in the Buchanan Hotel. The family worked hard and was very successful.

Below is another style of the menu for The Hotel Cafe.

Harry had bigger ambitions and decided to close The Hotel Cafe. Together Harry and Anna built the Rainbow Gardens Tourist Park. It opened in the early 1930s and grew to include individual cottages, a beautiful garden, and a cafe.

Harry did a lot of the physical work which was a little difficult because he was a small man. Harry even built all the cottages by himself. Some days, Harry even slept on the kitchen table because he was so tired.

Rainbow Gardens became Harry's most successful businesses.
It was used for meetings, banquets, wedding receptions, and roller skating parties.
At left is a photo originally developed in black and white. Someone was hired to tint the photo, since colored film was not easily available in the 1930s.

It became one of the biggest attractions in North Dakota. Harry and Anna put up a big dance pavilion and brought in the best orchestras.

Anna Hayashi is quoted as saying, "There was never anything less than a 14-piece band. It was ballroom dancing at its best."

Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Jimmy Dorsey all came to play at this ballroom.

One time a band left a clarinet behind and never came back to claim it. Harry's son, Frank, learned to play this clarinet.

At right is a Rainbow Gardens' advertisement for a dance.

The Hayashi's fortunes changed on December 7, 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and America was brought into World War II. Harry Hayashi was 47 years old by this time and had been in the United States for 33 years.

Sometime in early 1942 on a Sunday morning, government officials came and took Harry away while his family was in church. He was taken to Fort Lincoln in Bismarck, North Dakota. This historic fort, named for President Abraham Lincoln, was the place where Libby Custer and other army wives lived when General Custer and the 7th Cavalry left to fight and die at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

About 25 years after Custer's death, a second Fort Lincoln was built just south of Bismarck. This Fort Lincoln became the enemy alien internment camp known as Snow Country Prison during World War II.

There were sixteen states that had internment camps and almost every Japanese alien was detained. If both mother and father were aliens, the children went too. Anna and the children did not have to be interned because of her "white" heritage. But because Anna had married an "alien ineligible for citizenship," she lost her citizenship and had to reapply after the war.

Rainbow Gardens was shut down by the government and Hayashi family's savings account was sealed. There was pressure on Anna to sell the property as it was in her name. She and the children had little money and the local government refused to help with food or money for heat. The local police even came to the home and removed their radio.

After Harry was taken away, the Rainbow Gardens fell into ruin. No one was maintaining the property since Harry was gone. This left his family in a bad financial situation. A few years after the war the family sold the property.

Rainbow Gardens

Letters

Contributed by Stacy M. and Janna Dykstra Smith

Wartime Remembrances

Contact Janna Dykstra Smith

Updated June 7, 2006