The following is a letter sent to the City of Lethbridge Archivist Mr. Greg Ellis by the son of Ichiro Hayakawa identifying the preceeding photograph.
April 28, 1983
Dear Mr. Ellis:
I am sorry to have been slow in responding to your letter of February 10. My office on Market Street in San Francisco was closed at the end of 1982, when my Senate term came to an end. This accounts for part of the delay in my reply, but only part. The rest is procrastination.
There is little doubt that the photo you sent me is of my father, Ichiro Hayakawa. He was born in Japan in 1884 and died there in 1975 at the age of 91. My mother was born in the same year as my father and died in Japan in January 1983 at the age of 98. They lived in Canada from 1905 to 1926. Both have visited the U.S. and Canada several times since.
Mrs. Senda’s photo must have been taken around 1912. I was born in Vancouver in 1906, the eldest of four children. When I was five to six years of age, we must have lived in Raymond, Alberta and Cranbrook, B.C.
I believe Father, who even then spoke excellent English, went to Raymond (around 1910?) originally as a labor contractor with a party of Japanese workmen hired to harvest sugar beets. (He told me this story in the 1960's). There was an untimely early frost that season, so that the beet crop was ruined and his workers were left to shift for themselves. Father told me with some pride that many of the workers he brought to Raymond at that time stayed and they and their children became outstanding farmers and citizens of Southern Alberta. I wonder if you can corroborate this story?
I remember Father adn[sic] a small grocery store in Raymond, but Father was rarely there, being occupied with other business. I remember there were Indians among our customers. Later we had a grocery store in Cranbrook. I don’t believe we ever lived in Lethbridge.
It must have been 1912 when we moved to Cranbrook. We lived on a farm outside the town, and at the age of six I was enrolled in a country school of about 20 children of different grades and ages.
I am sure the photo you sent is my father. I recall not only his features and smile, but his watch chain and fob and the fact that at that time he smoked cigars.
I am sending copies of the photo which I had made to my brother Fred in Florida, my sisters Ruth in Detroit and Grace in Japan. If they have any doubts about identifying the photo, I am sure they will let you or me know.
Please convey my thanks and best wishes to Mrs. Flo Senda.
Sincerely yours,
S.I. Hayakawa