Born August 21, 1913, Minerva Kiyoko Saiki Hayakawa was the flfth of eight children. While still a young child, her father, Takaichi Rupert Saiki immigrated with his family to Hilo from Hiroshima, Japan. He attended schools in Hilo, worked at the First Bank of Hilo, and eventually, in 1913, started Hilo Rice Mill, a grocery importing and wholesaling flrm. Hayakawa's mother, Mary Forbes Saiki, was the daughter of Thomas Forbes, Jr., a former sugar plantation engineer, and Emele Kamaka'o'umi, a native Hawaiian from the Big Island. The family lived on Piopio Street when Hayakawa was born; they later moved to a home on Waianuenue Avenue. Hayakawa attended Hilo Union School, Hilo Intermediate School, and graduated from Hilo High School in 1931. She attended and graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in 1934. She returned to Hilo in 1936 and began working as a clerk at the family's Hilo Rice Mill, which was located on Kamebameha Avenue. In 1937, she married Hiroshi Hayakawa. The couple lived in Papa'ikou. At the outbreak of World War II, Takaichi Saiki was interned on the U.S. Mainland. In his absence, Minerva Hayakawa assumed management of the company, eventually becoming president. The oral history interviews were conducted at the Hilo Rice Mill, today located on Po'okela Street in the Hilo industrial area. The business was relocated there after the 1960 tsunami destroyed the building. The 1946 waves caused some water damage to merchandise, but miraculously the building survived. Her brothers and daughter, Naomi Hayakawa, are also active in the business.

Scope and Content Note
A woman of Hawaiian, Japanese, and Scotch ancestry describes family life growing up in Hilo. She remembers her father, a bank employee who was interned in World War II, and her mother, a teacher who taught her at Hilo Union School. Hayakawa worked at Hilo Rice Mill, the family's wholesaling business, which survived the April 1, 1946 tsunami but was washed away in the 1960 tsunami. Also contributing to the interview was her daughter, Naomi Hayakawa.

Program Note:  
This interview is part of the Center for Oral History's project Tsunamis Remembered: Oral Histories of Survivors and Observers in Hawai‘i. Interviews from this project are available in the Center's ScholarSpace open access repository.

The Center for Oral History (COH), in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, collects, documents, preserves and highlights the recollections of Native Hawaiians and the multi-ethnic people of Hawaiʻi. It produces oral histories and interpretive historical materials about lifeways, key historic events, social movements and Hawaiʻi’s role in the globalizing world, for the widest possible use.