Early Life
Hayakawa was born Kintaro Hayakawa (早川金太郎, Hayakawa Kintarō) in Nanaura Village, of Chikura Town, of Minamibosō City, in Chiba Prefecture, Japan on June 10, 1889, the second eldest son of the provincial governor.
From early on Hayakawa was groomed for a career as a naval officer. However at the age of 17, he took a schoolmate's dare to swim to the bottom of a lagoon (he grew up in a shellfish diving community) and ruptured his eardrum. He had been studying at the Naval Academy in Etajima but his record of perfect health was now shattered and he failed the navy's rigorous physical. His formerly proud father was now ashamed and embarrassed by his son. Their relationship became strained.
The strained relationship drove the young Hayakawa to attempt seppuku (ritual suicide). One quiet night after dinner Hayakawa entered a garden shed on his parents' property, locked his favorite dog outside and spread a white sheet on the ground. To uphold his family's samurai tradition, Hayakawa stabbed himself in the abdomen more than 30 times. The dog's barking alerted Hayakawa's family and his father smashed through the shed door with an axe in time to save his son.
After he recovered from the suicide attempt Hayakawa enrolled in the University of Chicago to study political economics. His family had decided that if he could not be a naval officer, he would become a banker. He resided in the United States from 1911 until 1923 and again from 1925 until 1931.
Read more about this topic: Sessue Hayakawa
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