In 1942, Masatsugu ‘Mas’ Imai was interned in Greenwood, a community which he was to make his home. Mas and his wife, Ritsuko Imoo, raised their children Rita, Wendy, Bernadine, and Cindy there. Mas worked for A&A Service and James Forshaw Ltd. and was active in the local community especially with the Greenwood Curling Club. Mas passed away from cancer in 1978. Jim Forshaw Jr. , whose father James Forshaw Sr. owned A&A Service, described Mas as a valued and trusted employee, but more importantly a wonderful family friend.
In 1979, the Hasegawa Museum in Tokyo, Japan was looking to collect and display different species of logs from all over the world. Boundary Sawmill in Midway received a request to obtain a prime example of Western Larch that was 40’ long, premium clear rough lumber, straight grain and no knots.
Forester Bill Uphill knew exactly who could fill the order. The crew of ‘Old Guys’ could do the job! For many years, James Forshaw Ltd. was the prime supplier of specialized timber products to Boundary Sawmill/Pope & Talbot. After a brief retirement, James Forshaw Sr. and Alan Cudworth, unretired to resume logging and took on the challenge with the crew of Boyd Foster, Alex Parakin and Rod McKinney.
Two trees had to be cut down in case one was damaged. Utmost care was required when the tree was felled. Other trees adjacent were felled to make a padded site for the prime tree to land on. No bark was to be knocked off. Finally, the log was cut in length and wrapped in used conveyor belting for protection. This was the last time James and Alan who were life-long friends worked on an important project together. The Western Larch log was sent by Seabord to Japan to the Hasegawa Log Museum in Tokyo. Before the log was shipped out, James named the log “MAS IMAI LOG” in memory of his friend’s active community leadership.
When I took a year leave of absence from teaching on Vancouver Island in 1979 to study conversational Japanese, I was asked to locate this museum and take photos. Fortunately Haruhiko Akazawa, my Japanese friend who worked for C. Itoh Company in Nanaimo, was back in Tokyo and drove me to the museum.
In Greenwood, Jim Forshaw Jr. said that Mas was well-known and liked. Over the years, Mas became the defacto manager, accountant for A&A Service and James Forshaw Ltd. Jim went on to say, “What better way to honour the memory of a great person, who lived in a city (Greenwood is the smallest city in Canada) whose people have shown what working together, understanding and patience can achieve.”
Sadly, when the bubble burst in Japan, the Hasegawa Log Museum closed.