My first trip to California was on a Michigan State University (MSU) student train to the 1956 Rose Bowl football game. It was December 1955 and I had saved my money to pay for the trip, which included the train ride on reclining seats, an inexpensive hotel room in Los Angeles, transportation to Pasadena for the Rose Parade, and a ticket plus transportation to the Rose Bowl game.

Years ago I had asked mom to write down a few things about her growing up, because, well, I didn’t know. You’d think I would remember, but I really didn’t. While looking through some papers, I found pages she had written about her childhood. So, this is a compilation of my personal history and memories of Mom.

The younger people were among the first to permanently leave the center to attend educational institutions or to look for a place to reside and work. However, in the beginning, we were not permitted to return to the West Coast, so many people ventured to the Mid-West and East Coast.

Soon, many FBI agents came to the island and started searching our homes to look for anything that may connect us with Japan. They wanted to know what my long antenna was used for. I showed them the crystal radio set and told them that I listened to music at night. The agents searched everybody's home and looked everywhere, and asked lots of questions. One day, without notice, all of the Issei men were gathered in trucks and taken away to an unknown destination.

In the summer of 1939, the canneries were so busy that my mother suggested that I work along with her at the cannery cleaning mackerel. I applied for my Social Security number and started working there at sixty cents an hour, the same wage as my mother. It was a great feeling to earn so much money.

Fish Harbor on Terminal Island was located on the southwestern part of the island and considered of a fishing fleet, canneries, and 5,000 Japanese men, women and children. The adults were the first generation Issei from Japan, and their children who were born in America are the Nisei like myself. The fishermen working out of Fish Harbor visited the local waters of Catalina, Santa Barbara and San Diego co catch sardines, mackerel, skipjack and tuna throughout the year.

Traveling Boy’s Memory Lane Invites all writers to share their stories to the world. As long as websites in the internet are accessible, these stories will be your footprint of your life adventures. They may be happy, sad, playful, religious, political, narrative, poetic, etc. The more creative and the more honest, the better. Years … centuries from now, some alien …

I re-watched the first three seasons of “The Bear” on the Hula Network last weekend.  The 4th. Season starts on June 25th.  The Bear is filmed almost exclusively in Chicago.  Watching it invoked many of my childhood memories because I know every street, bridge, and landmark that they filmed it in and I consider Chicago my incubator!  I remember the sound of the milk man’s truck delivering milk and cream, the peddler that cried out, “Rags & Old Irons”, and the lady who played music on the Barrel Organ. 

Hearts can be broken; hearts can be hard; Hearts can be blessed, or cursed, or on guard. Be it bold, soft, or sweet, most hearts beat to old age, Or at least to live out the words on that last page. Until that day comes, hearts keep up a fair pace, To relentlessly function with courage and grace.

My oldest daughter Jasmine has been dealing with significant health issues since she was a teenager. Up to that time, she was the model of good health – she rarely had more than a cold as a child.