My mother always made a big deal about spring cleaning, even though the house was always kept neat and clean, thanks to my sister and me.  Every Saturday, the two of us cleaned the house — she’d clean the downstairs and back porch; my job was the upstairs and front porch.  And it had to be thorough — no dustmop or wet mop on the floors — we had to dust the wood floors on our hands and knees, and we also cleaned the linoleum floors on our knees with a bucket, rag, scrubbing brush, and Fels Naptha soap. I was the only kid at school who had what was called ”housemaid’s knees.” Truly, they would become swollen.

Terminal Island many a time, you can't beat that community of people like Terminal Island. There were so many young people running around so we organized something like the Olympic Games. Tuna Street people had their own team, Cannery Street people, Albacore Street people had another one, and Hokkaido area another team and we use to organize games. We had like Olympic games—all different types and on top of that had one of the best kendo team, a judo team and swimming team, baseball team. We took everything. It use to be J.A.U. long time ago. I don't want to brag about it but Terminal Island we had more to pick from. That's why we had better athlete than any other community in California. We won so many championships!

It all began in 1964, when my husband, Evan, our two children, and I were planning a Yellowstone vacation. We decided to stop in Utah to visit Ted, my husband's best friend when he was growing up in East Los Angeles. Little did we know that this visit would begin family traditions that would pass from generation to generation.

On February 9th, 1964, my life changed. America was getting their first live look at four English musicians with unusually long hair on Ed Sullivan's Sunday night show. As I huddled around my parents' black and white TV, I was immediately transformed into a new world.

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.