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.

A Honolulu-born man discusses his family's background, growing up in Kaka'ako, experiencing the attack on Pearl Harbor as a child, and being relocated to Kalaupapa in 1942. He recalls the 1946 tidal wave as it rolled in, caused major physical damage, and the cleanup that followed.

A Molokai-born man tells of his family background, schooling, homes, and jobs. He also speaks of the changes in Kaunakakai. Working in Maunaloa on April 1, 1946, he remembers his concern for his family, trip home over muddy roads to Kamalo, and tidal wave damages on the east end.

A ninety-five-year-old man recalls the tidal waves he lived through on Oahu and Molokai. He also remembers the cleanup in Hilo after the 1946 tsunami.

Peter Martin, Portuguese-Hawaiian, was born in Kalihi on June 29, 1905. His family owned a taro patch in the area behind the present Kalihi Union Church. As a youth, Peter was active in neighborhood sports and was a member of the Kalihi Thundering Herd barefoot football team in the 1920s. He attended K~lfhi-Waena School and completed the tenth grade at McKinley High School. Peter then began working as a sailor on an inter-island lighthouse boat, transporting gas tanks to different lighthouses. In 1932, Peter secured a job as a streetcar and trolley conductor for Honolulu Rapid Transit.

The third of six children, Richard Furtado, was born in Lahaina, Maui on July 15, 1913 to Lucy Napelakaukau Furtado and Antonio D. Furtado. His mother was Hawaiian-Chinese; his father, a Portuguese immigrant who arrived in the islands at the age of four. His paternal grandparents from the Azores worked in the sugar industry. Later, his grandfather and father were in the meat business. The Furtados at one time owned the only meat market and slaughterhouse in Lahaina; they made and marketed Portuguese sausages throughout the territory.

Born in Spreckelsville, a man recalls life in Camp 3. He talks about attending English-standard Kaunoa School and how it fared in the 1946 tsunami. He describes how his family drove down to Lahaina to help an aunt and uncle whose business was destroyed. Also includes his eyewitness account of tidal wave behavior.

Riichi Hatada, the fourth of eight children, was born on April 21, 1922 in downtown Hilo to Japanese immigrants Shigemi Tasaka Hatada and Kenho Hatada. His father waited on tables at the Pacific Bakery Hotel and Restaurant where he eventually learned the bakery trade. In ca. 1925, his father founded K. Hatada Bakery in the Shin.machi section of Hilo where the family resided. The bakery produced Star Bread. The bakery was later sold to the Ikedas who owned Hilo Macaroni Factory. During that time his father returned to Hiroshima to build a family home.

Robert "Steamy" Chow, a retired Hilo police officer, was born March 19, 1922. He is the flfth of seven children born to Keong Chow, an immigrant from Canton, China, and Honolulu-born Violet K.F. Fong Chow. Chow spent much of his boyhood selling newspapers and shining shoes on street comers in downtown Hilo, and helping in his father's shoe repair business.

A part-Hawaiian man recalls living in Kahului with his musician grandmother and businessman grandfather. Six years old on April 1, 1946, he tells of running with his grandparents from the tsunami that washed into their Kahului Beach Road home. He also outran the 1960 tsunami and witnessed the damage it caused in Kahului.