Masao Uchi.ma was born in Honoka'a, Hawai'i on May 22, 1928. When he was an infant, the family moved to 'O'okala, Hawai'i, where his father, Katsunoshin Uchima, was an independent sugarcane contractor. When Masao Uchima was five, the family moved to Hilo, where Katsunoshin Uchima began Eagle Laundry. The business was located on Kamehameha Avenue, in the Shinmachi section of Hilo. The family lived in a cottage behind the laundry. Katsunoshin Uchi.ma was an immigrant from Okinawa.

Lenore Kumulani Van Gieson was born June 16, 1935 in Hilo, Hawai'i. Her father, Ebenezer Coit Hobron Van Gieson, was from a Honolulu family and educated at Kamehameha Schools; her mother, Victoria Kumulani Todd Van Gieson, a Hilo native. The oldest of four siblings, VanGieson grew up on property owned by her mother's side of the family in the Keaukaha section of Hilo. This section, known as Pu'umaile by old-timers, was an area where many of Hilo's elite resided full-time or part-time in beachfront homes and cottages.

Fusae Tanaka Takaki was born May 28, 1923 in Hilo. She was the youngest of four children born to Eijiro Tanaka and Kura Hano Tanaka, both immigrants from Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Eijiro Tanaka worked as a stone crusher, stevedore, and merchant marine. Her mother sold lunches and snacks from her car near Coconut Island and the Hilo wharf area. Takaki was raised in the Shinmachi district of Hilo, home to a large portion of Hilo's Japanese population.

Josephine Nelson Todd was born November 9, 1906 in Pepe'ekeo, Hawai'i. She was the seventh of eleven children born to Hans Peter Nelson, an immigrant from Denmark, and Mary Morgado Nelson, an immigrant from Portugal. Hans Peter Nelson was an employee for Pepe'ekeo Sugar Company. When Todd was a young girl, the family moved to Hilo. She grew up in the Villa Franca section of Hilo, an area populated predominantly by Portuguese. Portuguese was Todd's flrst language.

June Mitsuko Odachi Shigemasa was born September 27, 1935 in the Shinmachi district of Hilo, Hawai'i. Her parents, Kinzaemon Odachi and Kameki Tsuno Odachi, were immigrants from Japan who came to Hawai'i as Tenri-kyo [a Buddhist sect] ministers. Shigemasa, her parents, and siblings lived in a two-story house on the temple grounds. She was attending nearby Waiakea Kai School when World War II broke out. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, Kinzaemon Odachi was arrested by the FBI and interned at Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Albert Louis Stanley was born August 31, 1930 in Hilo, Hawai'i. His father, Clyde LeGrand Stanley, was originally from Missouri. He journeyed to Hawai'i as a young man in 1916 in search of excitement Settling flrst in Hilo working for Hawaiian Dredging Company, Clyde Stanley married Rosina Bassler, a public health nurse in Hilo. The couple eventually moved to Laupahoehoe, where he worked as a maintenance superintendent for Hawaiian Consolidated Railway, Ltd.

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.

The seventh of thirteen children, Alexander M. Riviera was born in Hakalau, Hawai'i on August 9, 1931. His father was John Fernando Rivera, who immigrated from Puerto Rico in 1901, and Mary Dejesus Rivera, who was of Spanish descent and born in Hawai'i. [Note: Alexander changed the spelling of his last name.] Like many laborers, Riviera's father took on contracts at various sugar plantations on the Big Island. Riviera and his siblings spent their childhoods living in sugar plantation camps at Hakalau, Kukuihaele, Papa'aloa, and Papa'ikou.

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.

The middle of three children born to Randolph Ahuna, Sr. and Adeline .Kame'ekua Ahuna, Eloise Ahuna Pung was born in Kukuiopa'e, South Kona, Hawai'i on December 16, 1933. Her paternal grandfather, Loo Ahuna, had a farm where he grew coffee and raised poultry and livestock.