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.

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.

Hayato Okino was born August 18, 1912, in the Waiakea Town section of Hilo. He was the fourth of five children of Shimakichi Okino and Tsune Hamasaki Okino, who both immigrated to Hawai'i from Japan in 1901. Okino attended Wa.iakea Kai, Hilo Junior High, and Hilo High schools, graduating in 1932. His first job after graduation was an auto parts salesman for Ruddle Sales and Service in Hilo. Twenty-three years later, in 1955, he started his own auto parts business, Automotive Supply Center. The building was complete destroyed in the 1960 tsunami.

Laura Yuen Chock, the fourth of six children, was born July 18, 1927 in Hilo. Her father was Mun Hon Yuen, an immigrant from Canton, China. Her mother was Fannie Yen Tai Loo Yuen, a Honolulu- born Chinese American. Chock's parents owned the Hawaii Chicken Store, a poultry and herb business located on Mamo Street in downtown Hilo. Chock and her family lived in two-bedroom quarters above the store.

Herbert Sadamu Nishimoto was born June 15, 1929 in N"mole, Hawai'i. He is the youngest of Senichi Nishimoto and Misano Masukawa Nishimoto's five children.

Catherine Diama Campainha was born to Visayan immigrants, Catalina Buscas Diama and Agapito Diama, in Hilo, Hawai'i on March 28, 1938. She has five brothers and four sisters. Her father owned and operated Mamo Pool Hall, a billiard parlor located below their living quarters, and rented out rooms to bachelors in a boardinghouse. Her mother leased and ran the Ideal Meat Market until the mid-1940s. The Diama home on Mamo Street was a gathering place.

Marsue McGinnis McShane was born May 15, 1924 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Ralph McGinnis, was a professor of English and journalism at Miami University in Ohio. Her mother, Erma Kl>enig McGinnis, was a homemaker. McShane and an older brother were raised in the college town of Oxford, Ohio. She also spent part of her childhood with her grandmother in nearby Covington, Kentucky. McShane attended schools in Oxford, graduating from high school in 1941.

Harold P. Luscomb was born April 27, 1926 in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. His Hilo-bom father, Harold P. Luscomb, Sr., had moved to Pennsylvania to work for Westinghouse Electric Company and to work toward a degree in electrical engineering. There he met his wife, Helen Jones Luscomb. Harold Jr., the couple's only child, was raised at the home of his maternal grandparents in Pittsburgh. At the age of ten, Harold, his father, and mother moved to Hilo, where his father was employed by Hilo Electric Light Company.

Masuo Kino was born April 2, 1929 in Kahuku Mauka (near N"mole), Hawai'i. His father, Kenkin Kino, was a laborer and independent sugarcane grower for Hakalau Plantation Company. His mother, Makato Inamine Kino, was a housewife who raised five children of which Masuo was the youngest. Kenkin and Makato Kino were immigrants from Okinawa. Masuo helped his father and mother in the sugarcane fields.