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. His wife, Chidori Nishimoto Uchima, was born and raised in Honoka'a, Hawai'i. Masao Uchima, the second of four children, spent much of his childhood helping his parents in the laundry. When not working, he swam and fished in the nearby Wailoa River, and played in organized- sports leagues. A senior at Hilo High School at the time, Uchima was awakened by his mother on the morning of April 1, 1946. He found his home surrounded by water. As the water subsided, he and his father ran to the laundry, only to fmd the building badly damaged. They then ran to the nearby Coca-Cola Bottling Company building, a two-story, concrete structure. There they waited out the remaining waves in safety, while witnessing death and destruction around them. Eagle Laundry, as well as other businesses and residents of Shinmachi, was completely destroyed that day. After staying with relatives for a short while, Uchima and his family moved to converted military housing established for tsunami victims. Katsunoshin Uchima worked for a few years as a carpenter before his death in 1950. A few months after the tsunami, Masao Uchima graduated from Hilo High School. He worked for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Love's Bakery, and, beginning in 1955, was an insurance agent. He retired in 1982. He lives in Hilo with his wife, Mildred Nakasone Uchima. The couple raised two sons. Each year, the Uchimas plan and attend a Shinmachi remembrance service a:ild reunion held on the site of the once- thriving neighborhood, today the site of !Vailoa State Park.

Scope and Content Note
Raised in Shinmachi, a man recollects the area's close-knit families and sport and river-based activities. He details his family's laundry business and his chores: pressing, dry cleaning, and maintaining the boiler's pressure. He describes awakening on April 1, 1946 in a house surrounded by water and his family's escape to the nearby Coca-Cola concrete building, where they witnessed people swept to their deaths and the destruction of homes and businesses. Also discussed is the tsunami's aftermath, including identification of bodies and relocation of survivors.

Program Note:  
This interview is part of the Center for Oral History's project Tsunamis Remembered: Oral Histories of Survivors and Observers in Hawai‘i. Interviews from this project are available in the Center's ScholarSpace open access repository.

The Center for Oral History (COH), in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, collects, documents, preserves and highlights the recollections of Native Hawaiians and the multi-ethnic people of Hawaiʻi. It produces oral histories and interpretive historical materials about lifeways, key historic events, social movements and Hawaiʻi’s role in the globalizing world, for the widest possible use.