Mayuki is a half Japanese half American woman in her mid twenties telling a story set in the back drop of 1970. It is the birth of her daughter that reminds her of her childhood and how her mother affected her life. The scene opens with her holding her daughter and singing a lullaby in Japanese. It is a song that her mother sang to her all of her life. It was the love that her parents had that taught her how deep love could go. She speaks of World War 2 in Japan where she was born and the time that her parents by chance met in the middle of a street in her small town. Her father was in the American military and they saw each other and from that moment on were in love. After the war they moved to New York City where Mayuki recalls taking her first step off of the boat and into America. Her memory of that day is vivid. She talks about how American’s were not so welcoming to Japanese people after the war. Her mother would be accosted, but it was better and safer than the war torn country they had left. Her memory comes to a head when she talks about the day her mother was murdered in front of her by a man who hated Japanese people. As a child it was difficult to experience but her memory is vivid of the day she walked into the grocery store with her mother and heard her being verbally attacked that turned into them running down the street and the man following and killing her mother. The story is compelling as her memory is so clear to her because she lives this story everyday. In the end she takes her daughter to the pier where she first stepped foot into America. A place where her parents fought to get her and a place that she was able to go through the worst loss of her life and still move forward.
DI/ Lullaby
(Scene opens with Mayuki, a Japanese- American woman in her mid- twenties holding her young baby. This moment is precious and beautiful as she looks at her baby and begins to sing a Japanese lullaby as if it were her fondest memory.)
ねんねんころりよおころりよ
(Nennen kororiyo okororiyo)
Calming words to make a baby sleep坊やはよい子だねんねしな
(Boyawa yoikoda nenneshina)
My child, good child, sleepingあの山こえて里へ行った
(Ano yama koete satoe itta)
Across the mountain she went to her parents’ home (End Lullaby)(To baby) My mother, your grandmother would sing that to me every day. It was something that was a part of who she was and it became a part of who I was, and now it is a part of my little angel. That is how our traditions stay alive forever and ever. (Smiles) Even as I grew up she would tuck me in at night and it went from her singing to me to me singing to her. You'll sing it to me one day my beautiful butterfly. (Beat) Oh my goodness, that’s right, it was a butterfly I saw that day. (She holds out her hand to catch a butterfly transitioning back to six years old taking her first step into America.) When I was six years old my mother knelt down and told me that our life was about to change. (She sees something that grabs her attention.) But, a butterfly that seemed to have followed us off of the boat danced past my face. Maybe its life was about to change like ours. (In Japanese) “ママはかわいい蝶を見る” (Translation "Mom look, a pretty butterfly!") I pointed at the butterfly and followed it with my eyes, until it finally slowed down and stopped right in front of me. (Smiles) She just sat there magically in the air fluttering her beautiful wings. I stared at the butterfly as it flew away. It was like (Beat) like it knew that this new life was going to be magical. (She waves to the butterfly) “さようなら(Translation ”Goodbye.”)