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.
