Ranging in ages from 68 to 91, the narrators
reflect the ethnic and religious diversity of
a metropolis that had been a pioneer of several
social, political, and cultural movements.  The
book also utilizes more than 80 black and white
photographs, from the narrators and the collections
of local libraries, museums, and historical societies,
to complement the poignant, humerous, and revealing
portraits of the people and places of the San Francisco
Bay Area.  This excerpt is from Mutsu Muneno.


At Tanforan we lived in the horse stables, 
because it had been a racetrack, so there was 
manure on the walls.  We had our dining area 
under the stands, where people used to sit, and 
we called it the mess hall.  There were barracks
covered with tarp.  We had just a tiny section 
for all of us, and my husband put up a sheet to
separate an area for him and me.  We had wrapped 
our luggage with lots of canvas, so he used that 
to screen off the area for us.  It was maybe six 
feet by three feet, and I'd get behind there and 
dress and we had our private things there.  You'd 
think that the children were too little, but one 
day Sharon, one of my daughters, saw me back there 
and it was my period, so I was putting on a Kotex.  
She didn't say anything at that time, but the next 
day she got one and she comes out from behind the 
curtain and said, "Eh, eh, eh, eh, put it on me."  
She saw it and she thought that was the natural 
thing; she was only four so she didn't understand.  
The bathrooms were right in the middle of the dining 
room and they were open and divided stalls.  The men 
and women were separated, but another woman right 
across from you was doing the same thing.  Both of 
us were squatting and looking at each other because 
there was no privacy.  Some of the ladies used to 
carry their own little curtains when they went 
to the bathroom.  They'd tack up the curtains 
to have their privacy.  You adjusted pretty 
quickly, and after a few days of being quite 
exposed and hesitant about going to the bathroom in 
full view, I thought, everybody else is doing it so 
I'll just have to get used to it.  But at 
first it was kind of tough.