Chiru Sakura -- Falling Cherry Blossoms

At eight years old, Grace Eiko Nishikihama was forcibly removed from her Vancouver home and interned with her parents and siblings in the BC Interior. It was 1942 and more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians on the West Coast were interned and had their belongings, property and homes confiscated, and then sold off by the Government of Canada. After the war ended, restrictions on Japanese Canadians movement continued for another four years and the Government ordered anyone of Japanese ancestry to move east of the Rockies, or be deported to Japan. There was nothing on the West Coast to return to, so the Nishikihama family moved first to rural Manitoba and, when government restrictions were lifted, later to Winnipeg. While translating her mothers journal, Grace began to add her own experiences alongside her mothers, exploring how generational trauma can endure, and how differently she and her mother interpreted those years of struggle. As an advocate for reconciliation, she openly shares her story with the next generations; throughout, Grace returns to her mothers teachings of hope and resilience symbolised in the cherry blossoms around what was once their home.

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