For Loyalist College, Belleville, Ont.
In 1942, Sachiko Okuda’s father, Hiroshi, was living in Vancouver, B.C. when nearly 22,000 people of Japanese descent living on the west coast of B.C. were forced to leave their homes. While Sachiko grew up in Montreal, Que. with a sense of Japanese Canadian community, her father’s wartime experiences were largely unknown to her until she received a box of his items from her sister who was downsizing. Now living in Ottawa, Ont., Okuda reflects on what she discovered in Mr. O’s box and what she learned about her father.