Imagine Blog

On Saturday, November 29th JALT Hamamatsu chapter sponsored “An afternoon with Linda Ohama”, lecture and screening of the movie “Obaachan's Garden” at the Hamamatsu multlicultural centre. Linda is a Sansei Japanese-Canadian and internationally acclaimed filmmaker, writer, and artist.



The film was the story of her grandmother’s amazing life story, beginning in Onomichi, Japan as a young woman from an affluent family with a good education she married the oldest son from another affluent family and had two daughters, her third child (a boy) died at birth. Failing to perform her duty as the wife of the oldest son to give birth to a male heir, the in-laws had her removed from Japan and sent to Canada to remarry as a picture bride in the 1920s. Upon arrival she immediately rejected her husband-to-be and remained in Canada where several years later she remarried and had 8 children (including a male). Living through WWII in a Japanese internment camp, and subsequent life afterwards she kept secret her “other” life in Japan until one day (on her 100th birthday) she confessed her secret to her granddaughter Linda. The movie climaxes with a touching reunion of mother and daughter after more than 75 years.

Linda Ohama film short - "Sakura"


Linda was very gracious in sharing how the project affected her and her family personally. She shared some of the secrets of making a documentary of this scale, and interesting anecdotes involving help from unlikely sources like Clint Eastwood.



Chatting with Linda afterward it was clear that she is a caring and talented individual committed to building deeper bonds between Japan and Canada through her life work.

Jon.