I am a yonsei (fourth generation) Japanese Canadian, now 27 years old. My younger brother (Aiden, 21) are half-Japanese, the children of Les and Colleen Tabata (née Evans). I am the granddaughter of Harry and Hannah Tabata (née Kawai). I am the great-granddaughter of Seijiro and Masae Tabata (née Umemura) and Kanejoro and Nobu Kawai (née Yamada). Both of my grandparents were born in Canada, and they and their families were incarcerated during WWII.

I was born in New Westminster, BC, and moved to Kamloops when I was 7 years old, where my grandparents had raised my father. In Kamloops, I became heavily involved in the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Association (KJCA), of which my grandparents were founding members. When I was 11, I became a member of Raiden Taiko and played the drums with my father throughout high school. I was a board member of the KJCA until I moved to Switzerland for school in 2019.

I have long taken an academic interest in the Japanese Canadian WWII experience, and have written several school papers on the topic. I attended Thompson Rivers University and obtained a BA of Philosophy and Sociology in 2018. In 2019, I began a MA in International Relations / Political Science at The Graduate Institute, Geneva. I am hoping to graduate in March of 2022.