Every year, our family gathers to make Mochi: soft, sweet rice cakes, around New Years. Our Japanese-American family has continued passing on this tradition, to the five generations that have lived in America. See our family at work, making mochi, and find out how and why, it sticks us together.

A young Japanese American boy copes with his grandmother’s death and learns about his cultural heritage through the Bon Dance, a festive ritual that honors the spirits of the departed.

125,284 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned by the U.S. government in 1942. 1,862 people died in these prisons. The filmmaker examines the health conditions in these camps, and reveals two deaths in her own family.

Grief is something we all experience but rarely discuss openly. During the pandemic many have been examining their lives and deciding what changes need to be made. I hope that by acknowledging and remembering someone important in my life, change happens and more conversations open up about grief.

There are signs in life that one is aging, but recognizing them is another issue. Accepting the fact that you have aged and what to do at the stage in life is an inevitable fact of life. What you do from there is up to you.