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Mitsuko Sheima was born and raised in Yamaguchi, Japan. Mitsuko had an arranged marriage with  Masao Yamamoto in 1923.

In 1924, they moved to Canada. They chose Canada because of the affordable and big quantities of land/farming land, for the Canadian west coast climate, and the Japanese community. 

They wanted to leave Japan because: the scarce farm land, the lack of opportunities especially career wise, and lastly the lack of economic status and activities.

Common challenges of immigration can be: language barriers, cultural differences, not having friends and family where you are going, economics, climate, politics, rights and freedoms, and biases. These can really impact someones thoughts on the country or area they are immigrating to and, it can take a toll on their experience. 

Mitsuko and Masao made the choice to move to an area ( Port Hammond, BC ) that is already heavily populated by Japanese Canadians that have gone through a very similar experience. People will make choices like this to cut down on some of the reasons that will make immigrating hard. When the evacuation came, they moved to Lethbridge which also has a high Japanese population. 

port hammond, 1914

In Canada they had 5 kids, the first being born in 1921:  Joyce, Lilian Ken, May, and Elsie. All of the kids worked on the family farm until 1942.