Mariko Francombe
Listen to Mariko Francombe's interview replies:
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions
One of my greatest dreams had become to go to Japan. One of the handicaps was that I'd never been brought up as bilingual so I didn't really have very much Japanese. And so it was an opportunity for my mother to go and visit as well. So she came too and that was her first chance to visit her family for over 20 years.
So it actually became quite an emotional journey in itself and an emotional visit. And I spent a month with my mum, staying at my aunt's house in Hiroshima. My grandma came to visit ... my uncle. We went on family outings. Sort of being part of an extended family over there.
But goodbye of course was traumatic. Grandma found it the hardest of all.
