Tamio Wakayama was born in New Westminster in 1941 and spent his early childhood in the Tashme, BC internment camp. He studied journalism and philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and in 1963 joined the civil rights movement in the American south. Upon his return to Toronto, he assembled Dream of Riches: The Japanese Canadians 1877-1977, a photographic reconstruction of the memory of the Nikkei community, which toured Canada and Japan. He is the author of six published books, including A Dream of Riches and Inalienable Rice, and has contributed to many other books and periodicals.