My uncle, Michael Alms, who has died aged 99, was an orthopaedic surgeon born in Japan who spent his childhood and youth in Britain. Told his racial background precluded him from becoming a consultant in the UK, he went to live in Canada. There he invented a device called the Alms retractor, for use in hand surgery.

At his birth in Kyoto, he was named Tadashi Kubo. His mother, Naka Kubo (known as Kimi), was from a samurai family; his father, George Alms, was a captain and translations officer for the British Army engineering battalion stationed in the city. The marriage was felt by Kimi’s family to bring shame and disgrace, and they rejected the young couple. George returned to Britain, but Kimi remained to care for her dying mother, and Tadashi went to live with Kimi’s aunt and uncle. Their daughter, Masu, six years older than Tadashi, became Tadashi’s playmate. When Kimi and Tadashi left Japan in 1924 to join George in Britain, the family tried to erase all memory of them.