War is Hell. So understandably a lot of people who survived their experiences in war, particularly the Second World War, don’t often are to share their experiences in it.
So Toronto based, Medicine Hat born entrepreneur and author Mark Sakamoto, the nephew of Lethbridge concert promoter Ron Sakamoto, got his grandparents to share their contrasting, yet parallel trials of the war years in his new book “Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents.”
It is a 243 page turner that unflinchingly and often harrowingly explores their experiences.
His Eastern Canadian born grandfather Ralph MacLean spent most of the war enduring brutal conditions in a Japanese prisoner of war camp while back home in Canada, his Japanese Canadian grandmother Mitsue Sakamoto and her whole family had all of their possessions confiscated, were forced out of their Vancouver home and shipped off to Coaldale to work on a sugar beet farm.
“Forgiveness” started out essentially as a story about Mark Sakamoto’s grandparents. On the west coast, his Japanese Grandparents – both Canadian Citizens – were stripped entirely of their rights and possessions and interned in rural Alberta. On the east coast, his Grandfather MacLean joined the war effort and was shipped to Hong Kong. With a 100 per cent casualty rate (dead or captured), it was the worst military defeat in Canadian history.
He spent the entire war as POW living on the edge of survival, watching his friends die around him while enduring starvation, infestation and frequent beatings.
“ I’m a writer by accident,” said Sakamoto, noting the book evolved from an essay he was asked to write for the Globe and Mail newspaper were were interested in his grandparents ’ two different sides of their war experience.
Sakamoto will be doing a book reading and signing at Chapters on June 12 at 7 p.m.
“And the people I’m writing about are the most important people in my life,” he continued.
Getting his grandparents to talk about some of the most difficult parts of their lives a was a challenge at first.
“ My grandfather Maclean, like most veterans really didn’t like to speak about his wartime experiences,” he said adding he didn’t want to put these things on his families.
Now, he is 93-years-old and living on his own in Calgary, though Sakamoto’s other grandparents have passed away.
before they passed away they opened up about their experiences.
“Grandma Sakamoto got to read the first draft and she as quite tickled. She was the family’s angel,” he said adding she passed away last year at age 92.
“As you enter that period in your life, you want to share your experiences,” he observed.
“ When I really started to do the research was when I got the book deal two years ago and they were both in their ’90s.
His grandmother read an early draft of the book before she passed away.
“ And grandpa MacLean is reading it as we speak,” he said.
“They were both very willing to talk about their experiences. They looked at it as an opportunity. They both refused to let the pain of their experiences carry over to their families. So we grew up in very loving families. We all were fortunate to benefit from that,” he said.
He said reliving some of his grandparents’ stories with them profoundly affected him — particularly a story in the book about his Grandpa Ralph in the POW camp at the end of the war as American troops were dropping food and Bibles to the starving prisoners.
“ Grandpa Ralph had a handful of food in one hand and in the other a Gideon New Testament Bible. That was really poignant, ” he said adding he was surprised by that as many people would have grabbed all of the food they could carry in such a situation.
He said the original essay that inspired the book, isn’t part of the finished product.
It was s a relatively brief essay but it certainly inspired the broad outline of the book. But what it really did was set me on a course of self-discovery,” he continued.
“ Forgiveness isn’t an exchange as in you harmed me so I forgive you. It comes from within,” he summarized.
“ It leaves you open to a future not motivated by anger,” he continued.
he is excited to return to Southern Alberta with the book.
“I’m excited to sit down with my family and friends,” he said.
He is also excited to vist uncle Ron Sakamoto.
“ I learned how to promote by working with the very best in the business, ” he said.
“ I basically did anything he told me to, said Sakamoto, who has left his law career behind him to focus on his software company in Toronto.
Mark Sakamoto will be at Chapters on June 12 at 7 p.m.
