Forgiveness
3 journalers for this copy...
I have to begin by admitting that I am a person who has never understood the abstract concept of forgiveness. People who forgive the murderers of their children, for example. Makes absolutely no logical sense to me. Then, last year, I saw a documentary film of the Dalai Lama and he said that forgiveness was not for the person being forgiven, rather, for the person doing the forgiving. A tiny light went on for me. I still don't totally buy it, myself, but it explained the concept for me, a bit more.
Mark Sakamoto's book, one of the 5 finalists for the Canada Reads competition, which takes place from March 26 - 29, is subtitled: A Gift From my Grandparents*. I think a couple of quotes from the end of the book are actually a good place to begin my review:
"My grandparents bore witness to the worst in humanity. Yet they also managed to illuminate the finest in humanity. Their hearts were my home. I saw none of the ugliness they had. I felt none of the bitterness.
How on earth did they manage that?
Forgiveness is moving on. It is a daily act that looks forward. Forgiveness smiles."
" Life happens one decision at a time. You have no idea where each will take you. Maybe it is fate. Maybe it's God's will. Maybe everything does happen for a reason. All I know is that you have to find a reason in it. The reason is usually the future. I was inching closer to forgiveness.
As I sat in King's War Room, the sun broke through thick clouds, its light filtering in through the massive arched windows. The brightness seemed to open the room to me. And then it opened my country to me, illuminating, in that moment, in how precious few places in the world my family's story -- my grandparents', my parents', and mine -- would be possible."
~~~~~~
Mark Sakamoto's paternal grandparents were Japanese Canadians who were expelled from British Columbia and interned in Alberta during and after WWII, along with thousands of other Japanese Canadians, many of whom were Canadian-born. A truly disgraceful chapter of our country's history. Mark's maternal grandfather was Canadian born, in the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To escape an abusive father, he joined the army with his best friend and eventually saw action. He became a prisoner of war in Japan and was interned there for 4 long and brutal years. This book tells their stories in sometimes heart-breaking detail. Their backgrounds, how they lived, how they survived and how his grandparents somehow, despite it all, found it within themselves to allow their children to marry, at a time when inter-marriage, let alone this particular inter-marriage, was not nearly as acceptable as it might be today.
[Forgiveness] is also Mark's story, his own childhood, fraught and sad, yet throughout, he always knew he was loved. Sakamoto is a powerful writer. Here, he describes, how, as a 9-year old, his parents' marriage was beginning to unravel:
"On the surface, many things remained the same. Our morning routine was unchanged...But the cracks began to appear. I kept my eye on them like a home inspector, hoping they wouldn't impact the foundation. As I watched the small cracks grow, I wondered if anyone else saw them."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the things I came to understand from reading this story is that there is an awful lot we were not taught about in school when I was growing up. The internment of Japanese-Canadians is just one of those things. A quote from the book, about Mark's paternal grandmother:
"Mitsue felt a little safer than most. She was a Canadian citizen after all. They wouldn't do all the terrible things people were talking about to Canadian citizens. She had been born here, all her brothers and sisters had been born here. She'd never even been to Japan. Canada was all she knew. She felt Canadian through and through. And even though she was not permitted to vote, Canada was a democracy. That meant it was a safe country. That is what she had learned in school, and she believed it.
The next two months shattered those beliefs. Fear and greed can do terrible things to the human heart..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is gut-wrenching and startling to realize just how contemporary such sentiments still resonate. Humans don't really seem capable of learning from history, do they? The focus of bad politics these days seem aimed at trump, in the States, but Canada has plenty of its own shameful baggage to carry and deal with. Heaven help us.
This was a powerful and very well-written book.
Mark Sakamoto's book, one of the 5 finalists for the Canada Reads competition, which takes place from March 26 - 29, is subtitled: A Gift From my Grandparents*. I think a couple of quotes from the end of the book are actually a good place to begin my review:
"My grandparents bore witness to the worst in humanity. Yet they also managed to illuminate the finest in humanity. Their hearts were my home. I saw none of the ugliness they had. I felt none of the bitterness.
How on earth did they manage that?
Forgiveness is moving on. It is a daily act that looks forward. Forgiveness smiles."
" Life happens one decision at a time. You have no idea where each will take you. Maybe it is fate. Maybe it's God's will. Maybe everything does happen for a reason. All I know is that you have to find a reason in it. The reason is usually the future. I was inching closer to forgiveness.
As I sat in King's War Room, the sun broke through thick clouds, its light filtering in through the massive arched windows. The brightness seemed to open the room to me. And then it opened my country to me, illuminating, in that moment, in how precious few places in the world my family's story -- my grandparents', my parents', and mine -- would be possible."
~~~~~~
Mark Sakamoto's paternal grandparents were Japanese Canadians who were expelled from British Columbia and interned in Alberta during and after WWII, along with thousands of other Japanese Canadians, many of whom were Canadian-born. A truly disgraceful chapter of our country's history. Mark's maternal grandfather was Canadian born, in the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To escape an abusive father, he joined the army with his best friend and eventually saw action. He became a prisoner of war in Japan and was interned there for 4 long and brutal years. This book tells their stories in sometimes heart-breaking detail. Their backgrounds, how they lived, how they survived and how his grandparents somehow, despite it all, found it within themselves to allow their children to marry, at a time when inter-marriage, let alone this particular inter-marriage, was not nearly as acceptable as it might be today.
[Forgiveness] is also Mark's story, his own childhood, fraught and sad, yet throughout, he always knew he was loved. Sakamoto is a powerful writer. Here, he describes, how, as a 9-year old, his parents' marriage was beginning to unravel:
"On the surface, many things remained the same. Our morning routine was unchanged...But the cracks began to appear. I kept my eye on them like a home inspector, hoping they wouldn't impact the foundation. As I watched the small cracks grow, I wondered if anyone else saw them."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the things I came to understand from reading this story is that there is an awful lot we were not taught about in school when I was growing up. The internment of Japanese-Canadians is just one of those things. A quote from the book, about Mark's paternal grandmother:
"Mitsue felt a little safer than most. She was a Canadian citizen after all. They wouldn't do all the terrible things people were talking about to Canadian citizens. She had been born here, all her brothers and sisters had been born here. She'd never even been to Japan. Canada was all she knew. She felt Canadian through and through. And even though she was not permitted to vote, Canada was a democracy. That meant it was a safe country. That is what she had learned in school, and she believed it.
The next two months shattered those beliefs. Fear and greed can do terrible things to the human heart..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is gut-wrenching and startling to realize just how contemporary such sentiments still resonate. Humans don't really seem capable of learning from history, do they? The focus of bad politics these days seem aimed at trump, in the States, but Canada has plenty of its own shameful baggage to carry and deal with. Heaven help us.
This was a powerful and very well-written book.
Reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What you have in your hands is an honest-to-goodness gift, no strings attached. You may keep it forever and ever, pass it on to a friend, or release it into the wild like I did.
If you are new to BookCrossing and find this book and this site, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book and hopefully the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join BookCrossing (it's free!) and if you do, please consider using any previous reader of this book, or me, jessibud, as the member who referred you. Or you may remain anonymous!
If you are an old hand at BookCrossing, thanks for picking up the book! Either way, I hope you'll journal so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey. Thanks, and happy Crossing!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What you have in your hands is an honest-to-goodness gift, no strings attached. You may keep it forever and ever, pass it on to a friend, or release it into the wild like I did.
If you are new to BookCrossing and find this book and this site, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book and hopefully the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join BookCrossing (it's free!) and if you do, please consider using any previous reader of this book, or me, jessibud, as the member who referred you. Or you may remain anonymous!
If you are an old hand at BookCrossing, thanks for picking up the book! Either way, I hope you'll journal so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey. Thanks, and happy Crossing!
A very important book - and not just because it was on Canada Reads - and not just because it won! Here is a little story: In July of 2000, I went to Pittsburgh for the week-end, with my 7-year old son, and 9-year old daughter. We were invited there by a friend who had twins (age 1) and a little girl who was 6. As I was single, my friend Cathy arranged for a chef she knew to come out for dinner Sat. night and make it a foursome. A sort of blind date - but no pressure - after all he lived in Pittsburgh and I lived in Toronto. The night got off to a lovely start, when the chef arrived at Cathy's house with delicious palm leaf cookies (aka Palmiers) he had baked for everyone. We left the five kids with a sitter and had a really fun evening. Once back in Toronto, the chef and I emailed each other a few times, and at one point, I mentioned my kids had a terrific after-school baby-sitter from Japan. The next email I got, was pretty terse, as he told me his dad spent time during WW2 in a Japanese POW camp. Yes, I know how horrible things were in those camps: starvation, slave labour, torture, killings. But, in the here and now, decades later, this chef had nothing but hatred for Japanese people, on behalf of his dad. Our baby-sitter (with whom we are still in touch and she's a terrific person) was only 23. Her parents weren't even born when WW2 occurred. This whole episode put the kibosh on further correspondence. I think that chef, wherever he is, and his dad - if he's still alive - could benefit from this book, and its back story. I am sure I will need Kleenex reading it.
An excellent book about a very dark period in Canada's WW2 history, and an almost unreadable look at conditions in a Japanese POW camp during that time. To be honest, I was expecting the story to be centred on the relationship between MacLean and Sakamoto, but was not disappointed when it unfolded differently. For those people who are ignorant or just not interested in Canadian history, this book would be a great gateway.
Do you want this book back, Jessibud?
Officially reserved for Jessibud, once it leaves my house.
This is possibly the best book that I have ever read.
