Review of FORGIVENESS: A GIFT FROM MY GRANDPARENTS by Mark Sakamoto

3 Stars

I read this book because it was the winner of the 2018 Canada Reads competition.  I saw American War by Omar El Akkad as the book that best fit the theme of “One Book to Open Your Eyes” so when Forgiveness was chosen the winner, I thought it must be something very special.  It isn’t.

This is a family memoir focusing on the lives of the author’s paternal grandmother, Mitsue Sakamoto, and his maternal grandfather, Ralph MacLean, during World War II.  Mitsue and her family, because of the Canadian government’s decision to force all those of Japanese descent to move away from B.C.’s coast, worked as virtual slaves on farms in Alberta.  Ralph MacLean enlisted in the army but spent almost the entire war in a Japanese POW camp.  In the last part of the book, the author discusses growing up with his alcoholic mother. 

Mitsue and Ralph’s stories are certainly worth telling, though I didn’t really learn anything new.  People who have read Obasan by Joy Kogawa (about the internment of Japanese Canadians), and The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (inspired by the experiences of his father in a Japanese POW camp) will be aware of much of what Mark Sakamoto’s grandparents endured.   It is the story of the coming together of the families of these two people who suffered so much that most interested me.

Unfortunately, this story is largely missing, though the title suggests that Mitsue and Ralph’s ability to forgive is going to be the focus.  All we are given is mention of the dinner where the two families first met; we are told “Mitsue and Ralph became instant friends.  There was an unspoken understanding between them. . . . Deep down, they knew each other.  They had both discarded the past, keeping only what they needed, leaving the rest behind.  They did not compare hardships or measure injustices.  They knew there was no merit to that.”  That’s it!  There is no discussion of how they achieved this discarding of the past and moving on.

We are told that Ralph, upon being freed from the POW camp, read the Bible:  “’And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him.’”    Ralph read this passage and immediately forgave the camp commandant:  “So, where could he go from there?  How on earth could he move on?  The truth was, he already had.”  Sakamoto implies that Ralph suffered with PTSD, yet forgiveness came  so easy for him?  As a reader, I would have liked details:  How did Ralph react when his daughter Diane first told him that she was dating a man with Japanese heritage?  Apparently he never raised the issue of Stanley’s race? The first meeting with Stanley was not strained?  Ralph was able to forgive those who held him captive for years, yet he never forgave his father?  With Mitsue, even less is known about how she was able to forgive.  Was she able to forgive the Canadian government for what it did to her and her family?  And why does Sakamoto focus on Mitsue but not her husband Hideo?  Was Hideo less able to forgive?

Sakamoto’s definition of forgiveness is part of the problem.  Forgiveness is generally defined as a deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward someone who has harmed them.  Forgiveness frees the forgiver from corrosive anger so he/she can heal and move on with his/her life.  Sakamoto’s definition of forgiveness is simplistic:  “Forgiveness is moving on.  It is a daily act that looks forward.  Forgiveness smiles.”  Sakamoto skips over the conscious, intentional letting go of negative feelings that is the real act of forgiveness.  And it is this act that he skips in his story.

The quality of the writing is uneven.  Some people are introduced as if they are going to be important and then are never mentioned again.  There is little attempt to portray people realistically; Mitsue’s family members, for example, were all kindhearted and talented.  Granted, it is human nature to gloss over failings of those we love.  The melodramatic tone also becomes annoying.  Chapters end with sentences like “He must have wondered why I looked like I had just seen the face of God” and “So, where could he go from there?  How on earth could he move on?  The truth was, he already had.”

This book is a memoir and so people feel badly if they criticize.  I think this was the problem with Canada Reads 2018.  The book does indeed give people an opportunity to reflect on racism in Canada, the horrors of war, and the need for forgiveness, but it hardly opens readers’ eyes to something they wouldn’t have known by reading other – better written – books.