Reviewed by James Karas
Forgiveness is a play by Hiro Kamagawa based on Mark Sakamoto’s book FORGIVENESS:
A Gift from My Grandparents that was published in 2014. The
play premiered in Vancouver in 2022.
The play tells the horrific stories of the treatment of Canadians of Japanese origin during World War II and later and the treatment of Canadian soldiers in Hong Kong and Japan who were prisoners of war. I refuse to hyphenate Canadians because that makes them second class citizens. A Japanese Canadian or Japanese-Canadian (or Italian-Canadian or Greek-Canadian with or without a hyphen) is somehow not as good as an unhyphenated Canadian. Never hyphenate your Canadianism. If asked or your accent makes it obvious that you were not raised in Canada, you may tell them your country of origin but never let them call you a hyphenated Canadian.
Canadians of Japanese descent had a lot more to worry about in British Columbia after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941. Their Canadian status and their legal rights as permanent residents or citizen were trampled on and they were put in concentration camps, their property was confiscated and they did not see justice, if you can call it that, for decades after the war was over.
All of this was not done by Canadian bigots or small-minded people though there was no shortage of them. The decisions were made at the highest levels of government by people who knew or should have known exactly what was happening. What kind of people did we have in government in power or the civil service who ordered such barbarity and inhumane treatment of innocent people? (You can start with Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King who was an antisemite.)
The racist policy against the Japanese did not end with the war but lasted until 1948. They were given a choice of moving east of the Rockies or being deported to Japan. Most of them were Canadian citizens and many had never lived in Japan. Oh, yes, Canada apologized for its inhumanity in 1988 and made some reparations. Count the years between 1942 and 1988 and bow your head in shame.
There is a parallel story of the barbarity against the Japanese that the play illustrates with unerring precision. Canadian soldiers were taken prisoners of war after the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. As Ralph (Jeff Lillico) one of the main characters in Forgiveness states he fought for two and a half weeks and was a POW for three and a half years. Ralph lied about his age to enlist and he and his friends Deighton (Joe Perry) and Coop (Gabriel Antonaci) ended up as POWs.
There were about 2000 Canadians whose treatment in the prison and labour camps in Japan beggars the imagination. The play illustrates part of that treatment through commandant Kato (Hiro Kanagawa). Ralph is assigned as a servant to the unhinged, sadistic and alcoholic Kato but survives almost miraculously. His friends do not and Ralph has nightmares about their fate.
The leading characters that take us through the parallel stories are Ralph and Mitsue Sakamoto (Yoshie Bancroft). The play has more than forty characters played by 13 actors and covers a period of from the late 1930’s to 1968. The action moves back and forth chronologically over forty years and it becomes difficult to follow, not to say confusing. The actors take on numerous roles making it difficult to follow some of them. Steven Hao plays eight roles!
There is a rich use of projections with original illustrations and animations by Cindy Mochizuki handled by Projection Designer Sammy Chien. The Set and Costumes by Lorenzo Savoini are marvellous but watching for details in the theatre-in-the-round Tom Patterson is difficult. And we have the sound design by Olivia Wheeler and the lighting by Kaileigh Krysztofiak and we are loaded to the gills with things to follow and hopefully absorb.
Ralph’s daughter Diane (Allison Lynch) marries Ron Sakamoto, the son of Mitsue Sakamoto. Ralph) makes his daughter promise to name her son Mark. She is not pregnant but she does promise. Her son Mark is the author of the book and the reason for the name is Ralph’s reference to the Gospel of Mark. It is what he refers to when Deighton and Coop accuse him of not trying hard enough to save them. He reads to them from Mark: “And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father…may forgive you your trespasses.”
The play ends on a note of grace and some humour. Ralph and his wife Phyllis (Jacklyn Francis) have dinner with the Sakamoto family. It is the ultimate symbol of reconciliation.
But looking at the treatment Canadians meted on the Japanese and the Japanese on Canadian soldiers, is forgiveness possible or desirable. There is the racism of people in power who disregarded all human decency, compassion and legal rights by ordering innocent people’s lives to be destroyed. Was there any evidence that they regretted their actions to merit forgiveness? The ruling class embraced and enforced racist laws that caused immeasurable pain. Can one who lived under those conditions forgive the perpetrators. On what basis does one forgive?
Can we judge from the comfort of our office? That’s a question of morality that may have little to do with review of a production.
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Forgiveness by Hiro Kanagawa adapted from the memoir Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents by Mark Sakamoto contributes to September 27, 2025, at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, Ontario.
