Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto

Author:Mark Sakamoto [Sakamoto, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443417990
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2014-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Letter from Ralph MacLean to his mother from North Point POW camp, November 29, 1941

Ralph was a winner. He felt a certain relief. He imagined it would be a welcome change. It was their homeland; surely there’d be more food, more provisions, cleaner conditions. How could it get any worse?

At dawn on August 15, 1943, the 276 men who had been able to walk the twenty-three steps the previous evening were marched to the dock beyond the south gate of Shamshuipo. As the gate opened, Ralph made out the ship’s name: The SS Morningstar. It was an ocean liner. His heart jumped. Maybe, just maybe, things were looking up.

He had never been more wrong in his life.

Even the past two years could not have prepared Ralph for the test he was about to face. He was stepping onto a hell ship, aptly named by the men who would survive the journey.

Ralph was in the middle of the parade march along the dock and up the ship’s ramp, so he could see the men in front of him. He knew his way around a ship. As soon as he set foot on the deck, he knew exactly where the line was heading. He braced himself the only way he knew how. He took a deep breath and kept putting one foot in front of the other. Down the stairs the line went, into the guts of the ship. The man in front of him whispered something about beds in the interior cabins. Nope, Ralph thought. They made their way past the mess hall, past the engine room, down another flight of metal steps. The tall men ducked and held the rail. Several slipped on the polished metal track, their bare feet no longer accustomed to walking on metal. Ralph could hear the shouts of a Japanese guard.

“In!” A guttural growl.

He saw the barrel of a mounted machine gun well before he saw the doorway. He knew why it was needed. As it became clear to the man in front of him what was happening, his shoulders slumped and he began to convulse. Ralph realized he must be claustrophobic, and he knew that the man was hyperventilating and about to go into shock. He put a hand on his shoulder.

“Stay steady.”

They were only fifteen paces away from the machine gun. As soon as each man stepped through the doorway, he disappeared. They were walking into the void. The ship’s cargo hull. Hell.

Ralph’s eyes were on the Japanese soldier manning the machine gun. The soldier was perched on a chair, his finger on the trigger. He was in firing position. Ralph was careful not to make eye contact. He knew the man wanted to pull the trigger. The soldier stared at each of them as they passed, daring them, begging them to give him a reason to shoot.

Ralph feared that the man in front of him would provide just that reason. He knew how bullets would spray out of the barrel now a mere ten paces away.

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