Mark Sakamoto (born July 4, 1977) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

lawyer and writer. He is most noted for ''Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents'', a family memoir which was published in 2014. Originally from

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, R ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

,"Hatter’s book named to top 15 list of CBC’s Canada Reads program"
''

Medicine Hat News The ''Medicine Hat News'' is a daily newspaper published in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It features a city news section, a national news section, a world news section, a sports section, a comics section, and a classifieds section. The paper is owned ...

'', January 22, 2018. he is the son of a

Japanese Canadian are Canadians, Canadian citizens of Japanese people, Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, British Columbia, which hosts the largest ...

father, Stan Sakamoto, and a Scottish-Canadian mother, Diane MacLean."How a family was built on the basis of forgiveness"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', May 30, 2014. He studied political science at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

before moving to Halifax to study law at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

. Sakamoto worked on the political staff of former

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

leader

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff ( ; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party and leader of the Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has ...

. He is currently the executive vice-president for Think Research,"Think Research Leadership team"
November 14, 2019. a Canadian software company innovating in health data, and has served on the boards of the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the

Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies The Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto is an interdisciplinary academic centre located at the St. George campus in Downtown Toronto. It offers various research and educational programs in global affairs a ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, his paternal grandparents were affected by the Japanese internment in Canada, while his maternal grandfather was captured by the Japanese as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. Their stories of struggle and hardship formed the basis of his book ''Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents''. To write the book, Sakamoto interviewed his grandparents about how they forgave those formative experiences to embrace and connect with each other when their son and daughter fell in love and married. The book was a shortlisted finalist for the

Edna Staebler Award The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is an annual literary award recognizing the previous year's best creative nonfiction book with a "Canadian locale and/or significance" that is a Canadian writer's "first or second published book ...

in 2015. ''Forgiveness'' was selected for the 2018 edition of ''

Canada Reads ''Canada Reads'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language ''Canada Reads'' on CBC Radio One, and the Fre ...

'', where it was defended by

Jeanne Beker Jeanne Beker, (; born 19 March 1952) is a Canadian television personality, fashion editor, and author. Family Jeanne Beker was born in Toronto, Ontario to father Joseph Beker and mother Bronia Beker, two Jewish Holocaust survivors born in K ...

. It ended up winning the contest on March 29, 2018. Following its ''Canada Reads'' win, producer Don Carmody announced that he had optioned the book for development as a television miniseries. In 2020 he created and hosted the documentary series '' Good People'' for

CBC Gem CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

.Chris Brown
"Former Hatter Mark Sakamoto sharing stories of Good People"

CHAT-TV CHAT-TV (Analog television, analogue channel 6) was a television station in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, last affiliated with Citytv. Owned by the Jim Pattison Group#The Jim Pattison Media Group, Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, the station had s ...

, May 8, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakamoto, Mark 1977 births Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian people of Japanese descent Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian writers of Asian descent People from Medicine Hat Writers from Alberta Living people 21st-century Canadian memoirists Canadian television hosts Canadian television producers