The ex-soldier returns to Japan

In 1970, when George MacDonell was vice president of Canadian General Electric, he went to Tokyo for a business meeting with the president of Toshiba Corp and its board of directors at the company's headquarters. But more than business came up.

The president asked MacDonell through an interpreter if he had been in Japan before.

"Yes, I have," MacDonell replied. "1942 to 1945."

MacDonell said then there was silence and "the president's face froze".

Not knowing that MacDonell spoke and understood some Japanese, the chairman of the board said: "My God, he must have been a POW here! He must really, really hate us for what we have done.'"

And then MacDonell said he replied in Japanese: "I had been a POW for nearly four years after the fall of Hong Kong in 1941. Look, the war is over now, we're here to do some business, and we're going to try to help both of our countries. I have no hatred to the Japanese people; you were also victims of their military dictatorship."

Years later, Toshiba and Honda built plants in Alliston, Ontario, and MacDonell helped in that effort.