Forbidden Family: Wartime Memoir of the Philippines, 1941-1945

Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography

by Margaret Sams, Lynn Z. Bloom (Contributor)

Written just five years after the end of World War II, this is Margaret Sams’s moving testimony of life in a Japanese internment camp—the can of Spam hoarded for Christmas dinner, the clandestine radio hidden in her sewing kit, the beheading of other prisoners for transgressions. With her husband held elsewhere as a prisoner of war and with a small son to protect, Margaret broke the rules both of society and of her captors to fall in love and bear a child with a kind and daring fellow internee, Jerry Sams.

Genres: Memoir

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1992

Reviews

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forbidden Family was like reading a letter--full of secrets, humor, gossip--from a friend. Margaret Sams, who went to the Phillippines hoping for an adventurous life got more than she could have ever imagined. Her husband of the time was sent off to join the Bataan Death March, while Margaret and their 3-year-old were rounded up and told to bring "enough supplies for three days." They were taken to Santo Tomas Internment camp in Manila where they lived for three years.
During that time Margaret met and fell in love with another prisoner, Jerry Sams. Their affair shocked the sensibilities of the camp (even amidst all the war issues.) She writes about being shunned (and Jerry being punished), constantly worrying about being shot for hiding a contraband radio, scrounging for food so they wouldn't starve, attempting to escape. It's a fascinating history, an amazing story.

[Del Lunde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of meeting Jerry and Margaret Sam's in the 90's. I have a copy and have read and reread it. She is inscribed a message in the front.
The book is written to provide an account to her family and to also provide a history of those imprisoned civilians during the Japanese occupation during WWII.
If you can find it, get it.
Later, in 2004 coincidentally her grandson purchased our N California home and made an added inscription to the book.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had earlier read Rescue at Los Banos (published 2015), so I was familiar with some of the story. This memoir was published in 1989, so Los Banos might have used some of this book's information.
Forbidden Family was an OK read in that I learned more of what the internees in the Philippines camps faced. The narrative was a little stilted at times, otherwise the writing was interesting. Some people have debated the facts that Mrs. Sams told.
The memoir is about a woman and her son who were captured and put into a prison camp in the Philippines; her husband was interned elsewhere. While in the first prison camp, Margaret falls in love with another man, resulting in another child being born. She is left alone while her new love in sent to another camp, so she has to fend for herself. She is shunned most of the time by others who do not appreciate her lifestyle. This book is about how she fends for herself and her children and how she falls short many many times.