By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org

Professor and author Yanek Mieczkowski shares the true narrative of two teenagers destined for life together in his new book, Surviving War, Oceans Apart.

A book discussion and signing will be held at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor on March 18, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids on March 19.

Preserving history…

Mieczkowski’s parents, Bogdan and Seiko, grew up on opposite ends of the globe yet both found themselves fighting for survival during World War II. Oceans Apart is their story of resilience, hope and love in the face of adversity.

“We’re so glad to be able to welcome Yanek back to the Ford Library and Museum…to share his new book Surviving War, Oceans Apart,” said Brooke Clement, Director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum.

“The themes of resilience, perseverance and the power of hope are timeless and serve to embolden every reader.”

Mieczkowski, a professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, attributes his passion for history and economics to his parents. Mieczkowski has always recognized the value of his parents’ life experiences but recently realized that, with both parents aging, his family history might soon disappear.

“As my parents got older, I realized their stories had tremendous historical value and they needed to be recorded and memorialized or else they would be gone forever,” said Mieczkowski. “If I didn’t record their World War II experiences, they would vanish with them.”

Seiko: Dreams amidst tragedy

In Japan, school was suspended during the war, and Seiko worked in a wartime factory while her older brother trained as a kamikaze pilot. Then Seiko’s older sister died, leaving the teenager devastated.

“My mother felt shattered after her older sister died. All she could do was continue to read, study and tend to a vegetable garden. That was her daily activity and goal: tend to the vegetables. She had a love for gardening the rest of her life.”

After the war, Seiko resumed her education and began teaching English at a Japanese junior high school in exchange for a tuition reduction. However, Seiko wanted to improve her English skills and traveled to Berea College in Kentucky to work, save money and improve her English.

Only intending to stay one year, Seiko remained long enough to obtain a second college degree. She then traveled to New York City to pursue a graduate degree in history and political science.

As Seiko worked to acquire her dream, Bogdan’s path also led him to New York City.

Bogdan: A lesson in adaptation

The son of an extremely wealthy industrialist, Bogdan experienced an affluent lifestyle…until the Germans invaded Poland.

“All that was taken away,” said Mieczkowski. “It required a lot of adaptation to a radically different life where the family is just scraping by and trying to avoid death. The game was survival.”

Bogdan’s family fled to Warsaw where he fought for the Polish Home Army. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, Bogdan sustained severe injuries and endured seven POW camps.

“Every step required tremendous resilience, optimism, adaptation and survival, and those are all themes that I lean into in the book,” said Mieczkowski.

After the war, Bogdan intended to continue the fight for Poland. “He called it the white knight syndrome,” said Mieczkowski. “He pictured himself going back to his home country, which he loved. His intention was to fight to free Poland from the grip of communism.”

Bogdan quickly realized, however, that his efforts would have been futile. Instead, Bogdan refocused his goals. 

Enrolling in courses at London University, Bogdan fell in love with economics and earned a degree.

However, an aura of condescension toward Polish veterans in London unsettled Bogdan, and he immigrated to Chicago. He lived with an uncle and received his masters and doctorate in economics at the University of Illinois. A few years later, Bogdan accepted a position at a Polish research agency in New York City.

A leap of faith…

The title of Mieczkowski’s book portrays a sense of destiny as two paths from opposite sides of the planet converge after a war and immigration to the United States.

“Surviving the war was a feat itself,” said Mieczkowski. “And then meeting – it was a stroke of sheer serendipity.”

Mieczkowski has always admired his parents for their resilience and achievements in the face of adversity. Writing Oceans Apart only increased Mieczkowski’s appreciation for what his parents lived through.

“I got a real appreciation for the hardships, the adversity, my parents lived through, and their ability to bounce back from all that and have a sense of optimism and perseverance through it all.”

Daily survival…

When recording their stories, Mieczkowski individually asked his parents what allowed them to survive the war when everything seemed so bleak. Their responses were identical: It was a day-to-day instinct for survival.

“You get up in the morning, you don’t set huge goals for yourself, you just try to make it through the day,” Mieczkowski said. “You knew in the back of your mind that the war would have an end, but to get to that end you just have to focus on the short-term. And the short-term is just making it through the day.”

A sense of family and the importance of education also sustained Bogdan and Seiko.

“Throughout the war they never gave up on learning,” said Mieczkowski, adding that his mother continued learning about music, chemistry, and other subjects while working at the factory. His father learned English and Italian from fellow POW soldiers and read every newspaper he could find.

“This is amazing, what my parents did, coming from a loss of everything in the war and refocusing, setting new goals of getting educated. I really admired that in my parents and always will.”

A labor of love…

“This was a real labor of love,” said Mieczkowski about Oceans Apart. “This book really hit home [and] by far was the most personal.”

While writing Oceans Apart, Mieczkowski utilized newspapers and magazines from that time period while also reading secondary literature. During that research, he realized how few books explained the Japanese home front experience.

“That’s one of the real contributions of my book, that it gives readers a window to what Japanese citizens experienced during the war, as well as Polish citizens,” said Mieczkowski.

Mieczkwoski also visited the hometowns of his parents in Poland and Japan.

“I got a real sense for the environment in which my mother grew up,” said Mieczkowski. “It was a beautiful city with a latticework of canals that wind through the city. I got a real sense for the placid life my mother led up until the war.”

Bogdan’s family home in Bydgoszcz, Poland – built by Mieczkowski’s grandfather – was still standing.

“I got a real feeling for what my father lived with when he was growing up, this very comfortable life, and then having to leave suddenly,” Mieczkowski said. “Being in those countries really helped me to write and narrate my parents’ stories a lot better than I could if I had never gone there.”

A unique contribution…

Mieczkowski said Oceans Apart is a unique contribution to World War II literature because it offers a transnational experience. It is also as personal as it is factual.

“Readers can hear my parents’ voices through this, and I hope readers can be inspired by this book and by my parents’ experiences,” said Mieczkowski.

Bogdan Mieczkowski passed away in 2020 at the age of 95. Seiko is approaching her 96th birthday and resides in Cocoa Beach, FL with Yanek.

Event registration and additional resource links:

Register for the free Oceans Apart book discussions with Yanek Mieczkowski below:

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (Ann Arbor) – March 18

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum (Grand Rapids) – March 19

Read more about Bogdan’s wartime and combat experiences here and here.

Learn more about Yanek Mieczkowski’s published works, including an essay and book on Gerald R. Ford, here.