Finding light amid the fog of World War II
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Alfred Young's conversion is the stuff of legend.
He first picked up a copy of the Book of Mormon as a prisoner of war in Japan. Seeds of testimony germinated in his heart for more than a decade before he entered the waters of baptism in New Mexico. And since joining the Church, time and the gospel have been Balm of Gilead for the unseen wounds war inflicted on Brother Young's soul.
Timely exchange
In May 1939, Alfred Young left his Tulsa, Okla., home as a bright-eyed 20-year-old army recruit pegged for military service in the Philippines.
By the dawn of 1945, however, the earth stood still for Alfred. Beginning with the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese in May 1942, he'd been a POW for more than 2½ years. Put in perspective, his captivity spanned over 10 percent of his entire life to that point. The daily rhythms of Camp 2B in Kawasaki, Japan, included starvation, disease and brutality.
When he wasn't out on work detail, Alfred read because he was starving mentally as well as physically. But even reading became tedious — Alfred had read the two books at his disposal, the New Testament and "Robin Hood," several times each.
One night Alfred, nicknamed "Blackie" by his fellow soldiers because of his black hair and tan complexion, voiced frustration about the dearth of reading materials to some other prisoners, including a fellow from Utah by the name of Jim Nelson.
"Two or three of us were standing [around] one night," Brother Young recalled. "I made the comment that I could read anything.
"And so Jim Nelson, he said, 'Blackie, I've got something you might like to read.'
"I said, 'Well, what is it?'
"He said, 'I'll bring it down to you. It's the Book of Mormon.'
"I said, 'Heck, bring it. I'll read it.' "
With help from Brother Nelson, the Book of Mormon began to take root in Alfred's heart.
"To be honest about it, I'd never read a book with so many people fighting each other in my life," Brother Young said. "It was very interesting. Jim would coach me along. He was 'the missionary.' "
Brother Nelson eventually furnished Alfred with a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants to go along with his other tomes of scripture. Although it's unknown where Brother Nelson's Book of Mormon came from, the Doctrine and Covenants bears the inscription of William Giddens, a medic from Brother Nelson's unit who was baptized shortly before deployment but died as a POW in the Philippines.
When the war ended, on four separate occasions Alfred purposely left behind the duffel bag containing all of his possessions — including Brother Nelson's books — because he didn't want any physical reminders of the suffering he had endured. But in each instance the duffel bag found its way back to Alfred, and when the military delivered the bag to the family home in Tulsa, he shrugged his shoulders and put the two books on his parents' mantle.
It wouldn't be until 1956 that Alfred, who came from a strong Protestant upbringing, got baptized. Between the end of the war and his baptism, Alfred married the former Maxine Hodson, had a son with Maxine and secured work at a top-secret nuclear military project in Albuquerque. But through it all, and despite several moves that had crisscrossed the western United States, Brother Young remained in possession of Brother Nelson's two books.
After being sealed to his family in the Los Angeles California Temple, Brother Young tried to return the scriptures to Brother Nelson, then living in Las Vegas.
"We went to the Los Angeles temple, came up through Vegas and looked Jim up," Brother Young said. "I offered him his books back, but he said, 'No, Blackie — those books are yours,' two big old tears rolling down his cheeks. I've had [the books] all these years."
Healing: an ongoing process
Brother and Sister Young live in Orem, Utah, less than a mile from their son Al R. Young, their only surviving child and a former bishop. They enjoy relatively good health despite their advanced age.
The upbringing Al Young deems "a blessed childhood" nevertheless included a chasm of emotional distance that often separated him from his father.
"Whatever silence or distance there was that brooded over my childhood, I never questioned Dad's love," Brother Young's son said. "But he was fighting an inner war. The inner conflict that he has dealt with after the war has found its way, I think, into nearly every facet of his life."
As the gospel and the Atonement steadily seeped deeper and deeper into Brother Young's invisible war wounds, father and son have been able to bridge the gap separating them. Especially beneficial to the strengthening of their relationship have been the hundreds of hours of research and interviews Al Young conducted for a self-published memoir, "My Father's Captivity."
"While we've walked back [in time], as two men we've had an opportunity to get acquainted — which is what the boy in me has been searching for all along," Al Young said. "I have found the father that I felt was distant. I've found the brother that I would wish for if I could wish for any brother.
"There have been things you can imagine, that a father can say to a son, that a son can say to a father, that no one else in the world can say and mean what they do. And this has provided that."
