Customer Reviews

So Far from the Bamboo Grove

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

No conventional rating should apply to this book, but the book is certainly worthy of comments.

"So Far from the Bamboo Grove", published in 1986, is the Japanese-American author's retelling of the harrowing experiences of her escape as a child from Korea at the end of World War II. The eleven year-old child was driven from her delightful life and home in northern Korea. The events of the story ring true as the author spins her tale of war-induced woe; the book reaffirms that WAR IS HELL.

The alert reader of these comments will immediately take note of the characterization of an "escape" of a Japanese from Korea in 1945, and the reading of this book should provide a basic exercise on critical thinking. For every reader, the question that begs to be asked should be, "Why was her family in northern Korea?" or, more pointedly, "What did her father do?" It turns out that her father was an important Japanese government official who was "working" in nearby Manchuria. The publisher at the end of the book notes that the father eventually returned to Japan after serving six years in a Siberian prison.

So the author's father was a World War II war criminal, and the family's home in northern Korea was the result of an imperialist's occupation. No wonder the patriotic Koreans were not too eager to provide the author's family a safe and comfortable passage out of their country!

Now, isn't it remarkable that this book exists? The author has had decades to reflect on her experiences and proves incapable of viewing them in the larger historical context. Political correctness is not the issue here; this book demonstrates an egregious omission of a righteous moral stand.

Furthermore, doesn't the uncritical manner of the presentation of this book cause one to ponder the role of racism? The publisher makes a tepid attempt to include some notes on Korean history that only serve to further obfuscate the historical significance of this story. The book's forward and the blurbs uniformly praise the book without exercising critical thinking. The suggestion of racism should not be made lightly, but would it be possible to publish a book retelling the travails of a young girl from a Nazi German family "escaping" from Holland at the end of the Second World War?

This might be a "well written" book, but it is completely distorting the truth about the Japanese WW2 aggressions and atrocies. It makes as if atrocies were committed by the victims rather than the aggressor. If you knew even a bit of history, you would have some misgivings and the second thoughts about why the author wrote this book and why she is trying so hard for this book to be adopted by the elementary schools around the U.S. Depiction of mindless rapes and atrocies committed by the Koreans and Russians in this book could have happened, however what does she say about those close to half million comfort girls and women who were forcefully removed from their homes and brutally raped by Japanese soliders day after day and had to live as sex slaves for the duration of the war. Most of these women were never compensated for the crimes committed by Japanese government and people to this day. On top of that, Japanese government continually denies the atrocities by their soliders and civilians during the war (although it's partially due to lawsuits which may result from their admissions). You might say that this is a story about a Japanese girl and writing her memoir about WW2 although I seriously question whether this book is suitable for the elementary school kids considering the level of violence depicted in this book.


If Anne Frank were a German and she were still alive to this day and if she wrote about the mindless rapes committed by Jewish resistance fighters and Jewish American soliders after WW2 and no mention was made about the Holocaust during WW2. Wouldn't you think that is a DISTORTION of history?

If they were going to adopt this book as the textbook for the elementary school kids, they should at least adopt another book written by a Chinese or Korean author talking about a girl who was amidst of Nanking Massacre or a girl kidnapped by Japanese soldiers during WW2 to serve as sex slaves. That should give a balanced view of what really happened during WW2 and should mitigate unfounded stereotypes about certain ethnicities or racial groups.

And who are these "kid's review" and "a reader"? They are writing unanimous praise of this book. Somehow, the same person is writing two dozen reviews and trying to promote this book. Do you smell something fishy here?

If I weren't required to read this book for class I probably wouldn't have, and that reaffirms my faith in my gut feelings. This is one book you can judge by its cover. The artwork is simple, and that's the best way to describe the book. Simple. It may be that I'm a little bit old for the level of reading here, but no matter what age a story is intended for, I think it should follow the basic outline for a story. It should have a rising action (keyword "action"), a climax and a resolution. This book starts off with Yoko, her sister and her mother getting on a train, then they stay on a train, for several chapters. Then they're in a train station, for what seems like an eternity. Then they're in a warehouse, likewise, forever. Every now and then you think you can see some sputter of action, suspense, anything, but alas, it quickly fades to its usual doldrem. It did almost have a resolution, but not quite, there are still quite a few questions unanswered. An "...and we all lived happily ever after" or "...and everyone died" would have satisfied me more than the ending. All said, it's not the story that's bad, it's the writing that makes it not worth reading. I'm sure told properly this would be a harrowing tale that would change my whole outlook on life, but as it is I'm inclined to think there's a better book out there that I can read to achieve that effect.

Anyone who lauds the book's narrative richness in author's recounting her own experience may as well refer to professor Eckert's article concerning the book. I can't agree more with his view that the book could be roughly compared to a would-be one that depicts a Nazi offcial's daughter's heartrending escape of Netherland right after the second world war; if such a book to be read by the children who have no historical knowledge of Nazi atrocities against the Jews during the war, it might eventually result their symphaty towards fallen Nazis and antipathy to holocaust survivors.No matter how beautifully written the book is (such literary value, however, cannot be counted more important in a "memoir" than depicting of "facts"),it cannot be thought as an apt material for the multicultural study if read alone without the due provision of historical accounts concerning Japanenes colonial era.

Plus,the fact that the author has been mistaken(as she admitted)about some accounts described in the book(e.g., that bamboo tree cannot be grown in the region she was living in, while the very title of the book defys such a fact)is not to be neglected as it extends to questionability of the whole book, when so much historical tension has been involved.

This is a bad fiction based entirely on fabricated history. The book is so biased and inundated with historical inaccuracies that even the publishers in Japan refuse to publish this book in Japanese.

The bottom line is that the author was a daughter of a war criminal, high Japenese official stationed at a northern Korean province during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and had led a comfortable life at the expense of the suffering of the Korean people until she and her family got kicked out of Korea at the end of the WWII. She's a disgruntled former beneficiary of the Japanese imperialism and this book is a poor attempt to mislead the public and further her hidden agenda.

It's not too hard to google this book and find many inaccuracies claimed by the author. It is especially appalling that this book is a children's novel aimed at American children who are not familiar with what Japanese imperialism did to other Asians during the first half of the last century. If you are buying books for your children or students, stay clear of this one, it will give your children one bad history lesson.

This is an autobiography published by Beech Tree in 1986 describing Yoko Kawashima Watkins' experiences as an 11 year old Japanese living in Korea in 1945 near the end of WWII, when she and her family had to flee from Nanam (now part of Chongjin), a city in northern Korea to travel south to Seoul, then to Pusan to be repatriated to Japan. This occurred at a time when the Korean people were regaining control of their homeland from the occupying Japanese. It describes the terrifying experiences that she and her family endured.

Over the years the book has become very popular and is often part of the required or recommended reading for students in the middle grades in many parts of the U.S. The book has been criticized because it gives its young readers a very much distorted understanding of that part of history. For example, it does not mention any of the many Japanese war crimes and the atrocities that Japan imparted to the people in Korea and many other countries. Such distortion has resulted in Korea American students being criticized and harassed in their own schools by their fellow students. In several parts of the U.S., parents have attempted to remove the book from their curriculum and reading lists. These attempts were sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful.

In assessing whether a book like Yoko Kawashima Watkins' "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" should be included as required or recommended reading for students in the middle schools or some other grades, I believe that one needs to distinguish two perspectives. One perspective is whether the author is accurately reporting her own experiences and her own understanding of the events. The other perspective is whether a reader, especially a young reader, who has no knowledge of that period of history, after reading this book would get a very much distorted understanding of that part of history.

First I comment on the first perspective. Although I do not want to question the accuracy of the author's reporting of her experiences as a young child, I do want to point out that when she wrote this book, she was already an adult. So she should know very well the reality of that part of history, in particular, the Japanese as a whole were not victims, but the Japanese government and military were the invaders and ruthless instigators of the violence. I think in the text of the book, the author should have at least explained clearly and more fully this larger context in which her experiences occurred. It is not sufficient just to add a preface to a later edition of the book stating that her book was never intended to be a defense of the Japanese.

Regarding the second perspective, what concerns me the most is that a reader, who has no knowledge of that period, which would be the case for essentially all young American readers, would get a very much distorted understanding of that part of history. The reader would not understand that the Japanese were the invaders of Korea and the aggressors, that the Japanese had done terrible and massive atrocities against the Koreans and other people in Asia, and the reader would not understand that there was justifiable hatred of the Japanese occupiers by the Koreans.

Thus, from both perspectives, there are good arguments against this book. Education leaders of a school district have the duty and moral obligation that they should not require, recommend, or encourage their students to read books that could give rise to such a distorted understanding of history. I hope that they would reconsider their district's position with respect to Yoko Kawashima Watkins' book.

Parents of middle school students! Know the truth before letting your child read this book.
This book is very well known for its false but attractive narration. Among the Asian community, there have been efforts to remove this far-from-the-true book in the class and some school systems officially banned this book. That's because this book misleads our young children.
Arguably, the author's father worked at Japanese colonial government in Manchuria where Japanese committed most notorious crime war in history. They did all kind of experiments on human subject (mainly political prisoners and resistance). For example, prisoners were hung upside down to see how long it would take for them to choke to death, having air injected into their arteries to determine the time until the onset of embolism, and having horse urine injected into their kidneys.(Source: Wikipedia Unit 731)
Now, the war ended, they had to escape for their life. Can you say that this ugly truth can be ignored because the story-teller is just a young girl? In Korea and China, there are still survivors who were forced to be sex slaves during WWII. Japanese government never apologied to them yet.
If you still believe this book is worth reading, go ahead and let your child read this. But you should accept that you are ignoring the truth and/or irresponsible parents. Good luck.

This book is a great read of a fictionalized account of Yoko Watkin's story. There are no bamboos in NK. There were no communist soldiers when Yoko's family left for Japan. And Japanese retreat occurred under heavy military protection. But don't be fooled by the well-written narrative.



This book is akin to an escape narrative of an SS officer's family running away from Birkenow Auschwitz concentration camp while the heroin daughter of the Nazi officer is running away from cruel and dangerous Jews freed from concentration camps and Poles. Such a narrative is morally irresponsible and disgusting material to force upon innocent children.



Stay away from this book if you value humanity and decency.

I have read this book as well as her other book, My Brother, My Sister and I, and I know this woman. The humility she exudes when around others can only be identified with someone who is at peace with her past; a past so grotesque, that no one who knows her wants to bring up. Once I read this book, in order to know her better, I came away with the impression of a child who had to grow up quickly, lost both parents, had violence around her on a daily basis, and still seemed to make it through--in spite of the odds. I don't care about other people's viewpoints about her father being a war criminal, about her supposed "racial interpretations", nor do I care about specifics; all I know is that this woman has met a monster face to face and has learned to accept what that monster was and can be. If only those negative reviewers would look at this book through a child's eyes--how it was originally intended--instead of from an elevated position of authority, the rating would be changed.

Does she know anything about Japan's wartime history? Just google "Unit 731," the place where her own daddy probably worked at. Is it a pure coincidence that her daddy lived in the area where these despicable, inhuman experiments took place?