Two days ago I checked out and read So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins. It is a controversial book and has been banned from some curricula as a result of Korean American parents protesting the way that the book is (according to some) provides a distorted view of the Japanese in Korea, making the Japanese to be the victims instead of Koreans.
After reading it, I had mixed feelings. In general, I was very absorbed in Yoko's story and the hardships she and her mother, sister, and brother survived. I thought the author tried to give a balanced perspective on why some or many or particular Koreans would hate Japanese. The story also revealed, as a by-product of the main narrative, the tragedy of how ideologies turned Korean against Korean. Having just returned from a divided Korea, this larger historical narrative is very present in my mind. The book seemed to be an authentic view from the eyes of the young Japanese girl--born and raised in Korea--that Kawashima Watkins was. And it's certainly not terribly pro Japanese--when young Yoko returns to Japan, she is scorned by the Japanese girls in her school because she is poor and has a ragged appearance.
As an educator, I would definitely not want this to be the only book by an Asian American writer, or the only narrative read during a unit on East Asia, or Japan, or Korea...or immigration, or refugees, or young girls during war. But I can see it possibly being a fruitful companion to a Korean-authored first person narrative--if taught by someone who has a comprehensive understanding of the history of Japan and Korea, and who is well educated in the geopolitics around the Korean War. If this is being taught in 6th grade classrooms, and the vast majority of teachers are American-born white folks, it's just statistically improbable that this population would be extremely knowledgeable on these topics that must ground the reading of this memoir. For that reason, I believe caution is necessary.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up A true account that
is filled with violence and death, yet one that is ultimately a story
of family love and life. Eleven-year-old Yoko Kawashima had led a
peaceful and secure life as the daughter of a Japanese government
official stationed in North Korea near the end of World War II.
Abruptly, all is changed as she, her older sister Ko, and their mother
flee the vengeance-seeking North Korean Communists and eventually make
their way to an unwelcoming and war-ravaged Japan. Yoko's story is
spellbinding. She often escapes death by mere chance; her brother,
Hideyo, separated from the family, has an equally harrowing escape. The
longed-for arrival in Japan proves to be an almost greater trial, as
their mother, defeated by the discovery that all their Japanese
relatives are dead, dies. Together, Yoko and Ko create a home in which
to await the return of Hideyo. Watkins writes clearly and movingly,
with a straightforward style through which the story unfolds quickly.
She skillfully alternates her account of the girls' journey with that
of their brother, maintaining readers' interest in both. Watkins is
able to describe scenes of death, rape, and other atrocities with a
simple directness which has no trace of sensationalism yet in no way
diminishes their horror. Readers will be riveted by the events of the
escape and struggle for survival, and enriched and inspired by the
personalities of the family. Especially well drawn is Yoko's gradual
emergence from a frightened, whining child to a strong and courageous
young girl. Parallels can be drawn to Holocaust survival stories such
as Aranka Siegal's Upon the Head of the Goat (Farrar, 1981) and Esther
Hautzig's The Endless Steppe (Crowell, 1968). So Far from the Bamboo
Grove should have a place among the finest of them. Louise L. Sherman,
Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, N.J.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
