So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawahima WatkinsI can not believe how much I learned by reading this book. It was not only a consuming book, but it truly gave some perspective of a war that really happened and true events that a real person has experienced. I never really remembered much in history class about WWII, so reading this book was like learning about it all over again (and less about memorizing dates and facts). Even simple things such as remembering where Japan and Korea are related geographically came to be such an easier thing because I was reading it in context and it made sense from the perspective of the author. I was so moved by the events of the story and definitely connected with the story in an emotional way. At the same time I immediately detached myself in a way from the characters because I did not want to believe that something so evil could take place, or that actual human beings were capable of possessing that much resiliency. Personally I have never experienced tragedy like this, and just reading about the driven determination of the mother and older sister to find shelter and food and simple necesseties for them and Little One was just overwhelming. It's true that we never really know what we are made of until strong adversity comes into our lives. This is a book that contains such a powerful and necessary topic to discuss, but I know I would be so hesitant to discuss it in my class because of the horrors of war and the obvious sensitivity of other topics that the book touches upon.
This book is not worth reading because it was made for international political purposes, not for education. Most of the facts are distorted in this book:
ReplyDeleteThere were no North-Korean soldiers in 1945 (they existed after 3 years), and the location of where the author claims to have been when she was young did not have the right condition for bamboo trees to grow back then (Nanam). She also claims to have seen and heard bombs explode due to US air-force planes, but B-29s did not have fuel tanks large enough to fly all the way to Korea (nor were there ANY records of bombing in Korea at that time). Also, the United States ORDERED the Japanese soldiers occupying in Korea to be left ARMED until every Japanese civilians were escorted back to their homeland. Thus if Japanese civilians were REALLY raped, chances are, they were raped by their own people.
So what do we have left from this novel? Just a fictional book that distorts history in a very ironic way (Considering the fact that the Japanese soldiers RAPED and MURDERED Korean women at wartime for pleasure. They actually had the nerves to call these women 'Comfort Girls'). The book title should be renamed as "So Far from History and the Truth"
It's like Hitler claiming that he was tortured by the Jews in the Holocaust. Sounds like a nice book for young kids and adults eh?