So Far from the Bamboo Grove

This riveting book gives young readers a close-up look at life during wartime for a young girl who is suddenly forced to flee Northern Korea with her mother and sister as WW II is coming to an end. They are heading for Japan, a homeland Yoko has never known. Yoko suffers the physical hardships of a wartime refugee, especially fear and hunger. Through her experiences, Yoko shows that people on both sides in a war suffer. Ironically, once in Japan, she faces the bullying of privileged girls at school, taunting that in some ways is harder to bear than hunger. Yet, through it all, Yoko's story shows the triumph of the human spirit. The love and kindness of ordinary people helping as best they can often at great personal risk is exemplified by the Korean family who bravely shelter Yoko's brother, Hideyo, jeopardizing their own safety to save his life. So Far From the Bamboo Grove is a testament to the power of family and the humanity of all people, a book that's inspiring and full of hope. It's also one of the few books for young readers that deals with WWII in this part of the world and may lead them to want to learn more.

As a bi-racial person of half-Japanese decent, I honestly admit that I did not know very much of my "other side" until I read this book. Now I can understand what my mother is talking about when she sometimes mentions to me how there are still hostilities between the Japanese and Koreans today. Of course, just reading one author's opinion and perspective based on her experience is not going to teach me all I need to know about my culture (I'm smarter than that) but it does open up my eyes a little bit to things that I was not aware of. I also appreciate how the author makes an effort to balance out how there were good and bad people on BOTH SIDES, not just Koreans. At the end of the book I wanted to find out more on what happened.

I purchased this book after I had heard an argue over this book between Koreans and this author. Koreans said this book is showing fabricated history, and this author said it is the true story. Koreans even kicked this book out of libraries in the U. S. The author said sorry for misunderstanding. I have parents, who are the same age with this author. To tell you the truth, this book is the part of true history. My parents, one is from North Korea and the other is from South Korea. My parents had told me so many times about WWII and Korean war, how they survived. That is the reason why I am saying this book is the real history. Koreans, please read this book carefully from the beginning to the end. This author was appreciating to Koreans, who helped her big brother to escape from North Korea. The rape incidents are true. My parents told me that there were so many mad Koreans to try to revenge Japanese. In North Korea, there were Russian soldiers raping any age Korean women. In South Korea, it was chaos. Yes, it is true that Japanese took Korean girls to sexually serve Japanese soldiers. However, because of that reason,after WWII, a few mad Koreans tried to kill Japanese, who were in Korea. In Japan, a few mad Japanese tried to kill Koreans, who were in Japan, too. Please, peple. This it the real tragic story behind war. There are innocent people. Even though the country started the war, still there are so many other nice people behind of this bad decision. Back in before 1945, there were a lot of Japanese and Koreans, who leanred each other's languages. But also, there were some people, who only knew how to speak the other language. One of my mom's friend, who had been in Japan before 1945, came back to Korea after WWII ended, but did not know how to speak Korean. She was misunderstood as a Japanese to Koreans. She and her family were almost beaten to dead by Koreans. Hatred is making people to be blind. There are no perfect people. Even nice people can make mistakes. Please no more fighting... It does not help anything. To know each other, to understand each other, please read this book carefully. And please do not judge anyone because some of those bad people's mistakes.

So far, this book has been the best I've read. It wasn't a boring book about somebody's life, but it described every little detail that Yoko experienced during her frightening journey. This book was graphic, but I believe that's why I enjoyed this book. I like reading novels that tell you stuff like that because it makes it easy to picture how difficult and stressful this trip was for Yoko and her family. I definitely recommend this book! *****

This is a wonderful tale of survival. Watkins does a tremendous job of describing these heart breaking scenes step by step. So Far From the Bamboo Grove is one of the best books ever. This story has many scenes to think about especially because it's from a point of view you may have never thought about!