So Far from the Bamboo Grove (18 page)
Read So Far from the Bamboo Grove Online
Authors: Yoko Kawashima Watkins
The United States also used the thirty-eighth parallel as a boundary line. On September 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur formally ordered Japanese soldiers north of the thirty-eighth parallel to surrender to the Russians; those south of it, to the Americans. The son of a Japanese government official, Hideyo realized that he would fare better at the hands of the Americans than at the hands of the Korean Communists; hence his urgent desire to get across the thirty-eighth parallel.
North Korea, under the influence of the Soviets, was formally established on May 1, 1948; South Korea, under the influence of the Americans, on August 15, 1948.
The Cease-Fire Line established at the end of the Korean War, which broke out on June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953, is largely above the thirty-eighth parallel.
a seemingly endless line of people
: The Japanese in Seoul followed orders from the Emperor by surrendering to the American General Hodge when he arrived in the city on September 9, 1945. The celebrating Koreans, who had so long awaited independence, gradually learned that the Russians and Americans had agreed upon a period of “trusteeship” for their country, at the wartime conferences at Yalta and Potsdam. As this became known unrest spread, and General Hodge turned to the Japanese to keep order. This was deeply
resented by the Koreans in the South. The Soviets, on the other hand, had a much easier time because they had prepared Korean Communists to help them take over and administer in the north.
Hodge's reliance on the Japanese to help him take charge enabled the Japanese authorities to get their people out of Korea. News of possible repatriation spread immediately, and the flow of refugees from the north to Seoul increased.
a bottle of milk
: Milk is not an ordinary beverage for the Japanese; however it was and is always available as a dietary supplement.
our Independence celebration
: Syngman Rhee, who had long petitioned the American government to side with the Korean nationalists, was returned to Korea from exile in the United States in October 1945. His return to southern Korea with exiled leaders Kim Ku and Kim Kyusik (Dr. Kiusic Kimm) set off further “independence” celebrations.
somewhere he was safe
: Yoko's father returned from a prison camp in Siberia six years later.
Photo courtesy of The Cape Codders
In the aftermath of World War II, Yoko Kawashima met Donald Watkins while working at an American military base in Japan. They married and raised a family, living in different parts of the United States as Donald completed his military service.
SO
FAR FROM THE BAMBOO GROVE
was heralded for presenting “a perspective of World War II rarely seen” by ALA
Booklist
in 1986, and its success helped open doors for other books about Asian experiences. This book is included in the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum and the author was named a “Literary Light for Children” by the Boston Public Library in 1998. Interest in Yoko's story also led to the sequel,
MY BROTHER, MY SISTER, AND I
, which deals with the post-war years in Japan.
Yoko Kawashima Watkins received The Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts. Other award recipients include Maya Angelou, Robert Coles, Rosa Parks, Cindy Sheehan, Benjamin Spock, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama.
The author and her husband make their home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her sister, Ko, lives nearby.
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Cover art © 1986 by Leo and Diane Dillon
Cover design by Ray Shappell
S
O FAR FROM THE BAMBOO GROVE.
Copyright © 1986 by Yoko Kawashima Watkins. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known orhereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watkins, Yoko Kawashima.
So far from the bamboo grove / by Yoko Kawashima Watkins.
Summary: A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan at the end of World War II.
1. Watkins, Yoko KawashimaâJuvenile fiction. [1. Watkins, Yoko KawashimaâFiction. 2. KoreaâFiction. 3. JapanâFiction. 4. World War, 1939â1945âFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.W3235So 1994 [Fic]âdc20 93-11720 CIP AC
ISBN 978-0-688-13115-9
EPub Edition January 2014 ISBN 9780062347114
First Harper Trophy edition, 2008
13
LP/BR
30 29 28 27
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