So far from the bamboo grove is about a Korean family living in Japan during WWII and the struggles the family endures just to survive.
I was drawn into the book from the very beginning. Yoko is the main girl and the story is told from her point of view. Immediatly you are interested in the plot because we see a family struggling through the war. You can see the family's love for each other and so I found myself rooting for them during the whole hoping that they would be reunited. I was devestated when mother died but thrilled at every small gain Yoko and Ko made to survive. I was so thankful that older borther was abel to be reunited in the end with the sisters but I wish we had found out something more about the father in the story. I don't know why he was not really mentioned because from what I know about Asian cultures all members of the family are very important and close. Maybe there is a reason for this so that you focus on the main female characters.
The stories of war tell us a lot human beings and how much we can endure no matter what age we are. I found myself really looking up to the girls as strong characters. I think that they are good role models for a girl reading this book. They became indepedentand strong without losing sight of who they were. When the girls teased Yoko at school she didn't let them get to her. She focused on her grades and living the life that she still had. I think that is very powerful. I also think that this whole concept is important now with all the bullying attacks occurs in our schools. We need more examples of strong students who are able to endure and they don't let it bother them.
I really enjoyed this book like I mentioned and I really liked seeing two sides of the war from different families because it made me remember that no matter what side of a war you are on, there are always two stories. The innocent civilians seem to be the ones hurt the most and that is something that is also important to take away from this book.
You got it backwards: It's about a Japanese family in Korea. But that doesn't matter because most of the facts in the book is wrong as well.
ReplyDeleteThis 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:
There 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?