So Far from the Bamboo Grove | Asian American Bookview

So Far from the Bamboo Grove
Yoko Kawashima Watkins
A Beech Tree Paperback, New York, 1986, 183pp, $4.95
A Japanese family flees their Korean home after World War II. A true story.

EXCERPT:

t was almost midnight on July 29, 1945, when my mother, my elder sister Ko, and I, carrying as many of our belongings as we could on our backs, fled our home in its bamboo grove, our friends, and our town, Nanam, in northern Korea, forever.
     In darkness Mother checked windows and doors. I was eleven, Ko sixteen. I was very tired and my head was so dizzy I did not know which way I was heading. The cool night air swept my face; still my head was not clear. I saw Mother close the main entrance and lock it.
     "Now give me your wrist, Little One," she commanded in a low voice.
     I was called "Little One" by my parents and Ko, but my older brother, Hideyo, always teasing, called me "Noisy One" because I often screamed when I was teased and when we frolicked in the house.
     My wrist? I hadn't had a night's sleep in two weeks because of the air raids. My head was very hazy.

     Hurry!" Mother found my wrist in the darkness. She was tying to rope to it. "So I won't lose you."
     Tying Ko's wrist, she asked, her voice full of worry, "You did leave a note for your father?"
     "Yes, Mother."
     I left a note for Hideyo," said Mother. "Oh, I hope he finds it and joins us. he can get in through his window. Now remember, no one knows we are leaving. No matter what, until we reach the train station, be silent. Understand?"

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