So Far from the Bamboo Grove: by Yoko Kawashima Watkins-Response 3 [chpts 8-11]

I am finally done with the book So Far from the Bamboo Grove [well actually I finished the book the first day we got it :P –sorry Ms. Orlando!], and I thought that this was a really moving memoir. It showed how a young girl was forced to flee from her home in Nanam to Seoul just because of the Russians coming and landing there. Plus, it was during World War 2, so naturally they had to flee, or basically get captured and die.
Of the four characters that popped up in the book most often, my favorite character was Ko. Even when her family was on desperate measures when they were fleeing to Korea, she always showed some grit. Though Yoko considered her to be “mean” sometimes, Ko only did that for Yoko’s own good. For example, in chapter 2, it says, “’Right,’ said Ko. ‘Don’t talk. Just walk.’ Ko is bossy, I thought.” This shows that when Ko told Yoko to do something, Yoko usually thought that Ko was being mean and bossy. But what Ko was actually trying to do, was help her, so that she could walk farther and faster without having any distractions, like talking.
Kind of like in those little fairy tale stories, like Sleeping Beauty for example, There is always this one prince who comes and saves the princess when she is a “damsel in distress”. In this memoir, Corporal Matsumaru is like the “prince”. Only except they don’t fall in love, and live “happily ever after”; like the other stuff that happens in those fairy tales. He basically “saves” Ko, in a way where he helps Ko and Yoko live through there lives during all the hardships and everything. Moreover, Mr. and Mrs. Masuda help Yoko and Ko after their mother dies, and gives them a place to live. Even though it was a warehouse, to Ko and Yoko, it probably seemed like paradise since they had been living in a train station for a while, and had the fear of having their belongings stolen. When they were in the warehouse, the walls protected them from thieves, and the elements.
I also like Kawashima Watkins’ style of writing. She flits from her own point of view to her elder brother Hideyo’s point of view. This really helped me understand what it was like for her and her family during the war. Furthermore, it showed how even when your running away from something, and you become separated from your family, friends, or whoever you are with, there is always hope. Yesh. Hope. Even if it might seem nigh impossible, there is always that little thread of hope.