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Book Claims Koreans Raped Japanese

Posted January. 18, 2007 07:11,   

한국어

“So far from the bamboo grove” is an autobiography of Yoko Kawashawa Watkins, a Japanese American and daughter of a Japanese war criminal.

The book has been adopted as an English textbook for several middle schools in the U.S. since it was published in 1986. It was also translated into Korean under the title of “Yoko’s Story” in 2005 by Munhakdongne Publishing Co Ltd.

However, the book recently sparked a controversy as some Korean parents in America raised an issue with the book, which claims that Koreans committed atrocities against the Japanese living in Korea such as rape as World War II drew to an end.

Anger of Korean students and Korean mothers in the U.S.-

Susana Park living in Westchester County, New York couldn’t help getting infuriated when she read a book her 6th grade daughter brought home last spring. Her daughter told her the book was being used as a textbook in her school.

Taking into consideration part of the book is about the author’s childhood amid the havoc at the end of the World War II and her father was a Japanese government officer, Park thought it was not fair to describe the Japanese in Korea during that time as innocent victims of brutal acts done by Koreans while ignoring the hardships and atrocities Koreans suffered under Japanese colonial rule.

The author said in the book when she was 11 years old, she, her mother and her sister narrowly escaped Koreans ruthlessly coming after them and saw the Japanese being raped by Koreans during her journey from Nanam to Japan via Seoul and Busan.

Park and other Korean parents asked their children’s school to remove the book from its curriculum, which the school did last September. At that time, Korean parents in Boston talked to some of the schools their children attended into banning the book from their curriculum.

Difficult fight-

However, the Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee in Boston voted unanimously to overturn the decision to ban the book in question from classes.

The Dover-Sherborn middle school cited that not allowing the book could be considered as censorship and they received positive response from students who had read the book.

In response, the Korean parents said, “The decision was changed by opposition from English teachers and parents of other ethnic groups.” They are preparing to file a federal lawsuit to settle this matter. The Korean media in the U.S. are supporting the Korean parents as they make daily reports about the issue.

Controversy over whether it is a true story-

The book has been published neither in China nor in Japan. Munhakdongne claimed when it published the book, “The book couldn’t be published in China due to strong anti-Japanese sentiment and in Japan because it contains critical remarks the author’s mother made about the Japanese government’s provocation of the war.”

Yoko Kawashawa Watkins said her book is a true story, but some point out that parts of its accounts are clearly wrong. For example, the book says as the World War II came to an end, American forces bombed areas in North Korea, and there were bamboo groves in Chongjin located north of the limited northern line for bamboo groves.

Munhakdongne says, “Yoko’s Story was written based on the author’s memory about her childhood. It is not a history book but a literary work. Readers might want to keep that in mind when reading it.” He added, “However, there is a need for a review over parts of the book’s descriptions accused of being historically incorrect.”



sechepa@donga.com