So Far from the Bamboo Grove

by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

  Gunfire burst in the air, echoing in a thousand directions. Hideyo did not know whether it was aimed at him, at some other escapees, or at wild animals. The light swept over him again and he submerged deeper. He could see the shore not far from him, but the current kept pushing him downstream and so many submergings slowed him.

  Again gunfire. A bullet hit the bag on Hideyo’s head and dropped to the surface. He could hear the bullets piercing the waters all around him. He dove deeper and let the current carry him. Then he swam again. When he finally reached the south side he lay as dead when the light shone his way, then crawled toward the bushes, exhausted.

  He had escaped across the dangerous thirty-eighth parallel. He took a deep breath of freedom. He thanked God for the Kim family and hoped that they would see in a dream that he had made it to the other side.

  His Korean clothes, protected by the fur coat, blanket, and the family album, were only damp, and he put them on. He had been carried so far by the current that he did not know his direction, so he spread his wet blanket and slept.

  The sky was bright when he woke. He ate one rice ball filled with kimch’i, the Korean pickle that he liked so much. As he ate the hot, garlicky pickle he remembered reaching the Kims’ house in the blizzard, and being returned to consciousness with Mrs. Kim there.

  He had been saved, one step from death, and now he was no longer afraid of getting caught or being shot. He walked joyfully, eagerly searching through the bushes to locate the road. At a farmhouse he asked directions to Seoul and took fast steps toward the city. He still carried that burlap bag around his hips, and for some reason he did not want to carry a rucksack, as a Japanese boy should. Perhaps he wanted to follow the Korean custom as a sign of love for Mrs. Kim. He walked about forty miles.

  In Seoul he went straight to the railroad station, where Mother’s note had said she and her daughters would be waiting. But he did not see his loved ones. He asked station workers, but so many Japanese women had come by with their children that they could not help him.

  For seven nights he slept in a corner of the station, searching for his family during the days. He began to wonder if they had been killed. Then he went to the American Red Cross, which was now helping Japanese and Korean escapees. The Kawashima name was not listed in the register of refugees.

  Maybe they had been lucky enough to get back to Japan. He asked for a certificate as a refugee, so that he could get on the train to Pusan and then on the boat to Japan.

  For the first time in eight months, since he had left Nanam, he was riding. It was a flatcar on a freight train, so filled with escapees that there was little space for him to sit. But he was just so glad that he did not have to walk. As the train began to move he gazed absently at the station poles, not knowing that on them were messages carved by his sisters: “Hideyo, we wait at Pusan.”

  At Pusan harbor the boats periodically made their runs to Japan with refugees. Hideyo landed at Maizuru. And discovered his name written on a piece of newspaper with his sisters’ address.

  He shouted for joy. “Little One’s writing!”

  Though it was a harsh winter for Ko and me, the reunion with Corporal Matsumura made our lives more bearable. He and Mrs. Matsumura often sent us packages containing leftover materials, threads, dried fish, pickles, and rice. The Corporal even took orders from his clients for kimono garments and asked Ko to make them. Though he lived many miles away, each time a package or letter came we felt he was near. He never failed to enclose stamps and asked us to tell him all our doings and about our progress in learning.

  One day he wrote to say he had put Father’s and Hideyo’s names on the nationwide broadcasting station called “Search for Persons.” He told us to listen at ten A.M. weekends, if we were home, and at six P.M. weekdays.

  We asked Mr. Masuda for permission to listen at six P.M. Holding hands, we stood in front of the radio. I even looked up at the radio on its shelf as if to listen to the Corporal speaking to me. At six the announcer opened the program. Holding hands more tightly, we waited for Father’s and Hideyo’s names to come out. Sure enough: “If anyone has seen Kawashima Yoshio or his son Hideyo, or has information about them, contact Mr. Matsumura at his silk textile company, Morioka, Japan.”

  We continued to make gift items and sell them after school, and every Saturday we made the trip to Maizuru with fresh name papers. In our bits of free time Ko taught me how to make a blouse and skirt from the leftover materials the Corporal sent. Life was a little easier. All I needed now was Father and Hideyo.

  What was taking them so long? It was April, cherry blossoms were in full bloom, birds were singing their love songs in the cedar forest at the Myoshinji temple. Soon there would be a nest and family. Were Father and Hideyo dead? If I knew they were dead I would give up hope, but not knowing frustrated me.

  The school term ended and I made straight A’s. But I knew I would not be going to school anymore, for the tuition money had run out. I rushed to the furnace room to show my report sheet to Mr. Naido.

  “You made it!” Smiling, he pulled three yen from his billfold for cans he had sold and handed me two extra yen, congratulating me. “K-keep it up!” He patted my back.

  He had been such a sincere friend to me, and he had no one else to talk to in the school. I could not tell him I was quitting.

  Miss Asada announced that the class was going to the flower viewing that afternoon, and everyone was excited. They were all stowing belongings in bags for vacation. I thought, What’s such a big deal about going to see cherry blossoms? I had no space in my heart for such frolicking. I had more important things to do.

  And I had a new worry besides the struggle to live—my eyes. I could not see the teacher’s writing on the blackboard. I also had a hard time hearing the soft-spoken teachers.

  I asked permission to be excused from going to the flower viewing, using as an excuse Ko’s university style show, which I said I wanted to see. But I did not go to the style show, I went from door to door displaying our wares. Each time I made a sale I put the money in the small bag Ko had made, and put it in my inside trousers pocket.

  I rushed home in time to fix supper for Ko. With better weather she stayed on the street to polish shoes and hurried home just before six so we could listen to the radio. Then she started supper. But tonight I wanted to have something good for us. Maybe a fish. I had money, from the cans and sales and Mr. Naido’s gift.

  At the general store I bought a fish and with my one remaining yen I bought two tea bags. With this tea I could celebrate with Honorable Sister my good report sheet.

  At the stream I scaled the fish. Soft green dandelion leaves were shooting up from the soil, and I left the fish wrapped in a large bamboo leaf and went back with a bucket and peeling knife.

  I had gotten much more skillful in building a fire in the small stone-ringed fireplace. I put the bucket of water on the fire with the dandelions in it, but the greens shrank so much that I fished them out and went back with the bucket for more.

  As I turned to go back to the fireplace, through the glass doors of the factory I saw a man walking by. He was carrying a burlap bag on his hips in Korean fashion, and I remembered how Mr. and Mrs. Lee used to carry their belongings that way when they were not carrying things on their heads. For a while I dreamed of happy bygone days.

  Again I went back for dandelions, and again as I returned the young man passed, walking slowly toward the general store.

  Perhaps he is a Korean who is not familiar with this area, I thought. Maybe he cannot speak Japanese and can’t find what he is looking for. Perhaps I can help him. But first I had to find a skewer for the fish and lay it across the stones and squeeze greens.

  Then I stepped out to the front of the warehouse. He had turned and was coming back. Beyond the warehouse were only open fields, no house or person for him to find. He stood, then walked toward me. “Good evening,” he called. in perfect Japanese. I waited for him to come nearer, so I could see and hear him cl
early.

  “Oh! Little One! Little One!” He was rushing toward me.

  I stood there, half in shock, and then I cried out and threw myself into his arms. “Welcome home, Honorable Brother!”

  That night, as dark enveloped our humble sleeping place, I made three beds. One for Hideyo, to rest well. As I lay in mine I saw the stars shining like petals of white chrysanthemums. For the first time since I had left Nanam I felt their loveliness. And each star that sparkled was like great fireworks in the enormous sky for the gladness of our reunion.

  NOTES FROM THE PUBLISHER

  BOOKS OPEN WINDOWS TO OTHER cultures and other lands, and they pique our interest to learn more. You do not need to know Korean history to be caught up in this story, but when you know the historical background, it takes on added meaning and helps us understand issues, such as the feelings of people in an occupied country, that continue to affect our lives today. Linda Sue Park’s When My Name Was Keoko and Sook Nyul Choi’s Year of Impossible Goodbyes give different perspectives that also help us understand the consequences of oppression and war. The following notes can only suggest the complexity of relations between Korea and Japan. Provided for those who would like more information, we hope they will lead to further study.

  Korea’s geographic position has made it prime ground for power struggles between the stronger nations of China, Japan, and Russia.

  In the seventeenth century, the Russians fought with the Chinese for control of the vast territories of Manchuria and southern Siberia. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Chinese held sway in Korea and Manchuria while the Russians held the coastal region of Siberia from the Bering Strait to Vladivostok. Denied access to the Mediterranean Sea by the Crimean War (1853–56), Russia looked to the Far East, including Korea, for ice-free ports.

  Japanese interest in Korea stretches back more than two thousand years. The Japanese warlord Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592 in an attempt to control the country and conquer China. This invasion failed and caused a surge of Korean national determination and unity, as well as strong anti-Japanese feelings. Early in the seventeenth century, Korea began to be dominated by China. Isolated from other countries, it was called the Hermit Kingdom.

  After Hideyoshi’s death (1598), Japan began its own period of isolation that ended with the arrival of the American Commodore Matthew C. Perry, who opened trade with the West in 1854. In 1876, Japan showed renewed interest in Korea by forcing a commercial treaty. The First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) was fought, in part, for control of Korea. By 1900, the victorious Japanese had a strong base in Korea’s capital city, Seoul. They controlled the Korean royal family and had begun to dominate the political and economic life of the people.

  Korea was at issue in the 1904 naval war between Russia and Japan. When Japan won, United States president Theodore Roosevelt supported Japan’s claim to a “special interest” in Korea and Manchuria. In return, Japan agreed not to threaten the United States’ position in the Philippines. The Treaty of Portsmouth, which Roosevelt helped to negotiate in 1905, allowed Japan to convert Korea into a “protectorate.” As Joseph C. Goulden describes it in Korea: The Untold Story of the War, the United States and other nations withdrew their diplomatic missions from Seoul, and “Korea no longer existed as a nation.”

  However, Korea continued to exist as a nation in the hearts of its people. Although most continued to live in their homeland under strict Japanese rule, others who longed for Korean independence fled to the United States, China, Siberia, and—of most relevance to this story—Manchuria.

  Manchuria, to the north of Korea, was a refuge for Korean nationalists. Many of these people turned to the Communists for aid and, as guerilla soldiers, fought the Japanese military with increasing intensity during the 1930s and 1940s.

  The Chinese Communists controlled a number of these partisan groups, which were sometimes called the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. The Soviets also supported the Korean independence movement as a means of harassing the Japanese.

  In the closing weeks of World War II, the Korean Communists—some backed by China, others by the Soviet Union—became more aggressive in the border areas; their goal of driving the Japanese out of Korea was within reach.

  our town, Nanam: Nanam was close enough to Manchuria for Mr. Kawashima’s business purposes. The Treaty of Portsmouth had given Japan a free hand in Manchuria, but Manchuria remained a vast territory with strong Chinese and Soviet influences. It was the scene of violent guerilla attacks on the Japanese by the Korean Communists.

  Japanese army police: The army police who came looking for “iron, bronze, silver, and gold” were Japanese. It is important to remember that although Koreans were sometimes allowed to be customs inspectors, traffic police, station masters, and the like, they were not armed. For close to forty years, the Japanese had exercised total control over the Korean civilians, who were second-class citizens in their own country.

  in case an air raid came: American B-25 bombers directed attacks against industrial sites in northern Korea during July and the first few days of August 1945.

  Tokyo is a billow of fire: American bombers did attack and destroy Tokyo and outlying areas over time. Some five hundred night flights of B-29 bombers under the direction of General Curtis LeMay commenced on March 9, 1945. Mr. Enomoto may be referring to the devastating April 13 strike.

  The beautiful Japanese city of Kyoto was not bombed because it was thought that destruction of the shrines would strengthen the population’s determination not to surrender.

  the Anti-Japanese Communist Army: Mother may be telling Yoko for the first time that there is an Anti-Japanese Communist army force. There were various names for these partisan groups. Throughout Yoko’s account, soldiers sponsored by the Chinese or the Soviets are referred to as Korean Communists. It is extremely difficult to distinguish between the two uniforms.

  a big red cross: The red cross is an international symbol that identifies personnel and supplies for the relief of wounded servicemen and women. At this time there was a Japanese Red Cross organization and also a Korean Red Cross, which had headquarters in Seoul.

  Tojo government attacking Pearl Harbor: On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbor. The order to do so was issued by the Tojo government.

  The Russians are landing: The Soviets did not declare war on Japan until August 8, 1945, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, the threat of their entry into the war against Japan was anticipated at this time and must have been especially feared in Nanam, which was within striking distance of the Russian ports of Vladivostok and Nakhodka.

  Anti-Japanese Communist Army: Ko is using Mother’s term, “Korean Anti-Japanese Communist Army.”

  Then the patients were carried out to the boxcars: Some of the people being moved from the hospital are casualties of war; others are patients with routine problems in need of treatment.

  The Korean Communist Army is inspecting the cars!: The Korean Communist activity becomes bolder as the sense that Japan will surrender and that the Japanese can be driven from Korea increases.

  forty-five miles from Seoul: The Kawashimas would be safe in Seoul, the seat of Japanese power, if anywhere in Korea. Seoul is also on the train line to Pusan, the major port connecting Korea to Japan.

  It’s all over: The Emperor announced the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945. Hiroshima had been bombed on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9. Although the fact of the bombings was known in Korea, it was not generally known that each city had been destroyed by a single bomb.

  the thirty-eighth parallel: The thirty-eighth parallel cuts across the midsection of the country. It was first used as an arbitrary political division of the country in 1898, when the Russians proposed it as a boundary to establish areas of influence and control for themselves and the Japanese.

  The United States also used the thirty-eighth parallel as a boundary line. On September 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur formally ord
ered 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.