アメリカ全土の多くの小学校で推薦図書に指定された日系女性作家ヨーコ・カワシマ・ワトキンズ（Yoko Kawashima Watkins, 生年不詳）著の小説『竹やぶから遠く離れて（So Far from the Bamboo Grove）』（1986 & 2000）が、終戦時に於ける現地朝鮮人による日本人女性集団強姦の一部を扱っていることから、在米コリアンたちが「ウソだ！」と騒ぎ出す。内外のコリアン勢力の圧力のため、日本語版出版の目処(めど)も立たないとされていたが、遂に2013年6月28日(金)、邦題『竹林はるか遠く―日本人少女ヨーコの戦争体験記』として都竹恵子の訳で刊行される運びとなる。騒いでいる者たちに xapaga 名義で反論。
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Far_from_the_Bamboo_Grove
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/竹の森遠く
So Far from the Bamboo Grove [Paperback]
Yoko Kawashima Watkins (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Grove-Yoko-Kawashima-Watkins/dp/0688131158/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Customer Reviews
Critical thinking is required when reading this book, October 23, 1997
By A Customer
Feb 23, 2013 8:12:44 PM PST
xapaga says:
Your "critical thinking" is utterly in the wrong. For accuracy's sake, too many innocents suffered in Gulags in Soviet Russia, be it Russians, Japanese or Germans. So the fact that Yoko's father was confined for six years for forced labour in Siberia does not mean or prove that he was a war criminal. To my mind, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were the worst war criminals ever (surpassing Hitler and his henchmen), and Syngman Rhee and the Kim dynasty in the north are nothing but small-time villains compared to Stalin.
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I am simply confused by these comments by "kid's review" and "a reader", April 21, 2007
By Hyungmin S. Moon "Confused"
Feb 23, 2013 8:53:07 PM PST
xapaga says:
>"Depiction of mindless rapes and atrocities committed by the Koreans and Russians in this book could have happened, however what does she say about those close to half million comfort girls and women who were forcefully removed from their homes and brutally raped by Japanese solidiers day after day and had to live as sex slaves for the duration of the war."
Here comes another moonie who distorts historical facts to "Koreate" (i.e. fabricate) their "history". Now you must face the fact. Rapes and atrocies committed by Koreans and Russians surely did happen, which are recorded in historical documents. On the other hand, "comfort girls and women who were forcefully removed from their homes" is a fantasy. In fact, their impoverished fathers sold them to Korean gangsters who were rampant at the time and who then sold them to the Japanese troops at lucrative prices. The Japanese "rapist" soldiers were mere customers of the then legal prostitution system (of which the post-war generations aren't much proud), whereas the real villains were poverty-stricken peasants and Korean gangsters. The Japanese military's involvement was extremely limited as they were only decent customers. Then why are these former "comfort" prostitutes organising angry, screaming protests on the streets and filing fruitless law suits against the Japanese Government? The answer lies in Korea's Confucian culture. Sons and daughters would never be willing or able to blame their fathers' wrongs, so they vent their anger to their former rather too generous customer instead. Would the US government compensate Latina prostitutes in LA who claim they were forcibly taken from their homes by Mexican drugs cartels? Certainly not!
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A misleading book!!!, January 22, 2007
By S. Baik
Feb 23, 2013 9:18:12 PM PST
xapaga says:
>"The book is so biased and inundated with historical inaccuracies that even the publishers in Japan refuse to publish this book in Japanese."
No, sir. The truth is that those angry Korean elements both in Japan and Korea blackmailed the publisher, who wanted peace in our time more than the freedom of speech and social justice and keeps quiet about this.
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This is like a well written pro-Nazi book, January 16, 2007
By ml
Feb 23, 2013 9:39:41 PM PST
xapaga says:
>"There are no bamboos in NK. There were no communist soldiers when Yoko's family left for Japan. And Japanese retreat occurred under heavy military protection."
Here lie three blatant lies. Firstly, even Manchuria (north of NK) has bamboos if not that many. So why not NK even though they are not so plentiful? The communists were rampant in the North in August 1945, earlier than the US arrival in September that year in the South. The Japanese military feared the Soviets so much that it was they who fled first, leaving behind Japanese civilian population.
Also, you ought to read _The Tin Drum_ (1959) by Günter Grass if you value humanity and decency. In it the daughter of a Nazi party member is gang raped by the Soviets. Can you ever justify such an act because the victim is on "the wrong side"? For the sake of humanity and decency, do not post ignorant and even irresponsible comments.
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Presenting a distorted picture to young students, March 3, 2011
By Don M. Tow
Feb 23, 2013 9:22:14 PM PST
xapaga says:
According to your logic, the USA was the aggressor in Texas, Nuevo México, Arizona, California, Puerto Rico, the Kingdom of Hawaii and many more. And sadly, perhaps you are right.
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The reason why this book is problematic, November 15, 2011
By KCL
Feb 23, 2013 9:54:47 PM PST
xapaga says:
>(1) Best: war story that includes both side tragedies with balance in representing the whole picture of the fact.
I must say you are too much into political correctness, which I fear kills the art of story-telling and literature itself and eventually the freedom of speech. In the old days (and still today in many parts of the world) dictators tried to suppress such dear freedom, but nowadays people like you are destroying it.
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1 of 1 people think this post adds to the discussion.
What is seriously wrong with this book, December 16, 2012
By Sung
http://www.amazon.com/review/R29TEWXAHLHPHC
Feb 23, 2013 9:48:11 PM PST
xapaga says:
You ought to read _The Tin Drum_ (1959) by Günter Grass. In it the daughter of a Nazi party member is gang raped by the Soviets. Can you ever justify such a criminal act because the victim is on "the wrong side"? For the sake of humanity and decency, do not post ignorant and even irresponsible comments. Your comment here is exactly like that of pro-Nazis in that they argue Anne Frank deserved what she suffered because the Jews conspired the collapse of the German Empire and its wealth.
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historical revisionism of the worst kind, 23 Jan 2007
By Anonymous
24 Feb 2013 12:30:29 GMT
xapaga says:
Hey, you are the historical revisionist of the worst kind because you "koreate" (i.e. fabricate) history. Did Japan colonise Korea for 45 years? Even a poor school kid knows more than you. If only Japan had enlightened backward Korea for five centuries then the situation in the Far East would be much brighter now. Read _Offspring of Empire_ (1991) by Carter J. Eckert (Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History at Harvard University: http://www.amazon.com/Offspring-Empire-Capitalism-1876-1945-International/dp/0295975334/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361697514&sr=1-2 ) and think twice about history. 'Tis your comment here that actually "blinds children to what really went on". The dreadful acts and deeds of the Koreans in 1945 are accurately described in this novel in question. I can assure you. Nothing less if not nothing more.