Yoko Kawashima Watkins, So Far From the Bamboo Grove, New York, Viking Penguin, 1987 (Puffin Book).
This is the true story of Yoko Kawashima, an eleven year old Japanese girl living in Japanese occupied Korea in 1945. When the Japanese lose the war, their status in Korea suddenly changes from dominant conquering occupiers to that of a powerless despised enemy. Yoko's family (Hideyo - an 18 year old brother, Ko - a 16 year old sister, her mother and her father) is living in Nanam, in the very northern most part of Korea when the war starts to end. To escape Korea and return to safety in Japan, Yoko's family (absent her father, a government employee who has been sent to Manchuria, and her brother, who has been drafted to work in an ammunition factory) sets out on a perilous journey to the port city of Pusan, in southern Korea, in search of passage back to Japan and safety.
Background on Japan's long term involvement in Korea and how the United States and World War II relates to this story is provided in 5 pages of publisher's notes at the end of the book.
Late summer-advised in the middle of the night that Russian soldiers have landed, Yoko, her sister Ko, and mother, flee for their lives to catch a train full of wounded soldiers that is departing for Seoul. Stopped at Wonsan for coal and water, 3 days later, the train is searched by Korean Communist soldiers looking for Japanese Refugees.
Forty-five miles from Seoul, the train is bombed by airplanes and the engines destroyed. Yoko and her family set out on foot, following the railroad tracks, for Seoul. Dressed in uniforms taken from dead soldiers and traveling at night to avoid contact with Korean soldiers, it takes them 11 days and nights to make it to Seoul.
Informed in Seoul that the Japanese have lost the war and surrendered, Yoko's family knows that they are not safe and must continue to Pusan where they hope to be evacuated to Japan.
After waiting 5 weeks in the Seoul railroad station, hoping that Hideyo is still alive and will show up, they catch the last freight train for the three day trip to Pusan.
Spend two weeks waiting, in line, for passage on a boat to Japan.
Finally loaded on a boat to Japan, it takes three days to cross the Korean Strait and reach Tsushima Strait (Japanese waters).
Ship lands at Fukuoka, Japan. Family sent to refugee camp.
Several weeks later, family leaves-by-train-for a 3 day teip to Kyoto. Yoko's mother had gone to school in Kyoto and wants her two daughters to get an education - even though they have no money and no place to live. Girls are enrolled in a private school and the university.
Yoko's mother goes on-by-train-to Aomori, Japan, at the northern end of the island of Honshu to find her parents and get help.
Mother returns with news that both sets of grandparents died during the war. Mother dies same day in railroad station. Girls find a room upstairs in a factory.
Yoko and Ko make repeated trips to Maizuru - a port city that has been designated the refugee port-in search of their brother and father. The new year comes and they are still on their own.
Hideyo, the brother, finally escapes Korea and makes it to Kyoto in early Spring and is reunited with his sisters.
Hideyo's journey to Japan is another story within the larger story. Sent to work in ammunition factory. Factory is invaded by Korean soldiers, workers killed and factory destroyed. Hideyo escapes with three friends, returns home to find family gone and house ransacked. Disguised as Korean peasant, start walking to Wonsan. Perilous journey, put to work by Korean army, finally escapes and makes his way almost to the 38 degree parallel in the dead of winter. Collapses and is saved by a Korean peasant family who hides him for several months. Departs in the early spring, swims the river between North and South Korea and makes his way to Pusan and eventually to Japan. (Good examples of human environment interaction).