Watkins's book takes place in the last days of 35 years of Korea's annexation by Japan. An eleven-year-old Japanese girl, Yoko Kawashima, whose father works for the Japanese government, must leave her home in Nanam, part of northern Korea, as her family escapes south to Seoul, then to Busan, to return to Japan.
japanese girl on a train
Her brother, Hideyo, also tries to leave but he is separated from his family because he has to serve at an ammunition factory for six days a week. The women of the family board a train to Seoul using a letter from a family diplomat but their trip is cut short by a bomb 45 miles away from Seoul. Yoko is injured from the bombing and the women are forced to walk the rest of the way. After receiving medical treatment in Seoul, Yoko, her sister, and mother board a train to Busan, and then a ship to Japan.
When Yoko, her sister Ko, and her mother reach Fukuoka, Japan, it is not the beautiful, comforting, welcoming place Yoko dreamed of. Once again, they find themselves living in a train station scrounging in the garbage for food to survive. Eventually, Yoko's mother travels to Kyoto to find her family. She then leaves for Aomori to seek help from their grandparents who she discovers are both dead. Their mother dies on the same day, leaving Yoko and Ko waiting for their brother Hideyo. Their mother's last words were to keep their wrapping cloth where she had hidden money for her children.
The parents' have complained that the book is "racist and sexually explicit" containing historical inaccuracies that whitewashed Japanese atrocities against Koreans during the Japanese Occupation. During the hearing of the School Committee on the proposed book ban one parent said he didn't think rape and other war atrocities were appropriate subject matter for young children. When talking of a scene in the book where a Japanese girl is being raped by a Korean man, the parent brought up worries that this would lead children to have a certain impression of Korean men, saying, "The first impression you imprint in a child's mind is typically very hard to erase.".[a][5]
An airplane attack on the train Yoko was aboard occurred, although she has not claimed she was able to identify the aircraft as American.[18] On this point, Korean media cast suspicion on this passage as anachronistic, since "American military did not bomb any part of North Korea during the time frame of the story".[19] The train was stalled by the attack 45 miles before reaching Seoul.[20]
Harvard historian Carter Eckert had considered these points, and stated the only organized Korean "Communist Army" around this time would have been the guerrillas led by Soviet-trained Kim Il Sung, who "did not arrive in Korea until early September 1945", but there might have been "local Korean communist groups" present.[22]
The two main passenger cars, one on each end of the train, are less maximalist and more classically Japanese, with a lot of polished wood, traditional tatami reed sun screens, and calming natural fabrics on the seats.
The station at stop number two, Hizen-hama, rather famously features a sake bar inside its main station building, and the staff from this bar set up on the platform a choice of six sakes to take back onto the train (along with some delicious local cheese) and sip as the Two Stars wends its way around the sheltered coast of the Ariake Sea along the old Nagasaki Main Line.
Among the souvenirs on board the train are the complimentary commemorative postcard-sized prints, whose back is perfectly sized for inking the Two Stars 4047 hanko stamp to remember the trip.
According to police, the special rapid service train departing Tokyo Station for Otsuki Station hit the girl at around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Kyodo News reported. Police said the girl was confirmed dead at the scene.
Sad news and another youngster to prevent the graying population of decaying japan has left the planet. RIP little girl..... Japan oh Japan.....have you not realized your society cleary has a problem with children taking there lives and parents killing their babies and complain about the graying population of Japan but does almost nothing to help.
@Eugene I totally agree with your post but I would also think that who at such a young age would think about suicide if its not an ingrained cultural thing. It seems to me that the day you start pre-school in Japan whether the kids know it or not they are being subjected to enormous pressures that the society puts on them in ways to behave or to conform with rules. These same pressures I won't say rules follow these kids as they grow up into adulthood nothing changes. Your school life is dependent upon how or what kind of job you will have in a society where everyone is expected to have and if you don't have a job you have a feeling of being no one. The pressures in school leads to bullying in a work place especially if one person feels the other person is slightly different from them. Once they realize this they have their friends isolate that one person whether in school or the office. Everyone doesn't have coping skills some people are tough under the skin and in Japan its in writing if you have mental stress go seek help but that's just on paper MOST Japanese will not tell coworkers or friends their problems because that becomes a sign of weakness. When you have no one you THINK you can turn to even your parents at this young girls age they think suicide is the only answer. Perhaps she had little or no communication with her parents and felt no love because if she did personally I don't think she would have taken herself out.
The cause, was not in fact the "evil" Japanese society... but in fact due to power harrasment and psycological, social and laboral abuse from a couple of people from a non japanese (non Asian) country.
While trains in urban Japan are notoriously crowded during the morning rush, people are for the most part perfectly polite and there are even women-only cars to avoid the prospect of unwanted sexual advances in such confined spaces.
One commenter described a time when she was on a very crowded train and kept getting pushed incredibly hard in the back. When she got off and walked home from the station, she noticed how great her body felt. She wondered if she had she been the receiver of an impromptu massage by a chiropractor who wanted to impress her.
I once saw a guy hitting on a girl who had obviously just come back from Tokyo Disneyland. The line that got me listening was how he said "every year I go to Euro Disney, in London". She was all ears. I hate anything Disney, and even I know that is a crock of ****. There are dummies everywhere.
Well if you were to try picking up a girl on the train back home you're practically on the sex offenders register before you've opened your mouth. Hence the popularity of hook-up apps. Here in Japan you can still roll 80's style and get some success this way.. see it (at least attempted) all the time.
Good for the Japanese. The great use of train travel provides a shared public space where people can meet, if they are so inclined. Though it may be a bit awkward, it is also a very safe place for it, as there are a lot of people around and ways to quickly call authorities if need be. Some of these attempts are pretty hilariously bad (hey, Sudoku master, it's about the journey, not the destination, solving people's Sudokus for them isn't attractive, it's annoying), but they still leave memories people can talk with their friends about.
Back in the late 70s I asked a shapely lady at the train station how to get to AsaKusa (in mediocre Japanese). Hell, she escorted me there. Once we got off at AsaKusa she asked if she could hang out with me. Oh boy. It was a great night. She came down several times to Iwakuni where I was stationed at several times. And she would pay for everything! I went stayed with her once at her parents house no less. She was wanting more than I did, so I dumped her. Then once on the train to Hiroshima from Iwakuni I saw this girl, about an 8 reading some type of English Grammar book. Swoop. It wasn't a crowded train though. Another time... and the list goes on. I found public transportation to be a shooting gallery. Never road the rails during the height of the rush hour though and hope I never do.
I was in a packed train when I was a student here and had a girl's behind wedged directly into my crotch. I didn't know her, except that she went to my school, and her and my groups of friends were wedged together. One of my friends decided it would be funny to repeatedly call my cell phone (on vibrate) in my front pocket, while her and my friends laughed at the two of us. Joke's on them though: we ended up exchanging numbers the next day at school and dating! Ah, young, silly love :)
My first Japanese girlfriend was a girl who came up to me on a train and asked me out. A few days prior to that, a cute high school girl at a station just came up to me and said, in English, "Do you like school girl?"
It's creepy because you try too hard, Dixon. Just keep it simple next time, whether you're on the train or on the street. Women are attracted to confident men who take what they want, not try-hards that need a girl's approval on JapanToday.com.
I had it happen to me twice. Once when I was in 9th grade, five boys on the train started to take pictures of my legs and were trying to look into my skirt, laughing about it. The first time it happened, I was frustrated and felt hopeless. We were surrounded by adults, I wondered why none of them stepped in to say anything.
I think I was 13 or 14 years old. I was on a packed train and a guy behind me started rubbing himself on me. Also when I was around the same age, I was on a packed train and the guy next to me was moving weirdly. He was crossing his arms but somehow he reached around me and started touching the bottom of my bra, along the inner bra wire. He was slowly sliding his finger back and forth under my bra. It felt like it lasted for ages. I was frozen, I did nothing, I just got off the train, and went to school. I felt disgusted, angry confused, but mostly scared. 2ff7e9595c
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