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So Far From the Bamboo Grove
on them. She wanted to get Yoko's wounds treated. The doctor told Yoko's mother that Yoko's chest was badly infected and that a piece of medal had flew into her ear and had punctured the ear drum. The doctor treated it and then let Yoko sleep. The doctor told Yoko's mother that all patients will leave for Pusan, Korea, by truck by the end of the month. From there, a hospital ship will be going to Japan. So they went to Pusan and then got on the hospital ship leaving for Japan. I'm glad they made it to their home land after their ordeal.
Since Kyoto, Japan, was the only town that escaped the bombing, that was where Yoko and her family would go. It took them three days to get to Kyoto. Since they had no house or anywhere else to go, they had to sleep at the train station. Life was probably very hard for them living in a train station. It was freezing cold, no place to lie down, and no privacy. But at least they were safe.
A few months have passed and they still couldn't afford a house or a decent meal. They had to look in garbage cans for food. One day when Yoko came home from school, she found her mother dead. She was devastated. It must have been really sad for Yoko and her sister when their mother died. Now they had no one else, except each other. Since they had no money for a burial, they took their mother to a crematorium. When they got back to the station, all they did was sit. Until this lady, Mrs. Masuda, told them that she had noticed them at the train station when she went to work. Mrs. Masuda told them that she had a vacant factory that had a little room upstairs that they could use. No charge. Mrs. Masuda must have been a caring and compassionate person, offering them a place to live, at no charge, and she didn't even know them. She just saw two sad girls all alone and wanted to help them. They accepted her offer. There were old straw mats for beds in the little room. They had a better life than they did at the station. Yoko's sister found out that their mother had money hid away in her wrapping cloth, which she had brought from Korea. That is why she always took it with her. They were lucky nobody had stolen it. Now they had money for food.
I really admire Yoko and her sister. Here they were, just two young girls all alone, but yet they were able to survive. They did so by finding work and making things to sell. They were not reunited with their father until after he was released from prison camp in Siberia [next page]