hankyoreh

An autobiographical novel for children by a Japanese-American author claiming that she witnessed wartime atrocities committed by Koreans is now being rejected by an increasing number of schools in the United States as Korean-Americans challenge the authenticity of her story.

Catholic Memorial High School in Massachusetts decided last week to drop "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" from its curriculum starting next year as more Korean students have protested against it, school authorities said.

The school stated that even if the book were historically accurate, it is not appropriate for students.

Friendship Academy, a private school also in Massachusetts, already decided to remove the book from its curriculum at the end of last year after Stephen Walack, an English teacher, cited historical errors.

Yoko Kawashima Watkins is the author of the controversial book that is being taught in English language arts curriculums in a number of middle schools in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

She says that she and her family witnessed anti-Japanese Korean "communists" rape Japanese women and kill others as they fled southward from Nanam, a city now in North Korea, toward the end of World War II.

Korea was colonized by Japan from 1910 until its liberation at the end of World War II in 1945.

Korean-American students and their parents have confronted schools with evidence that many of Watkins' accounts are fabricated. They have cited inconsistencies in Watkins' and her family's background, as well as claims that run contrary to other historical records.

Moses Brown School in Rhode Island also removed the book from its curriculum at the end of last year, as did Rye Country Day School in New York in September. Alex Hugh, a seventh-grader at Rye, had boycotted school for a week in protest against the book.

Hamlin Middle School in Texas was one of the first schools to question the use of the book, citing sexual and violent content in a review in 2005. School authorities decided then to allow students to study an alternate book with parental permission.

Dover Sherborn Middle School in Massachusetts tentatively decided not to use the book in November, but ruled earlier this month to put it back into the teaching material with another book on Korean history. Students and parents there have launched a drive to overturn the decision.

Washington, Jan. 22 (Yonhap News)