Yoko is 11 years old and living in North Korea during World War II while their father works as a Japanese government official in Manchuria, China.

After receiving medical treatment in Seoul, Yoko, her sister, and mother board a train to Busan, and then a ship to Japan.

[5] A hearing in the Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee was later held which took no action and instead referred the matter to a subcommittee for review.

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.

"[a][5] A Boston councilman[b] also weighed in, stating that the Korean minority were being portrayed as the "bad guys", even though Japan was the one who had occupied Korea.

[5] In 2009, Korean-American school parents submitted a complaint to the California Department of Education regarding inclusion of So Far From the Bamboo Grove in the school curriculum on grounds that the novel contained historical inaccuracies, including accounts of Japanese female victims of rape perpetrated by Koreans.

Around 50 K-12 Korean-American students who attended the Young Korean American Academy wrote letters to the state education offices and publishers asking for greater exposure of Korean history and culture, with McGraw-Hill sending back a response letter promising to implement students' requests.

[14] Watkins said that she had no intention of disregarding the history of Korea and apologized for any hard feelings felt by Korean readers.

She stated her intention was to portray her childhood experiences in a softer way for young readers, and denied the accusations made by the Korean newspapers.

[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".

[20] Also, when pressed, she admitted she could not identify the armed uniformed militia that her family encountered as definitively "Korean Communists",[15] although that was the label she has given to her posing threat throughout the book.

The book, in a different context,[e] describes the mother telling Yoko that Koreans had formed what is known as an "Anti-Japanese Communist Army".

[f][21] 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] However, there was already a report that on August 8,[g] a Korean contingent of 80 strong men was spotted with the Soviet Army, crossing the border into To-ri (土里; Japanese: Dori).

[j][20] Some media coverage gave a forced reading saying this term can only have applicable meaning as soldiers of the "Korean People's Army", not established until 1948, so that Yoko was describing uniforms nonexistent at the time.