So Far from the Bamboo Grove is a non-fiction written by Yoko Kawashima Watkins, a Japanese American writer. It was originally published by Beech Tree in April 1986. 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.