Grass, Paperback/Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

Description This true story of a Korean comfort woman documents how the atrocity of war devastates women's lives Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War--a disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history. Beginning in Lee's childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child's vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee's strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lee's memories. The cartoonist Gendry-Kim's interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass , forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee's wartime suffering changed her. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace. About the Author Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was born in Goheung in Jeolla Province, a town famous for its beautiful mountains and shores. Her graphic novels include The Song of My Father , Jiseul , and Kogaeyi , which have been translated and published in France. She also wrote and illustrated The Baby Hanyeo Okrang Goes to Dokdo , A Day with My Grandpa , and My Mother Kang Geumsun . She received the Best Creative Manhwa Award for her short manhwa "Sister Mija," about a comfort woman. She has had exhibitions of her works in Korea and Europe since 2012, and her graphic novels and manhwa deal mostly with people who are outcasts or marginalized.