Grass

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.

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.

Incredibly powerful. Very painful to read. Beautifully done.