Chapter
Prologue
Two generations of women
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages6
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
This prologue describes the relationship between Miyoko, nicknamed “Mama,” a second-generation Zainichi woman and her mother, Tanaka Kimiko, who migrated to Japan from colonial Korea around the time of World War II, as so many first-generation Zainichi Koreans did. Their lives complicatedly intertwined, Kimiko and Mama had what could best be described as a love–hate relationship. These two generations of women shared a similar fate of being marginalized for being women in a constricting Korean culture, living in an “other's” land of Japan, and having their own ethnic community consider their voices unimportant. Mama was the eyes and ears of her mother, who could neither read nor write, and had never wanted to be formally interviewed herself, saying I could learn all I ever wanted to know about being Zainichi from her mother. Although Mama promised that one day she would share with me all she had witnessed and experienced as the eldest daughter of illiterate migrant parents, a terminal illness unfortunately left that promise only partly fulfilled. She nonetheless helped create the framework for Zainichi Korean Women in Japan: Voices and would undoubtedly recognize some of her own experiences and thoughts in its pages. This prologue sets the stage for the words of the many women in this book whose stories make up a collage of experiences that reflect lived lives and shared histories.
Taking care of “our” own |
ABSTRACT
The senior day care centers established specifically for the Zainichi first generation differ in key ways from other senior centers in Japan. They are bilingual facilities that offer traditional Korean foods and the freedom to use one's ethnic name and speak one's own language. Zainichi Korean elderly can comfortably be themselves in these spaces without the pressure to conform to a uniform Japanese system. Fueled by the idea of “taking care of our own” and inspired by a desire to repay (ongaeshi) their first-generation parents for their work and sacrifice, the younger generation strove to create facilities in which elderly Zainichi could be surrounded by the language, culture, traditions, food, and activities of their homeland, providing them a sense of security and comfort during their final days. Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this chapter spotlights Zainichi Korean senior day care centers that provide an important intergenerational social space where cultural memory is preserved and reinforced. Within this intergenerational space, the way of being Chōsen-jin (Korean people) is illustrated by the first generation's stories, and the reality of their diaspora and displacement becomes part of the collective memory of the members of the second, third, and fourth generations who work in the facilities. Taking care of the first generation familiarizes younger Zainichi with the taste and smell of Korean ethnic foods, the nature of certain Zainichi Korean familial relationships, and the unspoken but innate cultural implications of speech and behavior that convey respect for one's elders. Bringing multiple generations together emphasizes a “commonness” in cultural practices and creates a kind of a makeshift “homeland” that embodies a shared cultural memory.
Previous Chapter
Chapter
Aging in a foreign land
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages15
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
As first-generation Zainichi Koreans grew older and began needing increased care, the issue of how to provide this care became a main topic of conversation for many second-generation women in the ethnic community. Because most of the first generation were unable to read or write in either Japanese or Korean, many were unaware of the numerous social benefits they were entitled to as permanent residents of Japan. And various language, culture, and lifestyle barriers made benefiting from Japan's Long-Term Care Insurance System difficult for them. This chapter describes how second-generation women from the Zainichi political organizations Ch'ongryŏn and Mindan and from various faith-based organizations mobilized the ethnic community on behalf of the elderly to establish private sector nonprofit care facilities that could fulfill the specific needs of Zainichi Korean seniors. Second-generation women stood at the forefront in bringing the Zainichi community together for this common cause, petitioning the Japanese government to recognize the first generation's specific cultural needs that could not be met via a uniform Japanese system. Second-generation women also took the lead in requesting monthly financial aid for the first generation from local governments, particularly for women, who were ineligible for social pension. This tatakai (battle), as many have called it, was to ensure that the first generation could age with dignity in Japan. But even more, the petition's success testified to the women's political power and brought them recognition within their community. Zainichi women, once relegated to the private sphere as merely supportive wives and mothers in male-centered ethnic organizations, were now positioning themselves in the public sphere as key players in their own legitimate political movement.
Chapter
Personal narratives as history
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages21
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
To validate and legitimize their existence, first-generation Korean women who migrated to Japan before or during World War II constructed their identities as survivors in a foreign land through narratives of suffering and endurance. This chapter explores what these stories of hardship and struggle mean to the second generation of Zainichi Koreans and how these younger women have used the narratives personally, socially, and politically. The collective issei (first-generation) narrative serves for the second generation as a reminder of Zainichi Koreans' cultural history and existence in Japan, and recently, it has been elevated to serve an even greater purpose: inspiring needed social action for subsequent generations and the preservation of the Zainichi community. The women's memories and narratives that have come to life form the foundation of identity for multiple generations of descendants. This chapter illustrates how, from the macro level of society to the micro level of individual voices, such topics as memory and historical consciousness, cultural identity, multiculturalism, and the civic rights of communities and society members create repeating cycles, from personal to public back to personal and from individual to collective back to individual. These cycles offer a glimpse into how the development and progress of ideas that ignite a discourse about society influence not only individuals but also an entire community.
==
Chapter
Personal narratives as history
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages21
eBook ISBN9780429505683
Share
Share
ABSTRACT
To validate and legitimize their existence, first-generation Korean women who migrated to Japan before or during World War II constructed their identities as survivors in a foreign land through narratives of suffering and endurance. This chapter explores what these stories of hardship and struggle mean to the second generation of Zainichi Koreans and how these younger women have used the narratives personally, socially, and politically. The collective issei (first-generation) narrative serves for the second generation as a reminder of Zainichi Koreans' cultural history and existence in Japan, and recently, it has been elevated to serve an even greater purpose: inspiring needed social action for subsequent generations and the preservation of the Zainichi community. The women's memories and narratives that have come to life form the foundation of identity for multiple generations of descendants. This chapter illustrates how, from the macro level of society to the micro level of individual voices, such topics as memory and historical consciousness, cultural identity, multiculturalism, and the civic rights of communities and society members create repeating cycles, from personal to public back to personal and from individual to collective back to individual. These cycles offer a glimpse into how the development and progress of ideas that ignite a discourse about society influence not only individuals but also an entire community.
==
Aging in a foreign
land
Chapter
Aging in a foreign land
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages15
eBook ISBN9780429505683
Share
Share
ABSTRACT
As first-generation Zainichi Koreans grew older and began needing increased care, the issue of how to provide this care became a main topic of conversation for many second-generation women in the ethnic community. Because most of the first generation were unable to read or write in either Japanese or Korean, many were unaware of the numerous social benefits they were entitled to as permanent residents of Japan. And various language, culture, and lifestyle barriers made benefiting from Japan's Long-Term Care Insurance System difficult for them. This chapter describes how second-generation women from the Zainichi political organizations Ch'ongryŏn and Mindan and from various faith-based organizations mobilized the ethnic community on behalf of the elderly to establish private sector nonprofit care facilities that could fulfill the specific needs of Zainichi Korean seniors. Second-generation women stood at the forefront in bringing the Zainichi community together for this common cause, petitioning the Japanese government to recognize the first generation's specific cultural needs that could not be met via a uniform Japanese system. Second-generation women also took the lead in requesting monthly financial aid for the first generation from local governments, particularly for women, who were ineligible for social pension. This tatakai (battle), as many have called it, was to ensure that the first generation could age with dignity in Japan. But even more, the petition's success testified to the women's political power and brought them recognition within their community. Zainichi women, once relegated to the private sphere as merely supportive wives and mothers in male-centered ethnic organizations, were now positioning themselves in the public sphere as key players in their own legitimate political movement.
==
Taking care of
“our” own
Chapter
Taking care of “our” own
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages20
eBook ISBN9780429505683
Share
Share
ABSTRACT
The senior day care centers established specifically for the Zainichi first generation differ in key ways from other senior centers in Japan. They are bilingual facilities that offer traditional Korean foods and the freedom to use one's ethnic name and speak one's own language. Zainichi Korean elderly can comfortably be themselves in these spaces without the pressure to conform to a uniform Japanese system. Fueled by the idea of “taking care of our own” and inspired by a desire to repay (ongaeshi) their first-generation parents for their work and sacrifice, the younger generation strove to create facilities in which elderly Zainichi could be surrounded by the language, culture, traditions, food, and activities of their homeland, providing them a sense of security and comfort during their final days. Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, this chapter spotlights Zainichi Korean senior day care centers that provide an important intergenerational social space where cultural memory is preserved and reinforced. Within this intergenerational space, the way of being Chōsen-jin (Korean people) is illustrated by the first generation's stories, and the reality of their diaspora and displacement becomes part of the collective memory of the members of the second, third, and fourth generations who work in the facilities. Taking care of the first generation familiarizes younger Zainichi with the taste and smell of Korean ethnic foods, the nature of certain Zainichi Korean familial relationships, and the unspoken but innate cultural implications of speech and behavior that convey respect for one's elders. Bringing multiple generations together emphasizes a “commonness” in cultural practices and creates a kind of a makeshift “homeland” that embodies a shared cultural memory.
==
Chapter
Second-generation women's memory and cultural identity
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages31
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
The many ways second-generation Zainichi women refer to and describe themselves are complex and vary according to context and audience. Drawing from numerous interviews and writings, both personal and academic, this chapter provides insight into how Zainichi women view themselves, particularly vis-à-vis their history, and highlights commonly used words, concepts, and stereotypes. The variety of experiences reflected in their stories reveals a complex interplay of accepting and contesting the various social appropriations made by mainstream society and the ethnic community. Zainichi women share experiences of sometimes unbearable suppression, sacrificial conformity, quiet dissidence, and outright resistance. In their efforts to make sense of the entanglements of their lives and to know themselves and those who share similar experiences more intimately, they reveal the complexities of the lives of women who seek a place to call their own and simultaneously discover a community that offers a sense of belonging. They demonstrate their agency by navigating the intricacies of multiple identities as a way of resisting and refuting the expectations of Japanese society and the Zainichi Korean community.
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==
a and Chi ni fune o koge
The Zainichi
women's journals Hōsenka and Chi ni
fune o koge
Chapter
The Zainichi women's journals Hōsenka and Chi ni fune o koge
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages44
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
Founded by members of the second generation, two Zainichi women's literary journals—Hōsenka (Balsam Flower) and Chi ni fune wo koge (Rowing a Boat on Land)—served as important venues through which women could express and learn about themselves, their history, and their culture. This chapter explores the legacy and significance of these publications and of the texts and writers they featured. The journals allowed Zainichi women, regardless of generation, age, citizenship, heritage, or political affiliation, to voice their thoughts and feelings about having Korean roots while living in Japanese mainstream society and could discuss the difficulties and challenges of being women in the Zainichi ethnic community. Creating these essays, stories, and personal accounts gave the women solace and an emotional and intellectual outlet, and reading them provided an understanding of what being a Zainichi woman meant. Zainichi second-generation women's writings stirred a range of responses in readers. And by publishing readers’ responses, the journals provided a platform for individuals who usually did not have an opportunity to speak in the public sphere to contribute their own thoughts and experiences. These responses, read by still other readers, expressed a feeling of connection with the women writers featured and with Zainichi women in general. The connection thereby forged between the journals’ writers and readers reaffirms the need for a place where marginalized Zainichi women can take center stage, using their voices to narrate their memories and history.
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==
Selves in-between:
Nostalgia and longing
Chapter
Selves in-between: Nostalgia and longing
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages25
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
Zainichi women see themselves as simultaneously belonging to more than one nation-state and exhibit intricacies of multiple selves. The multitude of differing and diverging identities they embody and the transition from one generation to the next create a kind of in-between existence, triggering a sense of vagueness and uncertainty yet also affording the women a sense of freedom and autonomy. Various possible interpretations of transnational, multinational, and even nationless “being,” “belonging,” and “not belonging” emerge from Zainichi women's narratives. This chapter elucidates the sense of nostalgia that is woven throughout Zainichi women's stories, conveying a feeling of contemplative reflection and offering a reinterpretation of the past. For the younger generation, nostalgia for home and homeland manifests as an ambiguous longing that occupies no definite space and has no set boundaries, existing in the imagination as a revisiting of a particular emotion or sentiment. It is a way of returning to often-difficult childhood memories with one's present-day perspectives of maturity, development, appeasement, understanding, and forgiveness. Second-generation women's nostalgic longing is not so much a desire to return to a certain time but rather a wish to reflect on that time in such a way as to either appease painful memories or emphasize a present moment in which they understand and feel empathy for themselves and the previous generation. By understanding the previous generation, who seem simultaneously near yet distant, familiar yet foreign, subsequent generations can get to know a part of themselves and their roots in hopes of also grasping the complexities of their own situations, strengthening them to turn the constraint of an in-between existence into the freedom of multiple selves.
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Chapter
Chōsen women and the chŏgori
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages15
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
Images and memories of Chōsen women wearing the chŏgori (Korean garment) are often painful for members of the second generation, who are reminded of their mothers' marginalization and the shame the younger women felt of them. Over time, however, these stereotypical images have become symbols of first-generation women's strength and their willpower to survive for their family. The symbolism and memories of the chŏgori have evolved within the complicated history of the Zainichi ethnic community and Japan. This chapter introduces and examines the Chōsen woman and the chŏgori and the stereotypes created and perpetuated by male members of the literati and intelligentsia during Japan's colonization of Korea and in Japanese films. Excerpts and examples from the two Zainichi women's journals, other fiction and nonfiction publications, and films demonstrate the various ways Chōsen women and the chŏgori have been represented in Japan and the Zainichi Korean ethnic community. For second-generation Zainichi women, the chŏgori that once served as a reminder of Korea's subjugation under Japanese rule, the denial of one's ethnic identity, and the risk of being exposed and discriminated against has come to symbolize the shared experience of actively reclaiming and reconstructing in their own way the meaning of the ethnic outfit and of their gender in Japan.
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= =
Mother, daughter,
woman, person
Chapter
Mother, daughter, woman, person
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages38
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
A common topic in second-generation women's writings is the mother figure—ŏmŏni—which this chapter explores. The second generation feels a vast and intense range of emotions toward their mothers, encompassing anger, regret, remorse, guilt, frustration, rebellion, liberation, empathy, and sympathy. With maturity—and, for many, motherhood—these women have recognized and expressed an interconnectedness and a shared fate with their mothers, not just as Zainichi but also as minorities and women. Zainichi women narrate their sometimes contentious yet nostalgically longing memories of this influential person, and in doing so, they reflect on and understand their own womanhood. Zainichi women's creative and autobiographical writings reveal conflicting views of ŏmŏni and express a version of the Chōsen no onna (Korean woman) that is very different from the monolithic mythical figure often presented by male writers. Second-generation Zainichi women sometimes rejected or resented their mother's ignorance, aggression, uncultivated ways, and embodiment of the stigmatized Chōsen, a foreign and shameful entity. Some considered their mothers the cause of their emotional turmoil, having witnessed the older women's repression and degradation in the ethnic community and Japan. Breaking from tradition and presenting a negative image of “mother” was a small way for second-generation women to liberate themselves from the restrictions they felt the ethnic community forced on them. However, the women's desire to negate their roots, distinguish themselves from their mothers, and create a new and separate identity independent from the first generation is met with the realization that the lives of the two generations of women are inextricably intertwined—one's story does not exist without the other's.
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==
Flowing times: The
passing of an era
Chapter
Flowing times: The passing of an era
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages26
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
The flow or passing of time (jidai no nagare) emphasizes diversity and multiplicity, making the “Zainichi” existence ever more difficult to solidify and define for the next generation. The future of the Zainichi identity is an uncertain and emotionally charged one. For some second-generation women, narrating the past is a way of leaving this aspect of their history and heritage behind, while for others, it is a way of maintaining it. This chapter examines the concept of jidai no nagare for Zainichi women and discusses whether and how they want to maintain—or not maintain—this identity for themselves and future generations. Just as identity is not an end goal but rather a process of seeking, Zainichi women are searching for a position and location that is unique to them—a tatsu basho, or “place where one chooses to stand.” The key word here is choice, being able to decide for one's self when, how, and even if one should belong or not, without an imperative of solidarity or interdependence or an emphasis on a normative ideal community. Rather, being a Zainichi woman has become a matter of joining a broader social dimension that seeks to move toward a global connectedness while still remembering and respecting the past.
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==
Chapter
Epilogue
Voices
ByJackie J. Kim-Wachutka
Book
Zainichi Korean Women in Japan
Edition1st Edition
First Published2018
ImprintRoutledge
Pages9
eBook ISBN9780429505683
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ABSTRACT
The epilogue offers an ethnographical revisiting with three generations of women in Osaka's Korea Town. It is a tribute to the memory of a first-generation woman who displayed strength and autonomy, never wanting to be a burden to anyone and even selecting herself the dress she would wear in death. She left her homeland of Cheju Island as a young girl and lived almost eighty years in a small neighborhood in Osaka, working, raising her children single-handedly, and fervently supporting her chosen political organization and her ethnic community. A second-generation Zainichi who was like a surrogate daughter to her watched and learned from the aging first-generation woman, emulating her passion and strength with the dream of continuing the first generation's legacy. That younger woman's daughter, a member of the third generation, carries on both women's history and legacy as she actively works to preserve the ethnic community in her own way and hopes to pass it on to her own children. In a time of rampant hate speech against Koreans in Japan, continuing political tension between Japan and North Korea, and ongoing discrimination against Zainichi Koreans, she attempts to find meaning in the voices of the previous generation.
Previous Chapter
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