Hidden Treasures Lives of First-Generation Korean Women in Japan

by KIM, JACKIE J.; Ryang, Sonia

• ISBN13: 9780742535954
• ISBN10: 0742535959
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-26
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Ten first-generation Korean women who migrated to Japan during Korea's colonial period tell their compelling stories in Hidden Treasures. Powerful narratives of migration, minority life, gender discrimination, and the often-difficult social relations between Korean immigrants and the Japanese are included, written in the women's own words. The women in this volume participated in tumultuous times in the modern history of Korea and Japan, involving physical, psychological, geographic, and cultural displacements. These women transformed themselves in multiple ways: one from colonial subject to diasporic subject, another from a young and naive virgin bride to a self-made matriarch. Each transformation involved risk, determination, and pain as the women grappled with multilayered structures of gendered, colonial, ethnic, and socioeconomic relations of power. Many of these transformations, however, also entailed self-enhancement, fulfillment, accomplishment, and, at times, triumph and joy. An introduction by leading researcher Sonia Ryang provides context for the very personal stories of these ten women. This unparalleled social history of Korean women in Japan will engage both students and general readers.

Author Biography

Jackie J. Kim is a freelance writer living in Hawaii and Germany

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction: On Korean Women in Japan: Past and Present xiii
Sonia Ryang
Prologue: In Search of Hidden Treasures	xxix
Part I To Join My Husband
1 I Love to Study	3	(16)
Tokumoto Hiroko (Jung Bun-Ki)
2 I Have Done My Best	19	(12)
Koda Sumi
3 Through His Grace	31	(22)
Pak Sam-Yang
Part II Journey of a New Bride
4 No More Tears	53	(12)
Tanaka Kimiko
5 Blessings Came Later in My Life	65	(12)
Kim Ch'ae-Yun
6 Dear General Kim Il-Sung	77	(20)
Kang Yang-Ok
Part III Solitary Sojourn
7 It's My Destiny	97	(14)
Yasuda Kimiko (Kim Song-Yun)
8 Now I Can Say That I'm Happy	111	(24)
So Meng-Sun
Part IV Growing Up in Japan
9 We Koreans Have Come a Long Way	135	(18)
Pak Hui-Sun (Uehara Tamae)
10 A Life Worth Living Is a Life That Has Meaning	153	(24)
Pak Sun-Hui
Glossary	177	(8)
References	185	(8)
Index	193	(4)
About the Author	197