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.
