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	<< Back "DAWN" Newsletter of The DAWN CENTER Group Interview Living in a Marginalized Community Emiko Takenaka Dawn Center Executive Director "Osaka Chame" There are about 1,566,000 foreign people living in Japan (the Ministry of Justice Statistics, 1999). Approximately 40 percent of them, 637,000 people, are Korean. A quarter of the Korean people live in Osaka Prefecture. There also exist large Korean areas in Osaka City. The first generation of Korean residents of Japan, called Zainichi-Issei, are mostly those who came to Japan after 1910, when Japan made the Korean Peninsula a colony. The Japanese government regarded the Korean people as "Japanese" in order to rule the Korean colony and forced them to have Japanese-style names. At the same time, it took the discriminatory policy to place Korean people in inferior positions to Japanese people. In 1945, the colonial rule ended with Japan's defeat in World War II, but Korea was divided into North and South through the antagonism of ideology. Even today, it has not been reunified. It is about ninety years since Korean people came to live in Japan. Now there are third or fourth generation Korean residents of Japan today, but they still face discrimination against them. Women, above all, have been in the midst of multiple oppressions, facing discrimination within their own community in addition to the North and South confrontation. However, a new move is surely on the rise. We will introduce the leaders of "Chame," a group of Korean women residents of Japan, which takes its base in Osaka and is in full activity. "Chame" means sisters in the Korean language "I was brought up by my mother, who ran a barbecue restaurant. Our business was going well, and we were not in financial difficulties any more. I wanted to accept myself as a Korean, while on the other hand, I had this contradictory wish to become Japanese. At that time, I came into contact with a group fighting against racial problems, and became engrossed in the movement all at once. "I was married to a man through an arranged marriage. He was brought up in a family where there were many activists. In the family, I was confronted with sexual discrimination of the Confucianistic patriarchal system. They said women had no other task than to bear children. Even a woman activist in a Korean women's alliance said that women's role was to bear and raise children," said Kim Miungja, who felt relieved that she could give birth to a boy who would inherit the family name. She had ambiguous feelings that she was not able to have an affirmative view about herself through only playing her role of wife and mother doing housework and childcare. Another leader, Kim Horyun, is a nurse. She said, "My parents were teachers at Korean schools in their youth. At that time, the schools were supported by North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and my parents believed in North Korean socialism, and I was taught about socialism while being brought up. But when a South Korean airplane crash happened (In November, 1987, a bomb exploded on a South Koean jetliner and Kim Hyon Hi, a North Korean agent, was arrested and confessed the whole scheme), I became dubious about North Korea, and from that time on, I came to take the facts as they are. I chose nursing as my job because taking care of people's lives is a job worth doing." Not a few Korean residents of Japan choose becoming doctors and nurses as their careers, because such professions assure them stable financial lives and the qualifications enable them to work without hiding their real names.* Horyun also said, "I indeed had an anti-Japan feeling, but it was also hard to keep it up." Kim Miungja and Kim Horyun, both of whom felt difficulties in their lives, met in a workshop called "Related Korean Women." It was a workshop lectured by Linde Zingaro, who had a counseling office in Vancouver, Canada, and has held a number of workshops for marginalized groups and individuals. "In the workshop, while we were talking about our worries and oppressions, we came to realize that we had more shared problems than different ones. We also found out that the problems were social ones." "I was able to expose myself, which I dared not do in the presence of Japanese. I felt myself healed and empowered by sharing the problems with my fellow sisters." They wanted to continue the workshops, and created the group "Chame" to do so. "Chame" means sisters in the Korean language, and in Japanese it has an affirmative meaning to express charming tomboys. Delighted with a wonderful coincidence, they named the group "Chame." As the activities of "Chame" were taken up in the media, their husbands, who had not made much of their activities, turned their attention to them. The two women had more talks with their husbands and became able to express their opinions more freely. Japanese to take a wider view about human rights "When there was a general election in June, a Japanese woman, with whom I had been engaged in CAP (Child Assault Prevention) program, asked me why I did not vote. Though we Koreans were born and brought up in Japan, we have no right to vote. Indeed, there are people who are interested in children's rights, but they do not even know that the Korean residents of Japan have no right to vote. I would like you Japanese to take a wider view about human rights," said Kim Horyun. "You should teach history of the relationship between Korea and Japan at school, what Japan did in the past, and why we Koreans are here in Japan," said Kim Miungja. Though the words are stern, her way of talking is soft. "There are plenty of opportunities for Koreans and Japanese to get to know each other. I would like the Japanese to get interested in Korea and Korean people that are close by your side." In 2000, the first talks between North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il and South Korea's leader Kim Dae Jung were realized, and the move toward reunification attracted attention from all over the world. Understanding of neighboring countries and alliances with Korean women in Japan are also themes for Japanese feminists to tackle.(Interviewed by Haneko Inoue) Page Top Copyright (C) 2007 DawnCenter. All Rights Reserved.