Kaneko Fumiko
Kaneko Fumiko | |||||||
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Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan | |||||||
Burial place | Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang, Korea | ||||||
Other names | Park Munja Park Fumiko | ||||||
Japanese name | |||||||
Kanji | 金子 文子 | ||||||
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Korean name | |||||||
Hangul | 가네코 후미코 | ||||||
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Kaneko Fumiko (金子 文子, Kaneko Fumiko, January 25, 1903 – July 23, 1926
Early life
Kaneko Fumiko was born in the Kotobuki district of
During this time, Kaneko was first confronted with the problems of being an unregistered child. Her circumstances made her "invisible to educational authorities," and she was not technically allowed to attend school.[3] Some schools eventually permitted her to attend classes, but she was not called in attendance, did not receive report cards, and was ineligible to receive the official certificate of graduation at the end of a class year. Despite these difficulties, including frequent gaps in her attendance, she did very well in school.[4] After Kaneko's father left, her mother was involved with several other men, but none of these relationships led to better living circumstances and they were nearly always extremely impoverished. Kikuno even considered selling Kaneko to a brothel, claiming that it would be a better life for her, but she abandoned this plan when it turned out that Kaneko would be sent far away to another region of Japan.[5] After several years of these difficult circumstances, Kaneko lived briefly with her maternal grandparents while her mother remarried again. In 1912, her father's mother, Mutsu Sakei-Iwashita, came to visit, and it was agreed that Kaneko would go back with her to her home in Korea, where she would be adopted by her aunt, who was childless. Before leaving Japan, Kaneko was finally registered as the daughter of her maternal grandparents.[6]
Life in Korea
Shortly after her arrival in Korea, it became clear that Kaneko would not be adopted or provided with the higher level of living that she expected. For the first year or so, they kept up the pretense of including her in their family by allowing her to use the name Iwashita, but after that she was called Kaneko. Her grandmother introduced her to visitors as a child she had taken in out of pity from some people she barely knew and her grandmother and aunt treated her like a maid. It appears that they did initially intend to adopt her, but, at least from Kaneko's perspective, they decided quickly that she was too poorly brought up and unrefined to be their family heir.[7]
The only advantage she had was finally being able to attend school regularly, and even her education was limited because her relatives refused to let her read anything besides her required work for school.[8] She was initially promised a high level of education that would eventually lead her to college, but they only allowed her to continue her schooling through the lower primary and higher primary grades and did not attempt to enroll her in a high school. After she finished school, she had to spend all her time working in the house, and she cites this period as the worst of her time in Korea.[9]
Kaneko was subjected to extremely poor treatment under her relatives in Korea. Despite their relative wealth, she was only provided with the bare minimum in terms of clothing and living circumstances, and was frequently beaten and deprived of food as a punishment for perceived wrongdoing, sometimes so badly that she contemplated suicide.[10] Her time in Korea also allowed her to observe the mistreatment of the native Koreans by her relatives and other Japanese occupiers.[11]
Return to Japan
In 1919, when she was 16, Kaneko was sent back to her maternal family in Japan, presumably because she was of marriageable age and her grandmother and aunt did not want to have to arrange a match for her. She stayed with her maternal grandparents again and began to form a strong relationship with her Uncle Motoei, who, because of the way she was registered, was officially her brother. By this time, she had reconnected with her birth father, living with him for short periods of time, and he attempted to arrange a marriage between Kaneko and Motoei. The arrangement fell through, because Motoei discovered that Kaneko had developed a relationship with another young man and claimed that her potential loss of virginity suggested by that relationship voided his agreement with her father. Kaneko was sent back to live with her father after this event, but her life there was unpleasant and she was not allowed to follow her desires for a serious education, so she decided to go to Tokyo and pursue a life there.[12]
Experiences in Tokyo
When Kaneko arrived in Tokyo in 1920, she initially lived with her great uncle, but soon managed to get a position as a newspaper girl. She requested an advance on her wages in order to pay her enrollment fees at two different co-ed schools, and started to take classes in mathematics and English. Her job introduced her to a number of groups, most notably the Christian
Kaneko was able to attend school on and off in the midst of these life developments, and the major shift in her thinking, from socialism to anarchism and nihilism, began in 1922, when she met Hatsuyo Niiyama at her night school classes. In her memoirs, Kaneko calls Hatsuyo her "closest friend," and mentions that she introduced her to the ideas of thinkers like Max Stirner, Mikhail Artsybashev, and Friedrich Nietzsche.[15] Around this time, Kaneko was also introduced to a Korean activist named Pak Yol, who shared many of her ideas, and when she finally abandoned the socialist movement she worked with Pak to attempt to accomplish her vision.[16]
Kaneko Fumiko and Pak Yol
Together, Kaneko and Pak published two magazines which highlighted the problems Koreans faced under Japanese imperialism (though they were never directly a part of the Korean independence movement) and showed influences of their radical beliefs. The articles Kaneko wrote for these publications were probably her most obvious activist activity. Sometime between 1922 and 1923, they also established a group called "Futei-sha (Society of Malcontents)," which Kaneko identified as a group advocating for direct action against the government.[17] These activities soon brought Pak and Kaneko under government scrutiny. In September 1923, the hugely destructive Great Kantō earthquake led to massive public anxiety, with many people concerned that the Koreans, who were already agitating for independence from Japan, would use the confusion to start a rebellion. The government therefore made a number of arrests, mostly of Koreans, on limited evidence, and among those arrested were Pak and Kaneko.[18]
After lengthy judicial proceedings, Kaneko and Pak were convicted of
Ideological views
Though Kaneko considered the belief systems put forth by the Salvation Army group and the Socialists, she eventually settled on nihilism as her guiding philosophy. Her perception of nihilism changed over time, as is indicated by a statement she made to the court in 1925. She stated, in reference to the strictly negative version of nihilism she originally pursued, that "formerly I said 'I negate life'... [but] my negation of all life was completely meaningless... The stronger the affirmation of life, the stronger the creation of life- negation together with rebellion. Therefore, I affirm life." However, she also takes care to define what this affirmation of life means for a nihilist, which she expects to be very different from the perspectives of the officials: "Living is not synonymous with merely having movement. It is moving in accordance with one's will… one could say that with deeds, one begins to really live. Accordingly, when one moves by means of one's own will and this leads to the destruction of one's body, this is not a negation of life. It is an affirmation."[23]
The anarchist cause that she eventually followed was supported ideologically by her rejection of
While Kaneko did not formally associate herself with any sort of women's movement, she clearly held strong beliefs about the need for equality between men and women.[26] When her great-uncle repeatedly tried to persuade her to abandon the idea of education and "marry a working merchant," she insisted that she could "never become the wife of a tradesman." Though she does not appear to have fully verbalized her reasoning to her great-uncle, she states in her memoir that she wanted to be independent, "no longer… under the care of anybody."[27] Kaneko also expressed concerns that schools specifically for women did not provide equal opportunities, and committed to pursuing her own education only at co-ed schools. Finally, some of the hypocrisy she was most concerned about in the socialist groups had to do with their treatment of women in general, and her in particular. For instance, she broke off a relationship with a fellow socialist, Segawa, after he brushed off a question about the possibility of their relationship leading to pregnancy. She "expected him to take some responsibility," and saw that she "was being toyed with and taken advantage of."[28] Within this context, she challenged the double standard that allowed men to participate in casual relationships without repercussions while women were expected to bear full responsibility for the possible consequences. Additionally, she saw this behavior as further evidence that these men were not truly committed to the ideas they espoused, as real socialism would require a greater level of equality.
In popular culture
- Kaneko and, particularly, her trial was portrayed in the 2017 film Anarchist from Colony.
- A newspaper containing Kaneko's photograph was discussed in Mr. Sunshine.
See also
- Anarchism in Japan
- Amakasu Incident
- Toranomon Incident
- Japanese resistance during the Shōwa period
- Assassination attempts on Hirohito
References
Citations
- ^ The exact dates of Kaneko’s life are uncertain. The official record lists her birthday as January 25th, 1902, but this record was created years after her birth, and is therefore unreliable (see Early Life section). Her date of birth listed here is based on coinciding statements made by both of her parents. More information: Raddeker (1997), pp. 202–203.
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 203–206
- ^ Ambaras, David R. (2006). Bad Youth: Juvenile Deliquency and the Politics of Everyday Life in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California. 41.
- ^ Kaneko (2001), pp. 25–32
- ^ Kaneko (2001), p. 34
- ^ Raddeker (1997), p. 211
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 211–212
- ^ Kaneko (2001), p. 65
- ^ Kaneko (2001), pp. 107–108
- ^ Kaneko (2001), p. 102
- ^ Raddeker (1997), p. 215
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 216–219
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 220–221
- ^ Hane (1993), pp. 122–123
- ^ Kaneko (2001), p. 233
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 225–226
- ^ Hane (1993), p. 76
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 196–201
- ^ Raddeker (1997), p. 8
- ^ Kaneko (2001), p. 6
- ^ Raddeker (1997), p. 84
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 63–66
- ^ Raddeker (1997), pp. 73–74
- ^ Hane (1993), p. 124
- ^ a b Hane (1993), p. 111
- ^ Additional examination of Kaneko's views about women’s rights can be found in Raddeker (1997), p. 217.
- ^ Hane (1993), p. 81
- ^ Hane (1993), p. 100
Bibliography
- ISBN 9780520084216.
- Hane, Mikiso (2003) [1982]. "Women Rebels". Peasants, Rebels, Women, and Outcastes: The Underside of Modern Japan (2nd ed.). LCCN 2002151950.
- Kaneko, Fumiko (2001). ISBN 9780873328029.
- Raddeker, Hélène Bowen (1997). Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions, Patricidal Fantasies. London: LCCN 97-23328.
Further reading
- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Walthall, Anne; Palais, James B. (2006). East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-13384-4.)
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External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- "Park Yeol, Kaneko Fumiko, and Korean Anarchism". February 1, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
- Bowen Raddeker, Hélène (March 2002). "Resistance to Difference: Sexual Equality and its Law-ful and Out-law (Anarchist) Advocates in Imperial Japan". Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context (7). Retrieved 2009-01-03.