Episode 5: Reading My History Back to Myself

Episode 7:Foreigners Overnight

In Episode 7 of the Zainichi Music Project, Yukimi reflects on Professor John Lie’s writing about the moment Koreans in Japan became “foreigners overnight.” During Japan’s colonial rule of Korea, Koreans were classified as Japanese imperial subjects, though they were never treated as equals. In 1952, after the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect, Koreans living in Japan lost their Japanese nationality through an administrative decision. No individual choice was given, and later generations inherited foreign status despite being born and raised in Japan. Through family memories, childhood encounters with right-wing nationalist groups, and the experience of being told to “go back to Korea,” Yukimi explores how a legal category entered everyday life and shaped the way Zainichi Koreans understood belonging. This episode asks what happens when foreignness is passed from one generation to the next, why permanent residency can never fully replace citizenship, and why this history belongs within the larger story of modern Japan. The Zainichi story is not defined by exclusion. It is also a story of dignity, community, endurance, and pride. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zainichimusicproject.substack.com [https://zainichimusicproject.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 6: Sōren and the Search for Dignity

Why would an excluded community search for dignity through an imagined homeland? In this episode of the Zainichi Music Project Podcast, I continue reflecting on sociologist John Lie’s work on Zainichi Koreans, diasporic nationalism, and postcolonial identity. This episode turns to Sōren, also known as Chongryon, the pro-North Korea organization in Japan — a difficult, complex part of Zainichi history. But this is not a political endorsement or a simple historical summary. It is a reflection on belonging, exclusion, shame, and the emotional life of a community forced to search for dignity in both real and imagined places. What happens when the society you live in refuses to fully accept you? Where do people go to recover a sense of history, pride, and self? And what are the costs of that search? The Zainichi Music Project is an interdisciplinary initiative exploring Zainichi Korean history, identity, memory, and belonging through research, storytelling, music, and public dialogue. If this work resonates with you, please consider supporting the project here: https://www.nyfa.org/projects/project-info/?id=YS2055 [https://www.nyfa.org/projects/project-info/?id=YS2055] Thank you for listening, reading, and walking through this history with me. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zainichimusicproject.substack.com [https://zainichimusicproject.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 5: Reading My History Back to Myself

What happens when scholarship gives language to a life you have already lived? After several months away from the Zainichi Music Project Podcast, I’m returning with a new phase of the project — one rooted in reading, reflection, memory, and critique. In the first four episodes, I introduced the foundations of Zainichi history: who Zainichi Koreans are, how this community came to exist, the experience of carrying two names, and the meaning of statelessness. Episode 5 begins with my reading of sociologist John Lie’s work on Zainichi Koreans, diasporic nationalism, and postcolonial identity. But this is not a summary of his article. It is my response — as a third-generation Zainichi Korean, artist, musician, and storyteller. This episode asks how history can move beyond facts and dates into lived experience, memory, and empathy. Thank you for listening, reading, and walking through this history with me. More soon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zainichimusicproject.substack.com [https://zainichimusicproject.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 4: Statelessness

Episode 4: Statelessness — The Chameleon Identity of Zainichi Koreans What does it mean to belong to a country where you were born, but never legally claimed? In this episode of the Zainichi Music Project Podcast, Yukimi explores statelessness as lived reality: not as a single legal definition, but as a shifting condition that shaped generations of Zainichi Koreans in Japan. From the collapse of the Japanese empire after 1945 to the long decades of legal ambiguity that followed, this episode traces how Zainichi legal status changed repeatedly—stateless, foreign national, South Korean citizen on paper, Special Permanent Resident—without ever fully resolving questions of belonging. Along the way, Yukimi examines: * Why statelessness extended beyond the first generation * How postwar Japan’s emphasis on homogeneity intensified exclusion * Why North Korea–affiliated organizations attracted many Zainichi in the 1950s by offering dignity and recognition amid severe discrimination * How South Korean nationality became a pragmatic—but limited—path in the 1970s and 1980s * What Special Permanent Residency in the 1990s actually meant, and what it did not Woven into this legal and historical narrative are moments from everyday life that reveal how policy became practice—and how children, families, and identities were shaped by systems that operated quietly and systematically. This episode is not about assigning blame or promoting ideology. It is about understanding how statelessness functioned, how dignity was deprived and sought, and why Zainichi identity often feels adaptive, conditional, and unresolved. Episode 4 lays the groundwork for what comes next: silence—not as absence, but as something learned, inherited, and normalized. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zainichimusicproject.substack.com [https://zainichimusicproject.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode 3: Two Names — A Life Split in Two

In this episode, I step into one of the most defining—and often misunderstood—parts of Zainichi life: the experience of carrying two names. For decades, Zainichi Koreans had a legal Korean name on paper and a Japanese alias used in everyday life. This wasn’t about hiding; it was about navigating systems that never fully knew what to do with us. I share how this unfolded in my own childhood—moving between Hyun Mi Song, Yukimi Noyama, and Yukimi Okawa—and how those layers eventually led to the name I use today: Yukimi Song, my American name, the one I finally got to choose for myself. Featuring a poem by Chuwol Chong, this episode offers a window into identity shaped by history, paperwork, and the search for dignity. It also sets the foundation for the deeper themes ahead: statelessness, silence, and why this history has remained hidden. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zainichimusicproject.substack.com [https://zainichimusicproject.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]