The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman

Kaneko Fumiko (1903-1926) wrote this memoir while in prison after being convicted of plotting to assassinate the Japanese emperor. Despite an early life of misery, deprivation, and hardship, she grew up to be a strong and independent young woman. When she moved to Tokyo in 1920, she gravitated to left-wing groups and eventually joined with the Korean nihilist Pak Yeol to form a two-person nihilist organization. Two days after the Great Tokyo Earthquake, in a general wave of anti-leftist and anti-Korean hysteria, the authorities arrested the pair and charged them with high treason. Defiant to the end (she hanged herself in prison on July 23, 1926), Kaneko Fumiko wrote this memoir as an indictment of the society that oppressed her, the family that abused and neglected her, and the imperial system that drove her to her death.

List of contents

Chapter 1 Father; Chapter 2 Mother; Chapter 3 Kobayashi?€?s Village; Chapter 4 Mother?€?s Family; Chapter 5 My New Home; Chapter 6 Bugang; Chapter 7 The Iwashitas; Chapter 8 My Life in Korea; Chapter 9 Home Again; Chapter 10 Into the Tiger?€?s Mouth; Chapter 11 The Vortex of Sex; Chapter 12 Farewell Father!; Chapter 13 To Tokyo!; Chapter 14 Great-Uncle?€?s House; Chapter 15 Newsgirl; Chapter 16 Street Vendor; Chapter 17 Maid; Chapter 18 Drifter; Chapter 19 A Work of My Own!; Chapter 20 Afterword;

About the author

Kaneko Fumiko, Jean Inglis, Mikiso Hane

Summary

Defiant to the end (she hanged herself in prison on July 23, 1926), Kaneko Fumiko wrote this memoir as an indictment of the society that oppressed her, the family that abused and neglected her, and the imperial system that drove her to her death.

Product details

• Authors: Kaneko Fumiko, Fumiko Kaneko, Mikiso Hane, Jean Inglis, Inglis Jean
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.1991
• EAN: 9780873328012
• ISBN: 978-0-87332-801-2
• No. of pages: 226
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 20 mm
• Weight: 453 g
• Series: Foremother legacies; Foremother legacies
• Subjects: Guides > Nature; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Biographies, autobiographies; Social sciences, law, business > Ethnology > Folklore; Japan, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom, Autobiography: general, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Penology, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Asian, c 1914 to c 1918 (including WW1), c 1919 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), Penology and punishment, Prisons, c 1918 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), C 1900 - C 1914, Political oppression & persecution, Political oppression and persecution, c 1900 to c 1909, Autobiography: philosophy and social sciences, c 1914 to c 1918 (World War One period)