Go

by Kazuki Kaneshiro

Like Malcolm X said, “I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defense. I call it intelligence.”

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, do you turn the other cheek? Hell no. Some jerks will bypass the cheek and hit you where it hurts. Even when you’ve done nothing to deserve it.

doesn’t recognize religion but needs something resembling one to unify its people.

my arm extended in front of me. When I came around so that I was looking at my old man again, he said, “The circle you made with your fist is roughly the size you are. If you stay inside that circle and take only the things within your reach, you can go through life without ever getting hurt. Do you understand what I’m

saying?”

“Boxing is the act of breaking through the circle with your own fists and taking something from outside it. Outside is crawling with tough guys. And while you’re trying to get something, someone else might come inside and take something of yours. It hurts to hit and hurts to get hit. Fighting is a scary thing. Now do you still want to learn to box? You know you’re safer staying inside that circle.”

A tree that is unbending is easily broken in a powerful storm. But not grass.” Scratching the scar at the corner of one eye he added, “Or so says some guy named Lao Tzu.”

In Zainichi society, this was the fairy tale that parents told their children: Even North Koreans can take the Japanese national examination and become doctors and lawyers. But the reality was none of us ever dreamed of being a doctor or lawyer or anything that required a national examination. Lou Reed had our situation exactly right in “Dirty Blvd.” People like us don’t get to dream. Maybe Lou Reed was Zainichi.

Anyway, none of the people around me wanted to become doctors or lawyers or believed they could ever become one. We weren’t raised in a system that made that sort of thing possible.

Tawake was born in Japan, was raised in Japan, and spoke Japanese. He also happened to be a foreigner with North Korean citizenship. It was virtually impossible for a foreigner to reach the J League, much less become rich and famous. Tawake had run into an obstacle that had finally stopped him in his tracks.

“But when I got there, this old man with a gimpy leg came out. He acted so sorry and kept saying, ‘Thank you for coming down,’ to me, a kid. He must’ve said it about fifteen times. And then a girl with this big birthmark on her face brought the fingerprint form and didn’t look at me once but shielded my hands with her notebook the whole time so the others couldn’t see I was getting fingerprinted. I forgot about punching anybody after that. I must’ve said sorry about ten times. More times than I’ve ever said it in all my life.”

kicked in the pit of the stomach, then called a “sellout” and struck across the face again. I couldn’t really understand what that last one meant. I knew the literal meaning of the word, of course, but I just couldn’t bring myself to think that I was a sellout.

“We’ve never belonged to a country we could sell out.”

Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume.

Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man

In Exile by Takeshi Kaiko.

A novel could entertain but couldn’t change anything. You open the book, you close it, and it’s over. Nothing more than a tool to relieve stress.

“A lone person devoted to reading novels has the power equal to a hundred people gathered at a meeting.”

Akutagawa’s Aphorisms by a Pygmy?

Even if I did become a salaryman, my nationality prevented me from becoming company president. Deprived of my greatest ambition from the start, I had no intention of slaving away in the system.

“Nationality isn’t much more than a lease to an apartment,” I said. “If you don’t like the apartment anymore, you break the lease and get out.”

“Those ignorant haters who discriminate based on nationality and ethnicity are pathetic. We need to educate ourselves and make ourselves stronger and forgive them.

The voices of minority people had no way of reaching the top, so they had to find some way of making their voices louder.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“No soy coreano, ni japonés, soy un nómada desarraigado,”

“Not a bad thing to know something about darkness. You can’t talk about light without some knowledge of darkness. Like your buddy Nietzsche said, ‘He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.’ Keep that in mind.”

‘Any man in his youth should apply himself to amusement to his heart’s content. Too long a time in a forest of words will leave him trapped and unable to escape.’”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye.

“Never cry in front of others. You boys live your lives surrounded by enemies. Shedding tears before the enemy is the same as begging for pity. The same as admitting defeat. Your admitting defeat means all North Koreans are admitting defeat. That’s why you can’t ever get into the habit of crying in front of others. If you want to cry, go do it alone in the privacy of your room.”

The Long Goodbye, Philip Marlowe

ascetic

had been born in America, I’d be called Korean-American and would have all the rights accorded to an American citizen. I’d be treated like I was human. But this country is different. If I become a model person, more so than any Japanese, I still won’t be treated like a proper human as long as I have Korean citizenship. The way a sumo wrestler can’t become a stable master while he still has foreign citizenship. Assimilation or exclusion. There are only two choices in this country.” “Then why don’t you change your citizenship to Japanese?” I said. An obvious look of disappointment came over Miyamoto’s face. “Are you saying that I should admit defeat to this country?” “What defeat? What are you fighting anyway? What—is your ethnic pride so fragile that it would disappear just by changing your citizenship?”

What was prohibiting me from going to North Korea? The deep ocean? The tall mountains? The big sky? It was humans. The sons of bitches that put themselves there and roped off the territory as their own were the ones keeping me from seeing my uncle. Can you believe it? Everyone’s always talking about how the technology boom has brought the world closer, but I still can’t go to a place that’s only hours away. I will never forgive the arrogant sons of bitches in North Korea. Ever.

“The reason I don’t change my nationality is because I don’t want to be incorporated or assimilated or strapped down by any country. I’m tired of living feeling like I’m a part of some big system.