The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman ((Foremother Legacies Ser.)) (Paperback)

by Kaneko Fumiko (Author), Jean Inglis (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873328027
• ISBN-13: 978-0873328029
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,588,317 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing clarity and pathos from a self-educated woman, March 14, 2000

By	Molly Bresnen (Japan) - See all my reviews

I originally had to read this book for a Japanese History class, and found it incredible. In the 1930's it was standard practice to take a written confession from prisoners before execution, but this one stood out and has survived to the present day for its insight and honesty. This is a person who, after unthinkable suffering acheived not only complete self-realization but the ability to communicate it to others. It's also facinating because, despite so much spilt ink about understanding the conservative Japanese psyche, this is one of the only non-fiction works which effectively and honestly tackles communal mentality and social hierarcy without over-complicating the issue. But beyond that, it is an incredible story not unlike a true-to-life Japanese version of Ellison's Invisible Man. It is a crime that this book is not well known.