Happy Thanksgiving! In this bonus episode, I’m sharing something deeply personal — a part of my identity I’ve rarely spoken about publicly. I am a third-generation Zainichi Korean, born and raised in Japan, and I’m finally stepping into that history through a new creative initiative called The Zainichi Music Project, now sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
This episode marks the beginning of that journey — a project that will grow into a living archive of research, new music commissions, recordings, interviews, and documentary work.
In this episode, I talk about:
- What the word Zainichi actually means,
- How Japanese colonial rule — not immigration — brought our community into Japan,
- How postwar restructuring and the San Francisco Peace Treaty left Zainichi Koreans stateless,
- What it meant to be born and raised in a country that never fully recognized us as citizens,
- And why this project is my way of honoring our history, resilience, and creative legacy.
For those who want to go deeper, please read my Substack essay, “Behind the Mic: Reclaiming Voice Through Sound,” where I share more about my experience growing up Zainichi.
Thank you for listening — and for being part of The Piano Pod community. If you’d like to follow this new project, you can subscribe to Substack and follow @zainichimusicproject on Instagram and TikTok.
More soon, and thank you for supporting this next chapter.
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