Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song Podcast

The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song
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My personal Substack zainichimusicproject.substack.com

  1. 1h ago

    Episode 12: Ikuno, Ikaino—The Place I Came From, the History I Didn’t Know

    I was born in Ikuno, Osaka. But Chuwol Chong’s writing made me wonder how much I really knew about the place my family came from. A childhood taxi ride. My grandfather’s missing fingers. A doorway bearing my surname—and a bell I didn’t have the courage to ring. In this episode, I return to those memories and explore the lives behind the poems inspiring the Zainichi Music Project. 🎧 Listen now. Become a paid subscriber or support ZMP through NYFA to help bring this poetry and music project to life. Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 12: Ikuno, Ikaino—The Place I Came From, the History I Didn’t Know

  2. Sep 27

    A Zainichi Mother’s Vision

    Twenty-nine years after my mother died, I can no longer hear her voice clearly in my memory. Then I began reading the poems of Ch’u-wol Chong, a Zainichi Korean writer whose Osaka rhythms sounded so familiar that I could almost feel my mother sitting beside me. On this rainy anniversary, I’m sharing a short, personal tribute to my mother: a second-generation Zainichi Korean woman who built a business, fought for her children’s education, and imagined a future for us that she never got to see. Her vision still shapes the life I’m building today. Become a VIP subscriber to support the Zainichi Music Project and help bring more stories like this one to life. Learn more: https://www.nyfa.org/projects/project-info/?id=YS2055 Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    A Zainichi Mother’s Vision

  3. Sep 20

    Eps. 10: Ch’u-wol Chong: The First Zainichi Korean Woman Writer of Literature

    In this episode, I begin exploring the life and work of Chuwol Chong (1944–2011), a pioneering Zainichi Korean woman poet and writer whose work centers the lives, language, labor, and resilience of ordinary Zainichi women. I first encountered Chong more than a decade ago through her poem “Two Names.” Returning to her work now, especially The Korean Women I Love and “Name,” has felt deeply personal. Chong spent much of her life in Ikaino, in Osaka’s Ikuno Ward—the same ward where my father grew up and where I was born. Her writing has brought back memories of Osaka, Zainichi speech, family, and especially my mother, who was also a second-generation Zainichi woman. I am still at the beginning of studying Chong’s work. In this episode, I reflect on what makes her writing so distinctive, why her language feels so familiar to me, and how her work may eventually enter the Zainichi Music Project through poetry, translation, and commissioned music. Books mentioned in this episode: Other Side River: Free Verse — edited and translated by Leza Lowitz and Miyuki Aoyama. This collection includes Chong’s poem “Two Names.” Other Side River on Goodreads Into the Light: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan — edited by Melissa L. Wender. This anthology includes “The Korean Women I Love,” “Testament,” and “Name: For Pak Ch’u-ja.” Into the Light on JSTOR I’ll also return next week to the connection between Chong’s work and my mother’s story, on the anniversary of my mother’s death. If you’d like to support the Zainichi Music Project, you can become a paid subscriber or make a tax-deductible contribution through our fiscal sponsor, the New York Foundation for the Arts. Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Sep 5

    Eps. 9 Behind the Scenes of ZMP: Summer 2026 Updates Part Two

    What happens when telling your story changes the way you understand your family—and yourself? In Part Two of this behind-the-scenes reflection, I share what happened when the Zainichi Music Project connected me with two fellow third-generation Zainichi Koreans in Brooklyn. After decades without a Zainichi community around me in the United States, I could finally speak about my experiences without having to explain the history behind every detail. Those conversations helped me see my mother’s strength and ambition more clearly, reconsider choices I had once judged as reckless, and recognize that some experiences I had blamed myself for were part of a much larger history. But opening up also left me emotionally exhausted and forced me to confront the weight of telling a history shaped by generations of silence. A colleague eventually gave me a word for the role I was beginning to understand: custodian. In this episode, I reflect on what it means to care for this history, tell it responsibly from within the community, and build ZMP with patience, discernment, and the right collaborators. If this work speaks to you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack. Your support helps sustain the research, writing, interviews, and artistic development behind the Zainichi Music Project. You can also support ZMP directly through its fiscal sponsor, the New York Foundation for the Arts:Support the Zainichi Music Project through NYFA Thank you for listening—and for helping me carry this history forward. Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    Eps. 9 Behind the Scenes of ZMP: Summer 2026 Updates Part Two

  5. Aug 30

    Eps. 9 Behind the Scenes of ZMP: Learning from Setbacks — Part One

    What happens when a carefully organized plan meets a project that refuses to develop according to a spreadsheet? In Part One of this two-part behind-the-scenes episode, I reflect on a transformative summer for the Zainichi Music Project. I share how I built a trusted support system, continued developing ZMP’s public voice, sent cold emails that unexpectedly opened doors to professors and institutions, and began shaping the project’s first original musical works. The progress was exciting—but it also raised difficult questions about artistic direction, research, collaboration, and the responsibility of transforming Zainichi Korean history into music. Part Two will be released next Sunday. Please become a paid subscriber on Substack: https://zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe Support the Zainichi Music Project through our NYFA fiscal-sponsorship page:https://www.nyfa.org/projects/project-info/?id=YS2055 Follow the Zainichi Music Project on Instagram:https://instagram.com/zainichimusicproject Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    Eps. 9 Behind the Scenes of ZMP: Learning from Setbacks — Part One

  6. Jul 31

    Episode 8: When Rumor Became Massacre: Koreans and the Great Kantō Earthquake

    In Episode 8 of the Zainichi Music Project podcast, Yukimi Song examines the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and the massacre of Koreans that followed. After the earthquake devastated Tokyo, Yokohama, and the surrounding region, false rumors spread that Koreans were poisoning wells, setting fires, looting, and planning an uprising. These claims drew on stereotypes already created through Japanese colonial rule. As fear spread, civilian vigilantes, police officers, military personnel, and local authorities participated in violence against Koreans. Chinese people, Okinawans, and Japanese people with regional accents were also attacked after being mistaken for Korean. This episode explores how prejudice became rumor, how rumor gained authority, and how racial fear turned into mass violence. It also considers why the Kantō Massacre became an enduring part of Zainichi collective memory—and why this history still feels urgently relevant today. The Great Kantō Earthquake was a natural disaster. The massacre that followed was created by people. Support the Zainichi Music Project through our NYFA fiscal-sponsorship page:https://www.nyfa.org/projects/project-info/?id=YS2055 Read written versions of the podcast on Medium:https://medium.com/@yukimisong Follow the Zainichi Music Project on Instagram:https://instagram.com/zainichimusicproject Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 8: When Rumor Became Massacre: Koreans and the Great Kantō Earthquake

  7. Jul 12

    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. Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 7:Foreigners Overnight

  8. Jun 24

    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 Thank you for listening, reading, and walking through this history with me. Get full access to Zainichi Music Project by Yukimi Song at zainichimusicproject.substack.com/subscribe

    Episode 6: Sōren and the Search for Dignity
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