“Enjoy K-pop while discriminating against ‘Joseon people’”···The elegant struggle of third-generation Zainichi Shin Sook-Ok standing up to the Japanese far right - 경향신문

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A scene from the documentary film <Horumon>. On Asahi TV’s 1999 <Objection!>, which addressed the issue of the Japanese military’s ‘comfort women’, Shin Sook-Ok speaks as a panelist. The video of Shin calmly rebutting the opposing side, which belittled lawsuits by victims of the Japanese military’s ‘comfort women’ demanding an apology from Japan, drew attention in South Korea as well. Provided by Atnine Film

If ‘Chosenjin’ (Korean) is a slur, there is a woman who says she will carry that word on her back.

Shin Sook-Ok (67), a third-generation Zainichi born in Tokyo, liked being ‘Joseonin’ when she was little; it felt special. As she grew up, however, she came to understand the discriminatory meaning the word carried. Walking down the street in the chima jeogori that was the uniform of a Korean school, she was surrounded and threatened by groups of boys, and she learned that even after graduating from high school it would be difficult to get a regular corporate job.

However, she ‘succeeded’. She did every kind of part-time job. Modeling work lifted her out of grinding poverty, and at twenty-five she founded a consulting company in charge of corporate human rights education. Riding the trend that made corporate gender equality training and the like essential, the company grew quickly. She could have simply lived that way, but a Japanese society in which hatred of minorities does not disappear would not leave her alone.

The year 2000 became a turning point in Shin Sook-Ok’s life. ThenTokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro said, “Illegal ‘sangokujin’ (a derogatory term for Koreans and Chinese from the colonial era) are committing heinous crimes. If a disaster occurs, riots may break out.” It evoked the Kanto Massacre, when the turmoil after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake led to killings of Koreans and others. She remembered her grandmother, who, traumatized, would anxiously circle the yard saying the Japanese were coming. She could not remain silent. Beginning with a movement calling for Ishihara’s resignation, Shin set out on the path of an activist who raises her voice for minorities including Zainichi.

A scene from the documentary film <Horumon>. Provided by Atnine Film

Opening on the 11th, <Horumon> is a documentary that looks back over Shin Sook-Ok’s life. Using as its springboard the recent case in which Shin, targeted by Japan’s far right, waged a legal battle against a broadcaster and a production company, it traces her path.

In 2017, <News Women>, broadcast by Tokyo MX and produced by DHC Television, aired a defamatory rumor that made an issue of the fact that Shin, who joined the movement opposing the U.S. military bases in Okinawa, is Zainichi, alleging that she was trying to throw Japan into confusion under orders from North Korea. The film follows her struggle through to final victory in 2023 in the defamation suit she filed against DHC Television. It is the new work by director Lee Il-ha, who made the 2018 documentary <Counters> about those who stand up to anti-Korean hate rallies in Japan.

The subject is weighty, yet the film is exhilaratingperhaps because it resembles its protagonist, Shin Sook-Ok. Confronted with baseless hate, Shin draws an elegant line“What is not so is not so”and calls out fervently, “Let us live together.” Without a cynical edge, she says “Thank you” and “I am sorry.” When we met Shin on the 5th at Atnine Film’s office in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, she expressed gratitude and humility even in the middle of the interview and offered unstinting encouragement to younger generations.

Shin Sook-Ok, the third-generation Korean resident in Japan and human rights activist who is the protagonist of the documentary film <Horumon>. Provided by Atnine Film

Shin says she has stood her ground “because it is a society in which, if you do not fight, you cannot live.” “No one helps you. When you are asked, ‘When did you come to Japan? When will you go back to Korea?’, you have to say yourself, ‘This is my home.’” Describing herself as “a woman, Zainichi, tall, and with little formal schooling,” she said, “I like who I am, and I do not want the things that make up ‘me’ to be denied.”

She opposes discrimination not only to protect her own identity but for all minorities. Recently she has been considering how to respond to the forced deportations of foreigners from countries such as Senegal and Nigeria that are intensifying under the Takaichi administration. Long active in solidarity with victims of the Japanese military’s ‘comfort women’ system, she also visited the 1,777th Wednesday Demonstration on the 4th. “Usually we fight those who are strong, so we lose nine times out of ten. Even so, we can win once. I tend to believe that chance surely exists.”

Visiting South Korea for the release of <Horumon>, Shin Sook-Ok speaks at the 1,777th Wednesday Demonstration for Resolving the Issue of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery System held on the 4th in front of the former Japanese Embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Provided by the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance

Regarding the global trend of more people insisting that hate is also “freedom of expression,” Shin says it “destroys democracy and must be dealt with firmly.” Her method of responding to hate is “not trying to persuade, but simply saying, ‘I do not think that way.’ And taking hands with people who share my sense.” For her, everyday life is politics. She believes we must begin by eliminating discrimination within the ‘5ｍ radius’ of where we live.

<Horumon> encompasses the stories of Shin, her maternal grandmother Lee Baek-ran, and her mother Keiko. The eras that generations one through three of Zainichi lived through are conveyed through the stories of these three women. Shin says that even now, as the fifth and sixth generations of Zainichi are being born, “the lives of Zainichi have not improved. Hate crimes continue.”

A scene from the documentary film <Horumon>. Provided by Atnine Film

“Thinking that human rights have advanced just because the Korean Wave is popular is a deception. For the far right, racism is entertainment and pleasure. It means they can enjoy K-pop and still discriminate against Zainichi.”

She says she feels sorry toward younger generations. “I was able to exist because there were seniors who shed much blood and suffered discrimination,” Shin says, “and I wanted to make a world in which the next generation could live more easily, but I failed.” What made the fight with DHC Television so urgent was that “at that time in Japanese society, I was the Zainichi woman who was most criticized, and if I lost in court, it would mean that next time the situation would have to be even worse in order to win,” which weighed heavily on her.

Shin says she is “now an old person.” “Since my fifties, I have thought that I should cheer on the next generation. I do not want to be too far out front. If the next generation is in trouble, I just want to take their hands and say, ‘Oh my, is it not scary?’” Even in offering encouragement, she spoke of life. “I do not particularly like saying ‘Be strong,’ but I tell them to take care of themselves and eat delicious food. That is how I want to tell them to keep going.”

Poster for the film <Horumon>. Provided by Atnine Film