Summary

Masaji Ishikawa was born in Japan to a Korean father, Do Sam-dal, and a Japanese mother, Miyoko Ishikawa. He had a happy childhood although his father was in prison for his early years. When Ishikawa's father came home, life got difficult for the family as his father drank and beat his mother regularly. As a child, Ishikawa witnessed Japanese prejudice against Koreans, even within his own family and his mother's side looked down in his father. Koreans were also looked down upon by Japanese society at large, leading Ishikawa's father to work on the black market where he became "one of the top dogs in the Korean community" and joined the General Association of Koreans in Japan (later known as the League of Korean Residents in Japan) (6).

Ishikawa's family was poor and short periods of happy times were soon marred by his father's violence...