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.
