| Fumiko Kaneko | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 25, 1903 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Died | July 23, 1926 (aged 23) Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan |
Fumiko Kaneko (金子 文子 Kaneko Fumiko, January 25, 1903 – July 23, 1926) was a Japanese anarchist and nihilist who was arrested and convicted for conspiring against the Showa Emperor of Japan by supporting Korean independence. She died in prison.[1]
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Kaneko was born to a former policeman and a laborer, and spent the first nine years of her life as an unregistered child. This status impeded Kaneko from receiving formal education and recognition in society. Still, Kaneko was able to attend classes thanks to the pleas of her mother.
After Kaneko's mother failed to sell her daughter to a brothel, Kaneko was sent to her paternal grandmother's in Korea when she turned nine. A wealthy woman, Kaneko's grandmother registered Fumiko Kaneko as her own daughter and promised her a proper education. Kaneko was an intelligent child interested in pursuing an education comparable--both in depth and breadth--to that of her male classmates. But Kaneko's grandmother disapproved of her granddaughter's attitude and promptly began abusing her. Kaneko's maternal family learned of this mistreatment and sent her back to Japan.
Her ultimate rejection of all authority may have been based on the treatment she received from her parents and grandmother, but her observations in Korea undoubtedly reinforced her view of life as a struggle for survival in which the strong abuse and exploit the weak. She eventually embraced a thoroughly anarchist, nihilistic philosophy, and she made common cause with Park Yeol (1902-1974), a Korean anarchist.[2]