26 Quotes by Kazuki Kaneshiro

But,” began the Zainichi North Korean man, “even if we know all that stuff, isn’t it pointless if the people discriminating against you don’t?” “What matters is that we know,” I said. “Those ignorant haters who discriminate based on nationality and ethnicity are pathetic. We need to educate ourselves and make ourselves stronger and forgive them. Not that I’m anywhere near that yet.

Though I may have been a misfit, I was also a romantic.

Sure, my father's cheesy performance had something to do with it, but that wasn't the only reason. I had grown up trapped in an environment over which I had no control, but now I had been given a choice. North Korea or South Korea? As horribly limiting as my options were, the choice was mine to make. I felt as if I was being treated like a human with rights for the first time in my life.

I should've told him that when I'd had a knife pulled on me for the first time, I ran faster than Carl Lewis. That the only people who survive in this world are cowards. And that true heroes are destined to die young. That the world needed him, so if anyone pulled a knife on him , he had to run faster than a speeding bullet.

Take a good look at the wide world,' he said. 'You decide the rest.

And that's how I quit being a North Korean resident of Japan, busted out of the tiny confines of Korean school, and dove into the "wide world." That decision, it turned out, came with some.... challenges.

A tree that is unbending is easily broken in a powerful storm. But not grass.” Scratching the scar at the corner of one eye he added , “Or so says some guy named Lao Tzu.

No soy coreano, ni japonés, soy un nómada desarraigado," he muttered."Huh?""It's Spanish. I always wanted to be a Spaniard."I didn't reply."But it didn't work out. Turns out, it wasn't just about speaking the language.""Language has everything to do with your identity--""In theory maybe," he said, cutting me off. "But we live in circumstances that can't always be explained away by logic. You'll understand someday.

If I had been born in America, I'd be called Korean-American and would have all the rights accorded to an American citizen. I'd be treated like I was human. But this country is different. If I become a model person, more so than any Japanese, I still wouldn't be treated like a proper human as long as I have Korean citizenship. The way a sumo wrestler can't become a stable master while he still has foreign citizenship. Assimilation or exclusion. There are only two choices in this country.