Well-chosen photographs enhance the graceful, intelligently annotated narratives. Sonia Ryang's introduction contextualizes the women's lives, and the fine bibliography directs readers toward further study. Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

Kim presents the life stories of ten first-generation Korean immigrant women in Japan, that enrich our understanding of the social conditions and political dynamics of Koreans in Japan, and the legacies of the past that the new generation of Korean women in Japan must face and overcome.

Reference and Research Book News

These voices preserve for us the bravery and resilience of these ten women, and through them we can sense the tribulations and triumphs of all those others who cannot speak. For making this amount of oral history available and for deciphering the stories of these women, Jackie Kim deserves our gratitude.

Japan Times

Jackie Kim's book provides unprecedented insight into the lives of first-generation zainichi women.

Japan Studies

Hidden Treasures records the recessed but resonant voices of Korean women in Japan. At once poignant and painful, passionate and powerful, the narratives are literally recovered treasures. With Sonia Ryang's rewarding introduction, it is an invaluable contribution to the study of East Asia's tumultuous twentieth century.

John Lie, University of California, Berkeley