“Let your children play as they please! To play freely on this earth is the one privilege nature has given to children.”

— Kaneko Fumiko, The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman (1991)

About Kaneko Fumiko

1903 – 1926

Japanese anarchist and writer whose prison memoirs were published after her death.

“By nature human beings should be equal.”

“The virtue and beauty of human beings is to live naturally, ungoverned by external forces.”

“Everyone being human, they must all be equal.”

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.”

“The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”

“He follows his father, but not with equal steps.”

“Motherhood in the true sense should embrace all children.”

“Being a good mother means teaching your children to care for the world.”

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”