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Top 20 Masaji Ishikawa Quotes (2025 Update)

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “There’s a saying, “Sadness and gladness follow each other.” As I see it, people who experience equal amounts of sadness and happiness in their lives must be incredibly blessed.”

1. “There’s a saying, “Sadness and gladness follow each other.” As I see it, people who experience equal amounts of sadness and happiness in their lives must be incredibly blessed.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “In the West, I guess you’d call it corruption. In North Korea, it was just standard operating procedure.”

2. “In the West, I guess you’d call it corruption. In North Korea, it was just standard operating procedure.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “When I lived in Japan, I never really pondered my life. But after I moved to North Korea, the thing that preoccupied me most was the sheer magnitude of the difference between my old life and my new one. I became obsessed with all the things I had taken for granted before, and all the hardships that marked my life now. But that didn’t last long. I soon learned that thought was not free in North Korea. A free thought could get you killed if it slipped out.”

3. “When I lived in Japan, I never really pondered my life. But after I moved to North Korea, the thing that preoccupied me most was the sheer magnitude of the difference between my old life and my new one. I became obsessed with all the things I had taken for granted before, and all the hardships that marked my life now. But that didn’t last long. I soon learned that thought was not free in North Korea. A free thought could get you killed if it slipped out.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “Eventually, they forced her and his two kids – his two kids, mind you, from his first wife who had died – out of the house.”

4. “Eventually, they forced her and his two kids – his two kids, mind you, from his first wife who had died – out of the house.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “Ever since setting foot in North Korea more than thirty years before, I’d known nothing but hunger. Everyone had been halfway to starvation for decades. But things had taken a turn for the worse starting in 1991. From 1991 until Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, extremely cold weather wreaked havoc on the fragile food supply.”

5. “Ever since setting foot in North Korea more than thirty years before, I’d known nothing but hunger. Everyone had been halfway to starvation for decades. But things had taken a turn for the worse starting in 1991. From 1991 until Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, extremely cold weather wreaked havoc on the fragile food supply.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “You don’t choose to be born. You just are. And your birth is your destiny, some say. I say the hell with that.”

6. “You don’t choose to be born. You just are. And your birth is your destiny, some say. I say the hell with that.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “I want to give this food to my family in North Korea. But I can’t. So I entrust it to the seagulls. And in my heart, they carry it off to my family. And I weep.”

7. “I want to give this food to my family in North Korea. But I can’t. So I entrust it to the seagulls. And in my heart, they carry it off to my family. And I weep.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “As I see it, people who experience equal amounts of sadness and happiness in their lives must be incredibly blessed. Some people lead a painful life full of nothing but sorrow. I should know.”

8. “As I see it, people who experience equal amounts of sadness and happiness in their lives must be incredibly blessed. Some people lead a painful life full of nothing but sorrow. I should know.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “The vicious sound of his voice as he ranted at our mother. The sound of his hitting her. The sound of his trying to stifle her tearful cries.”

9. “The vicious sound of his voice as he ranted at our mother. The sound of his hitting her. The sound of his trying to stifle her tearful cries.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “I even heard a rumor of one man killing his wife and eating her.”

10. “I even heard a rumor of one man killing his wife and eating her.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “But that’s the trouble with propaganda. It constantly contradicts itself.”

11. “But that’s the trouble with propaganda. It constantly contradicts itself.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “Every day was like living in a nightmare. It sounds dreadful to say, but I grew immune to the horror of all the people lying in the streets. Sometimes, I couldn’t tell whether they were dying or already dead. And the awful thing was, I didn’t have the energy to care.”

12. “Every day was like living in a nightmare. It sounds dreadful to say, but I grew immune to the horror of all the people lying in the streets. Sometimes, I couldn’t tell whether they were dying or already dead. And the awful thing was, I didn’t have the energy to care.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “I don’t think I ever felt as close to her as I did that night. Her desperation, her fear, her exhaustion – all of it seeped through her thin clothes and straight into my heart.”

13. “I don’t think I ever felt as close to her as I did that night. Her desperation, her fear, her exhaustion – all of it seeped through her thin clothes and straight into my heart.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “Sometimes we burst out laughing like raving lunatics. If you suffer long enough, it almost becomes funny, and you can find yourself laughing at the most miserable situations. I guess it’s a kind of hysteria.”

14. “Sometimes we burst out laughing like raving lunatics. If you suffer long enough, it almost becomes funny, and you can find yourself laughing at the most miserable situations. I guess it’s a kind of hysteria.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “If you suffer long enough, it almost becomes funny, and you can find yourself laughing at the most miserable situations.”

15. “If you suffer long enough, it almost becomes funny, and you can find yourself laughing at the most miserable situations.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “Someone once said, “If a crying baby could tear down the universe, it would.” That’s how I felt that day. I wanted to demolish the whole universe, but the sad truth was, it had already come crashing down around my head.”

16. “Someone once said, “If a crying baby could tear down the universe, it would.” That’s how I felt that day. I wanted to demolish the whole universe, but the sad truth was, it had already come crashing down around my head.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “We were taught that the United States brutally slaughters our brothers and sisters in the south. That we must free the people of South Korea. That their country is occupied by the enemy, the United States.”

17. “We were taught that the United States brutally slaughters our brothers and sisters in the south. That we must free the people of South Korea. That their country is occupied by the enemy, the United States.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “When you’re starving to death, you lose all the fat from your lips and nose. Once your lips disappear, your teeth are bared all the time, like a snarling dog. Your nose is reduced to a pair of nostrils. I wish desperately that I didn’t know these things, but I do.”

18. “When you’re starving to death, you lose all the fat from your lips and nose. Once your lips disappear, your teeth are bared all the time, like a snarling dog. Your nose is reduced to a pair of nostrils. I wish desperately that I didn’t know these things, but I do.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “From time to time, a hygiene outfit carried out a lice check at school. If you were dirty, you got told off for poor hygiene. But if you admitted you bathed frequently, you were equally told off, in this case for “Japanese decadence.” As usual, you couldn’t win.”

19. “From time to time, a hygiene outfit carried out a lice check at school. If you were dirty, you got told off for poor hygiene. But if you admitted you bathed frequently, you were equally told off, in this case for “Japanese decadence.” As usual, you couldn’t win.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “What were you thinking? A man whose quality of life is no better than that of a beggar! Who in their right mind would marry me? It had been laughable to think Su-yon’s mother would ever give her consent.”

20. “What were you thinking? A man whose quality of life is no better than that of a beggar! Who in their right mind would marry me? It had been laughable to think Su-yon’s mother would ever give her consent.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “It seemed the more messed up a country became, the more the black market prospered.”

21. “It seemed the more messed up a country became, the more the black market prospered.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

Masaji Ishikawa Quote: “The party started churning out more slogans, more propaganda. I couldn’t help but wonder where they even got all the paper for the posters – and whether I could eat it.”

22. “The party started churning out more slogans, more propaganda. I couldn’t help but wonder where they even got all the paper for the posters – and whether I could eat it.”

— Masaji Ishikawa

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