Shortly after her arrival in Korea, it became clear that Fumiko would not be adopted or provided with the higher level of living that she expected. For the first year or so, they kept up the pretense of including her in their family by allowing her to use the name Iwashita, but after that she was called Kaneko. Her grandmother introduced her to visitors as a child she had taken in out of pity from some people she barely knew and her grandmother and aunt treated her like a maid. It appears that they did initially intend to adopt her, but, at least from Fumiko's perspective, they decided quickly that she was too poorly brought up and unrefined to be their family heir.