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Panchinko

Author Min Jin Lee

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing 2017
About the author
Min Jin Lee is the bestselling author of two novels. Pachinko was a finalist for the
National Book Award for Fiction, a New York Times bestseller and was included on over
75 best books of the year lists. It is currently being adapted for television by Apple TV.
Lee's debut novel Free Food for Millionaires was a Top 10 Books of the Year for The
Times, NPR's Fresh Air and USA Today. Min Jin Lee's writings have appeared in The
New Yorker, the TLS, the Guardian, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times and the Wall
Street Journal, among others. In 2019, Lee was inducted into the New York Foundation
for the Arts Hall of Fame. She serves as a trustee of PEN America, a director of the
Authors Guild and on the National Advisory Board of the Immigration Initiative at
Harvard.

Summary
At the turn of the twentieth century, in the small Korean village of Yeongdo, an aging
couple begins taking in lodgers for extra money. When Korea is annexed by Japan in
1910, much of the country becomes impoverished, but the couple still manages to
establish a successful boardinghouse. Their son, Hoonie, who has a cleft palate and
twisted foot, even makes a successful and happy marriage to a woman named Yangjin.
However, Hoonie dies of tuberculosis when his beloved daughter, Sunja, is only 13.
When Sunja is about 17, she becomes pregnant—months earlier, she’d fallen in love
with Hansu, a wealthy fish broker who’d begun speaking to her in the market. However,
he refuses to marry her, explaining that he already has a wife and children in Japan.
Hansu offers to support Sunja financially and be with her when he’s in town on
business, but Sunja refuses to be Hansu’s mistress, even though as an unwed mother,
she’ll be disgraced in the eyes of society. Meanwhile, a well-dressed, sickly young
pastor, Baek Isak, arrives at the boardinghouse. Yangjin and Sunja recognize the signs
of tuberculosis and nurse Isak back to health. When Isak is well, Yangjin confides in him
about Sunja’s vulnerable situation, and he decides to propose to Sunja—offering his
name to her and her baby is the only thing he can do to help. Sunja agrees to marry
him.

After they’re married, Isak and Sunja move to Osaka, Japan, living with Isak’s brother
Yoseb and sister-in-law, Kyunghee. Soon, Sunja gives birth to a son, Noa. Despite
poverty and systemic injustices against Koreans, the family manages to get by in Ikaino,
Osaka’s impoverished Korean neighborhood. About six years later, Sunja and Isak have
another son, Mozasu. World War II is underway, and the Japanese government
requires everyone, including Christians, to worship the Emperor in weekly Shinto
ceremonies. During one of these ceremonies, Hu, the sexton in Isak’s church, recites
the Lord’s Prayer as an act of resistance, leading to Isak’s arrest as well. While Isak is
imprisoned, Sunja and Kyunghee start a successful food cart in the Ikaino market.
Soon, a restaurant manager named Kim Changho hires them to cook for him, relieving
their financial burdens. Three years later, a starved, sick, and tortured Isak is finally
released from prison in time to die at home.

Near the end of the war, Hansu reappears, explaining to Sunja that he owns Changho’s
restaurant, and he arranged for her to be hired after Isak was jailed; he’d tracked her
down after she pawned the gold watch he’d given her when she was a girl. He warns
her that Osaka will be bombed soon, and he arranges for Sunja and her whole family to
flee to a farm in the countryside, where they will be safe and well-fed. He even tracks
down Yangjin and reunites her with her with her daughter and grandsons. Later, he also
rescues Yoseb after he is critically injured in the Nagasaki bombing.

After the family is resettled in Osaka, bookish Noa works hard to get accepted to
Waseda University, and Mozasu takes a job at Goro’s pachinko parlor in order to stay
out of trouble. Mozasu quickly thrives and begins working his way up in the industry.
After Noa finally gets accepted to Waseda, Sunja approaches Hansu for help in paying
for his tuition. Hansu refuses to give Sunja a loan, explaining he’s already paid all of
Noa’s fees and gotten him an apartment. Sunja feels stuck, hating to accept Hansu’s
continued interference, yet wanting the best opportunities for Noa. One day, Noa’s then-
girlfriend, Akiko, points out his obvious resemblance to Hansu. Noa confronts Sunja and
is distraught to confirm that Hansu is in fact his father, believing that after a lifetime of
trying to rise above racist taunts, his tie to a yakuza irrevocably taints his blood. Noa
drops out of Waseda and moves to Nagano to begin a new life in which he passes as
Japanese. He runs the business office of a pachinko parlor, marries a woman named
Risa, and has four children. For 16 years, he successfully lives as a middle-class
Japanese family man, but after Hansu and Sunja track him down in 1978, he commits
suicide after claiming that “yakuza blood” “is something that controls you.”

Mozasu marries Yumi, a Korean seamstress, and they have a son, Solomon. After Yumi
is killed by a drunk driver, Sunja leaves behind her confectionery stand, now a
successful shop, and moves in with Mozasu to care for Solomon. Mozasu raises
Solomon in Western schools and wants him to work for an American company
someday. By the time Solomon is a teenager, Mozasu is dating Etsuko, a Japanese
divorcee. Solomon is in love with Etsuko’s troubled daughter, Hana, until he goes away
to Columbia University, where he dates a Korean-American girl named Phoebe. Phoebe
returns to Tokyo with Solomon when he lands a good job at a British investment bank.
However, he’s fired after Goro helps him track down an elderly Korean woman who’s
holding up a real estate transaction; his boss, Kazu, is spooked by Solomon’s yakuza
connections. Phoebe dumps Solomon after he declines to move back to the United
States and marry her.

With the encouragement of a dying Hana, Solomon goes to work for his dad’s pachinko
business. Although Mozasu hadn’t wanted Solomon to be part of the tainted gambling
industry, Solomon trusts that his father is an honest man, and he now doubts he’ll ever
be able to rise above his outsider status in Japanese society. At the end of the novel,
Sunja visits Isak’s grave and learns from the groundskeeper, Uchida, that Noa had
visited the grave until his death, confirming that despite his anger at Hansu and his grief
over his “yakuza” blood, he still loved Sunja and honored her and Isak’s sacrifices for
him.

Plot
The beginning
The story begins with Sunja, the daughter of a poor but proud Korean family, who
becomes pregnant by a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant and that
her lover is married, she accepts a marriage proposal from a young minister who offers
to take her to Japan.
Moving to Japan
In 1931, Sunja leaves her family in Korea and moves to Osaka, Japan's Koreatown, to
start a new life.
The experience of Korean immigrants
The story explores the living conditions and discrimination faced by Korean immigrants
in Japanese society. The characters encounter racism, stereotyping, and other aspects
of the 20th-century Korean experience of Japan.

Themes
The story themes are survival, family, identity, love, motherhood, and women's choices.

Customs and Traditions

Family structure
The novel uses untranslated Korean words to describe family relations, which can be
used to analyze Korean family structure.
Food
The novel uses traditional Korean meals to represent wealth and disparity between
people. For example, Hansu's preference for Japanese-style meals contrasts with Noa's
preference for fast meals.
Confucianism
The novel explores the influence of Confucianism on Korean culture, even when
Koreans are living in a foreign land.
Pachinko
The game of pachinko is a central metaphor for the unpredictable and uncontrollable
nature of the characters' stories. Pachinko is a game of chance similar to a slot
machine.
Immigration
The novel depicts the living conditions and discrimination of Korean immigrants in
Japan. It also illustrates the generational struggle Zainichi Koreans faced due to Japan's
atrocities and genocidal violence.

Characters
Hoonie — Hoonie is the first character to be introduced in the story, born with a twisted
foot and a cleft palate.[3]: 3 He meets his wife, Yangjin, on his wedding day, and they
have three children who die young before Sunja, their only surviving daughter, is born. [3]:
9
Hoonie dies of tuberculosis when Sunja is thirteen years old.[3]: 9
Sunja — Sunja is the main protagonist of Pachinko, appearing in all three books. Sunja
is the daughter of Hoonie and Yangjin, born in Yeongdo, Busan, Korea. Sunja has two
children: Noa and Mozasu. While Baek Isak raised both Noa and Mozasu, he is only
Mozasu's biological father. Koh Hansu is Noa's biological father.
Baek Isak — Baek Isak is a Protestant minister from Pyongyang, Korea. He is first
introduced when he visits Yangjin's boardinghouse on his way to Osaka to move in with
his brother, Yoseb. Sickly since birth, Baek Isak struggles with sickness until his death
in Osaka.
Kyunghee — Kyunghee is Yoseb's wife and Sunja's best friend and sister-in-law. She
plays a large part in helping Sunja support their families in living, helping Sunja
prepare kimchi to sell.
Yoseb — Yoseb is Baek Isak's brother who lives in Osaka, Japan. He works in a factory
to support his family. He lives in Ikaino in Osaka, where most Koreans in Osaka are
known to live. He receives a job opportunity in Nagasaki in 1945.[3]: 202 He becomes very
injured in the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki.
Koh Hansu — Koh Hansu is a Korean man who was adopted into a family of organized
crime in Japan. Using his connections, Koh Hansu continually strives to earn money
and control what he can. Hansu meets Sunja in Korea, even though he has a wife in
Japan. Throughout the novel, Hansu utilizes his influence to look after Sunja and her
family, keeping them alive. Hansu is driven by his love for his only son, Noa.
Noa — Noa is the only son of Koh Hansu and Sunja. He attends Waseda University in
Tokyo before moving to Nagano to start a new life away from Hansu and Sunja. He
struggles with identity issues stemming from his biological father's associations with
the yakuza.
Mozasu — Mozasu is the only son of Baek Isak and Sunja. He faces constant bullying
in school and tends to retaliate with force. As a result, he drops out of school and begins
an apprenticeship at a pachinko parlor as a guard. Eventually, he moves up in the ranks
and establishes his own parlors. Mozasu marries a girl named Yumi and has one son,
Solomon.
Solomon — Solomon is the only son of Mozasu and Yumi. Growing up, Solomon does
not face many of the same issues as his father or grandmother, since his father is very
wealthy. Torn about what he wants to do with his life, he attends university in the United
States and eventually decides that he wants to enter the pachinko business like his
father.

References:
https://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Pachinko.html?
id=LbOfEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko_(novel)
 Please Look After Mom

Author: Kyung-Sook Shin

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011
About the author
KYUNG-SOOK SHIN is the author of numerous works of fiction and is one of
South Korea’s most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She was the first woman to be
awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize (for Please Look After Mom), and she has also
been honored with the Manhae Literature Prize, the Dong-in Literature Prize, and the Yi
Sang Literary Prize, as well as France’s Prix de l’Inaperçu. Please Look After Mom is
her first book to appear in English. It will be published in twenty-nine countries and has
sold over 2 million copies in South Korea alone.

Description
Please Look After Mother reveals the shortcomings of both traditional ways and modern
life. It tells of the disappearance of So-nyo, a mother, and of her family’s subsequent
search for her. Often, they search only their memories. So-nyo’s story begins shortly
after Korea was divided, when its people became impoverished. Her terror of being
unable to find the next meal for her children is strong, and we realize how resourceful
and hard-working she had to be in order to ensure that they never went hungry. When
she wasn’t tilling the fields, she would breed silkworms and brew malt and help to make
tofu. So-nyo is what we might call an earth mother, but out of necessity, rather than
choice. It is one of the novel’s ironies that her eldest daughter is a successful novelist
who does not realize until too late that her mother couldn't read; this is yet another
tragedy of So-nyo’s secret, sublimated life

Summary
When sixty-nine year old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds
of the Seoul subway station, and vanishes, their children are consumed with loud
recriminations, and are awash in sorrow and guilt. As they argue over the "Missing"
flyers they are posting throughout the city - how large of a reward to offer, the best way
to phrase the text - they realize that none of them have a recent photograph of Mom.
Soon a larger question emerges: do they really know the woman they called Mom? Told
by the alternating voices of Mom's daughter, son, her husband and, in the shattering
conclusion, by Mom herself, the novel pieces together, Rashomon-style, a life that
appears ordinary but is anything but.
This is a mystery of one mother that reveals itself to be the mystery of all our mothers:
about her triumphs and disappointments and about who she is on her own terms,
separate from who she is to her family. If you have ever been a daughter, a son, a
husband or a mother, Please Look After Mom is a revelation - one that will bring tears to
your eyes.

Characters
Park So-nyo: The main character, a 69-year-old mother of four children who
goes missing in the Seoul subway

Hyong-chol: So-nyo's eldest son who lives in Seoul with his family
Chi-hon: So-nyo's eldest daughter and a successful novelist who reflects on taking her
mother for granted
So-nyo's husband: Who left his wife for another woman but eventually came back
Yun Chin: Hyong-chol's daughter
Yun Kyun: So-nyo's brother in law
Hong Tae-hee: A director of an orphanage whom So-nyo donated to

Setting
The story takes place shortly after Korea's division, when the country was impoverished.
The Parks' family history illustrates the social changes South Korea has experienced,
including urbanization, Westernization, and the breakdown of traditional family life.

Customs and Traditions

 Family life: The book shows how the Parks family's history illustrates the social
changes South Korea has undergone, including the breakdown of traditional
family life.

 Traditional values: The book delves into traditional values and places the
mother's melancholy on the shoulders of her grown children.
  Authentic picture of contemporary life: The book is an authentic picture of
contemporary life in Korea.

References:
https://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Please_Look_After_Mom.html?id=cG-
gPxwzDGwC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8574333-please-look-after-mom