Pachinko and History
“History has failed us, but no matter.”
Isn’t it great when a number of things you're interested in come together? This book has been catching my eye on and off ever since it came out, but I kept putting off reading it. So, when Emma Watson’s online book club Our Shared Shelf selected it as the book of the month, it was the kick up the butt I needed to hunt down a copy and get reading!
Why this book?
Well, there is the obvious reason of it being the book of the month(s) for Our Shared Shelf, but honestly, I would have gotten around to reading it eventually.
Anyone who has gotten to know me over the last few years will know that I have had a growing fascination with Korea and Korean culture over the last several years. I may be stating it mildly, as a cousin of mine has accused me of being “such a koreaboo!”
It all started at the end of 2014 when a dear friend of mine introduced me to my first kdrama - “You are Beautiful”. Which, whilst it’s not the gateway kdrama (that’s Boys over Flowers) it is certainly one of them.
But what’s kdrama? I hear a number of people ask.
Well, very simply, it’s Korean dramas. But in this context “drama” just means fictional TV shows. So, reality shows and contests do not fall under the “kdrama” umbrella. Nor do movies. Within kdrama, though, is every type of story genre available to humanity, as far as I can tell. There are rom-coms, thrillers, procedurals (both medical and criminal), mysteries, fantasies, sci-fis, periods (known as sageuk) and probably a number that I’m missing.
Kdramas as a phenomenon and a thing that exists are being analysed and discussed by people much more qualified than me. That’s not why I am here. If you’re interested in that, a quick Google search will probably yield some interesting results.
Anyway, it was through kdramas that I began to see more of this country and culture that before I only knew in terms of the Korean War, the division between North and South, and the secrecy and persecution of Christians in the north. And, like, this list was the entirety of my knowledge prior to watching kdramas. I didn’t even have details.
So, as kdramas and, later, kpop (Korean pop music) began to introduce me to this culture and people I had previously known nothing about, I began to want to learn more. So, so much.
But, there are limits to how much one can learn through TV shows and music. I started learning about the food, day-to-day relations, cultural expectations and something of the heroes from their past. But nothing concrete about how Korea became the Korea we know today - division and all. And I couldn’t find anything to help me get started on that. All the books and information I came across was about modern relations with North Korea, or about the Korean War from a very western perspective.
Then came this book. A book about Koreans in the last century, written by a Korean. I knew I had to read it.
What is this book about?
Pachinko is, first and foremost, a novel. I would describe the genre as a historical, family saga. If you’ve read One Hundred Years of Solitude, it has a similar vibe to that.
Pachinko is entirely about the Korean perspective on the Japanese occupation from 1910 - 1945, which I had known very little about, the withdrawal of the Japanese from Korea and the effect that had on Koreans living in Japan, how the division of North and South Korea affected the Koreans and the ongoing discrimination that Koreans living in Japan face.
It does this by focusing in on the Baek family. Sunja is the matriarch of the family, and the book starts with her father, Hoonie, in Yoeng-do, near Busan and follows them down to her grandson, Solomon. The change from the family being situated in Yoeng-do to Japan happens early on, after Sunja finds herself pregnant out of wedlock. A disaster for any woman of that time. Fortunately, a young pastor on his way to Japan is staying with them and he offers to marry her and take her with him.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you more than this without spoiling things for you. But within this story and historical setting, Lee explores issues of discrimination, persecution, family, the role of men and women in Korean and Japanese cultures, racism, displacement, war, and a whole range of other difficult topics.
My thoughts on the book
I really enjoyed reading Pachinko. I do have some criticism of it, so I’ll discuss those first, but I will state right now, I enjoyed this book immensely.
So, what are my criticisms?
Well, pretty much all of them come back to the scope of what Lee was trying to accomplish. It was huge and amazing, and, for the most part, incredible, but did lead to a few issues in the writing.
For one thing, this book could get ponderous. There was just so much going on all the time, and it necessarily flow as well as it could have. She jumped between time periods and point of view frequently, which could get confusing and overwhelming. Her use of language was also not necessarily the smoothest and I did have to take a week long break between books two and three (all in one book though) as my mind felt overloaded.
She also tried to do too much. Within the story of the family, I didn’t mind so much, but I do think she should not have tried to explore what life was like for a homosexual Japanese man as much as she did. Please note: I do think it is important to have stories that explore this aspect of life, I just felt it didn’t belong in this book. There was an entire chapter dedicated to it from his wife’s perspective that did nothing but interrupt the flow of the story and pull us away from the main narrative. Especially as this is also the only time we even see his wife or get her perspective. It just added length to an already incredibly long story.
And that’s it for my criticisms.
As I said, I did enjoy this book immensely.
I loved being able to learn about an entire aspect of (ongoing) Korean history I had previously known nothing about. I loved the deep dive into one family’s experience of an incredibly difficult life in occupied Korea and then in Japan as a stateless family. I loved each member of the family and have a hearty respect for both Sunja and her sister-in-law, Kyunghee.
All in all, I would recommend this book and encourage people to read it.
How this book affected me
I learnt so much.
My the time I got to this book, I knew that during the second world war, Japan has occupied Korea and was fighting China. I knew that as part of that, Korean women were taken and sent as “companions” for Japanese soldiers.
I did not, however, know that the Japanese occupation of Korea started during the first world war. Or that during it a large number of Koreans moved to Japan in search of a better life. I did not know that the Koreans where treated as second class citizens and despised by their Japanese contemporaries.
I did not know that when Japan withdrew from Korea, the Koreans living in Japan suddenly stopped being Japanese citizens. I did not know that a number of them had originated from the north of Korea, and found themselves unable to go home.
I did not know that, until this day, a number of Koreans living in Japan are technically stateless. Even if their families have been there for a century. For more on this, I found this article to be helpful.
This book has shown me yet another way in which the North/South division is affecting Koreans in very real and ongoing ways. And not just in the Koreas themselves. It helped me to understand a little more about what it means to be displaced.
It also has not diminished my fascination, dare I say love, of Korea and her people and culture. If anything, it has grown. I sincerely hope to be able to visit sometime in the next five years, and hopefully more going into the future.
Did you know…
Pachinko is a Japanese game that is similar to Western pinball. Similar, but not the same. Works as a mechanical arcade game, but is used most commonly in gambling. Which is why the Baek family are not thought of particularly highly, despite their wealth.