Discrimination in Pachinko

I think one of the more important meanings in Pachinko is the effect of oppression against the oppressed. Throughout Pachinko, the Koreans are oppressed by the Japanese, whether it is by being forced in ghettos, in the workplace, or just through their hate. The main characters of the novel continuously get discriminated against by being Korean and we can see the impacts, especially in a character like Noa.


Noa was continuously bullied by the Japanese in school to the point of forsaking his identity and hating the fact he was Korean. He did not associate himself with anything Korean and hated his blood. When he finds out his dad is the “worst type of Korean”, he runs away from home and hates himself for his blood. When his parents eventually find him, he kills himself. The discrimination and hate of Koreans that his classmates had impacted him so much that he would rather kill himself than potentially let his new family of his wife and kids know he had a yakuza father.


Another impact is Soloman’s birthday visit to get his fingerprint. At such a young age Soloman was forced to get his fingerprint taken by the Japanese which Etsuko notices is oppressive. It is Soloman’s birthday and he had to celebrate in such a bad way.


The last impact I want to talk about is how Mozasu was essentially forced into the Pachinko business because Koreans would almost never get hired by Japanese in any other type of business. As Pachinko’s were often run by Koreans such as Goro, Mozasu’s employment is another impact of the discrimination or at least hatred that the Japanese have for Koreans.


Comments

  1. Monique Cov.March 17, 2023 at 10:38 AM

    Hey Paulos, the different forms of Korean oppression by the Japanese was one of the greatest lesson and meanings within the novel. Those are some great relationship between Noa getting bullied in school that has impacted his entire life. Noa is a character who wasn't particularly angry about always getting picked on like Mozasu was, but he expressed his discontent by trying to prove to the world, to the Japanese, that he is able to go up in society and show that Koreans aren't lazy and terrible people. But once he realizes that the odds were stacked against him from the very beginning, he completely changed his approach.

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  2. Jalen PaigeMarch 17, 2023 at 7:58 PM

    This was something I saw too, Paulos. The way that Koreans were discriminated against was honestly tragic to read and not something I had been familiar with at all before reading the novel. I think that discrimination is sort of made out to be endless. The end of the book sees Solomon facing the same sort of racism that his entire family before him faced, with little change. I don't know if it was intended to feel so cynical, but it did feel that way. I thought that maybe this was the novel's way of pointing towards family as a means of acceptance rather than society.

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