Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pachinko, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival and Family
Imperialism, Resistance, and Compromise
Identity, Blood, and Contamination
Love, Motherhood, and Women’s Choices
Summary
Analysis
A few years later, in 1953, Sunja can’t sleep and gets up in the middle of the night to make candy to sell. Yangjin joins her. Sunja is trying to earn extra money for Noa’s tutoring fees—he failed the entrance exam for Waseda University by just a few points. Between Noa’s bookkeeping job, the women’s food sales, and Changho’s contribution for room and board, they’re just barely getting by. Yoseb still won’t let them accept money from Hansu for Noa’s schooling.
Even with Noa’s scholarly achievements, the entrance exam for prestigious Waseda is rigorous, and the fees for tutors are high. Though the family is faring better than most, thanks to the women’s hard work and Hansu’s help in the past, things are still difficult. For Yoseb, refusing Hansu’s tainted help is one of the only ways he can still feel he’s exerting his authority within the household, since he’s unable to work.
Themes
The reports from Korea have been frightening—epidemics, starvation, and boys kidnapped by the army. Sunja knows that even with their struggles, they have a better life here in Osaka. Yangjin recalls the boardinghouse servant girls, Bokhee and Dokhee, and cries because she’s sure they were exploited by Japanese soldiers, and she could do so little for them. Sunja cheers her mother with memories of Hoonie and talk of her sons.
Sunja and her family must face the reality that the Korea they remember no longer exists. Yangjin is tormented by the thought that she wasn’t able to keep Dokhee and Bokhee safe; they haven’t been heard from since the war. Sunja and her mother are still able to bond over and draw comfort from their love of Hoonie and Sunja’s boys.
Themes
Mozasu hates school and struggles academically, stuck in a class of 10-year-olds even though he’s 13. Noa is finished with high school and works for the Japanese man who’s the landlord for most of the neighborhood. Though Noa could make more money working in a pachinko parlor, he prefers to work in a Japanese office and have a desk job.
Mozasu and Noa have very different experiences as they grow up, which impacts the development of their respective identities. Noa prefers to surpass society’s expectations and fit into Japanese culture as much as possible, avoiding work that’s seen as Korean and “dirty.” Mozasu comes to reject these expectations altogether.
Themes
Mozasu mostly keeps to himself at school, but when the other kids taunt him for being Korean, he often beats them up. He’s aware that he’s “becoming one of the bad Koreans.” Noa says that Koreans need to rise above all this, but “Mozasu just wanted to hit everyone who said mean things.” Mozasu has no intention of becoming a “good Korean” like his older brother.
The brothers’ attitudes toward the surrounding culture are established while they’re still young. Noa believes that if he rises above prejudice, he’ll finally be accepted. Mozasu refuses to play this game and survives by asserting his strength.
Themes
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One day a poor Japanese boy named Haruki joins Mozasu’s class. He’s rumored to be a burakumin, but he isn’t. He has a little brother with disabilities and was abandoned by his father, so people think his family is cursed. Haruki tries to fit in, but he’s treated like a “diseased animal.” Mozasu finally offers to sit with him at lunch, telling him it isn’t his fault that people dislike him. From that day forward, they’re good friends.
It’s not just Korean kids who suffer ostracism; Haruki’s home situation makes him a pariah even though he’s Japanese. Mozasu is drawn to his fellow outcast and persuades him not to play by the majority’s rules anymore.
Themes
