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
In the aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing, Yoseb is struck and horribly burned by a falling wall from a nearby building. Hansu’s men finally track him down in the hospital and bring him to Tamaguchi’s farm on an American military truck. Kyunghee drops to her knees beside Yoseb’s stretcher when she sees his terrible condition, and everyone cries. Hansu gives her bandages and pain medicine with instructions on nursing him. Yoseb “had done everything he could for his family—this had happened to him because he had gone to work.”
Though Yoseb’s injuries are awful, he fares better than he likely would have if Hansu hadn’t tracked him down and rescued him from the conditions in Nagasaki. Still, there’s a terrible irony about the whole situation, as Yoseb is once again thwarted in his efforts to simply care for his family—something he’ll never be able to do again.
Themes
Yoseb suffers, and he’s in too much pain to contribute to the work on the farm. One day Hansu visits and finds Yoseb resting alone in the barn. Yoseb asks him, “You’re the father of the boy, aren’t you? […] That’s why you do all this.” He’s observed that, although Noa has all of Isak’s mannerisms, his face resembles Hansu’s. Yoseb tells Hansu that it’s wrong for him to be around Noa, when Isak has already given Noa a name. He hates Hansu, with “his unchecked confidence, reeking of a devilish invulnerability.”
With Yoseb’s matter-of-fact outlook on life, it’s not surprising that he would pick up on the truth about Noa’s parentage and confront Hansu about it. He despises Hansu because his wealth and position seem to protect him from the sufferings of ordinary people like himself.
Themes
Yoseb tells Hansu that they’ll pay him back for everything he’s done and that they’ll return to Korea. Hansu tells him that Japan will never pay him for his work, that the Japanese are “pathologically intractable” in these matters, and that there’s nothing left for them in Korea—“you’re living for a dream of a home that no longer exists.” He also tells Yoseb that both his and Kyunghee’s parents have been shot by the Communists, but it’s actually a lie—he hasn’t bothered taking the risk of tracking them down, because “he didn’t see how their lives could be useful for his purposes.” He knows Sunja might follow her brother- and sister-in-law back to Korea out of a sense of duty, given the chance.
Hansu tries to get Yoseb to see that the homeland they knew doesn’t exist anymore; it’s been wiped out by the bigger forces of war and imperialism, and their hopes have no purchase on reality. But he also cruelly cuts off one of their remaining ties to home by flippantly claiming that their families are dead. Hansu uses people and their circumstances as long as they’re useful for his own purposes (in this case, keeping Noa and Sunja within his reach). His conversation with Yoseb gives insight into the cruel depths of his character.
Themes
When Hansu coldly tells Sunja about the alleged fate of Yoseb’s and Kyunghee’s parents, Sunja finds him cruel and thinks that as she gets to know him, she realizes “that the man she’d loved as a girl was an idea she’d had of him—feelings without any verification.” Hansu says that since they can’t return to Korea, they need to start thinking about the boys’ education; he’ll pay for both to prepare for and attend Japanese universities. Sunja feels ashamed and powerless in her life, but Hansu tells her that refusing his help at this point is selfish, as she should be seeking every advantage for her sons.
Sunja sees Hansu’s coldness, too, and realizes her girlhood love of him had been based on a fantasy. She feels helpless, not wanting to take advantage of Hansu’s help, yet knowing there’s no good alternative for herself and her boys. Hansu smoothly manipulates this sense of helplessness and reinforces the impression that she has no other choices.
Themes
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