In Pachinko, Min Jin Lee’s novel of a Korean family’s intergenerational struggle to survive under Japanese colonialism, many characters display remarkable ingenuity and grit in their efforts to thrive in hostile circumstances. From a remote turn-of-the-century fishing village to wartime Osaka, characters make decisions about business, marriage, religion, and self-identity which don’t just impact the individuals involved, but shape subsequent generations for good or ill. Though her central characters have various ambitions and even look at “survival” differently, they are all motivated by devotion to family; through this, Lee argues that even apparent “failure,” when pursued out of love for others, can represent enduring success.
Sunja learns from the struggles of her thrifty forebears—especially her grandparents and her own parents, Hoonie and Yangjin—seeing that it’s possible to achieve success even in the midst of difficult circumstances. After Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910, rent becomes unaffordable, so Hoonie’s parents move out of their bedroom in order to make space for more lodgers in their home. Because of their thrift and resourcefulness, they are able to establish a prosperous boardinghouse even as much of Korea grows poorer; as a result, even Hoonie, who has a cleft palate and twisted foot, is able to make a respectable marriage because of his family’s relative wealth. By the time the Depression hits Korea in the 1930s, Hoonie’s wife, Yangjin, is a 37-year-old widow who must learn to “handle money, deal with her suppliers, and say no to terms she did not want […] [she was] no longer the shoeless teenager” who’d arrived on the boardinghouse doorstep to be Hoonie’s bride. When she can’t raise the rent for her struggling boarders, she stretches meals out of the household’s meager food supplies. Her daughter, Sunja, watches and emulates her mother’s practices while she grows up, preparing her to take similar initiatives when she’s on her own. From generation to generation, the family at the center of the novel passes down the idea that one can craft a successful life even in times of hardship through a combination of frugality and resourcefulness.
Sunja’s husband, Isak, and Isak’s brother, Yoseb, represent different kinds of ambition and approaches to survival. Isak, a Christian missionary from Pyongyang, has lost his older brother, Samoel, who was brutally mistreated by Japanese police after participating in an uprising against colonialism. At that time, Isak “decided […] that he would live a braver life.” In later years, however, “bravery” for Isak looks like quietly surrendering his life for his loved ones, ensuring they’re able to build a legacy that outlasts his own lifespan. After Yangjin and Sunja nurse the frail man back to health in their boardinghouse, and Isak learns of Sunja’s pregnancy and disgraced position, he decides to ask her to marry him. To a fellow pastor, he explains, “This is what I can do for them: give the woman and child my name. What is my name to me? […] Maybe my life can be significant—not on a grand scale like my brother, but to a few people.” Isak has never expected a long or conventionally successful life, but he can use what little he has—his status as a man with a “name” to bestow—to make someone else’s future more hopeful. After Isak is imprisoned for disrespecting the Emperor and finally comes home on the brink of death, he tells Sunja that “my life wasn’t important.” In a moment of characteristic humility, he doesn’t think about his rescuing Sunja from disgrace, but about his adoptive son and Sunja’s labors to support the family in his absence. Because Isak doesn’t see his survival as ultimately important, he is content to see that his family has the means to thrive after he is dead; to him, his family’s survival and the legacy that will go on after him is the most important kind of survival one can strive for.
Though he, too, was affected by his brother Samoel’s martyrdom, Yoseb takes the inverse lesson from it—that surviving so as to support one’s family is the most important thing. Yoseb thinks that, no matter whether Japan or China prevails in the current war, Koreans will be caught between them; “so save your own ass—this was what Koreans believed privately […] let your kids learn Japanese and try to get ahead. Adapt. Wasn’t it as simple as that?” After Isak is jailed, Yoseb reflects that he doesn’t “see the point of anyone dying for his country or for some greater ideal. He understood survival and family.” Yoseb works long hours at a thankless job so that his wife and nephews have the chance to survive, adapt, and “get ahead.” In other words, Yoseb’s survival is critical to his family’s.
When Yoseb sees his brother’s ravaged body after Isak is released from prison, he says in anguish, “My boy, couldn’t you just tell them what they wanted to hear? Couldn’t you just say you worshipped the Emperor even if it isn’t true? Don’t you know that the most important thing is to stay alive?” Isak’s resistance is the opposite of Yoseb’s outlook on survival, so his brother’s sacrifice seems pointless to him. Both men uphold the importance of a family’s survival, but Isak didn’t see his own survival as critical to that goal, whereas Yoseb believes himself to be a stronghold that is helping his family to survive and even thrive.
After Yoseb receives devastating burns in the aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing, he’s embittered—“he was a man who had done everything he could for his family—this had happened to him because he had gone to work.” He finds himself stuck in a horrible impasse: “the only thing [he] had wanted to do was to take care of his family, and now that he was helpless to do so, he could not even die to help them.” The irony is that he had earlier told Isak that “staying alive” was the most important goal, but now he believes that neither living nor dying will help his family. Despite Yoseb’s bleak conclusion, the novel implies that if it hadn’t been for his persistence, his family would never have survived this long in hostile Japan.
Pachinko contains many other models of striving for survival, like the gangster Hansu’s black market dealings and Sunja’s son Mozasu’s efforts to overcome prejudice by accumulating wealth. However, the success of later generations invariably builds on the resourcefulness of Sunja and her family, the sacrifice of Isak, and the faithfulness of Yoseb. Although each of these characters have different conceptions of and approaches to survival, they all prioritize helping others and see other people’s survival as just important as their own, if not more so. And though many of these characters appear to “fail” in their quest for success—after all, Isak dies and Yoseb loses hope—the novel argues that because helping others was always their primary goal, their failures should actually be viewed as successes.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Survival and Family ThemeTracker
Survival and Family Quotes in Pachinko
History has failed us, but no matter. […]
In 1910, when Hoonie was twenty-seven years old, Japan annexed Korea. The fisherman and his wife, thrifty and hardy peasants, refused to be distracted by the country’s incompetent aristocrats and corrupt rulers, who had lost their nation to thieves. When the rent for their house was raised again, the couple moved out of their bedroom and slept in the anteroom near the kitchen to increase the number of lodgers.
“Sunja-ya, a woman’s life is endless work and suffering. There is suffering and then more suffering. It’s better to expect it, you know. You’re becoming a woman now, so you should be told this. For a woman, the man you marry will determine the quality of your life completely. A good man is a decent life, and a bad man is a cursed life—but no matter what, always expect suffering, and just keep working hard. No one will take care of a poor woman—just ourselves.”
“The widow told me about her daughter only yesterday. And last night before my evening prayers, it occurred to me that this is what I can do for them: Give the woman and child my name. What is my name to me? It’s only a matter of grace that I was born a male who could enter my descendants in a family registry. If the young woman was abandoned by a scoundrel, it’s hardly her fault, and certainly, even if the man is not a bad person, the unborn child is innocent. Why should he suffer so? He would be ostracized. […] Maybe my life can be significant—not on a grand scale like my brother, but to a few people. Maybe I can help this young woman and her child. And they will be helping me, because I will have a family of my own—a great blessing no matter how you look at it.”
Isak’s silence worried Yoseb.
“The military police will harass you until you give up or die,” Yoseb said. “And your health, Isak. You have to be careful not to get sick again. I’ve seen men arrested here. It’s not like back home. The judges here are Japanese. The police are Japanese. The laws aren’t clear. And you can’t always trust the Koreans in these independence groups. There are spies who work both sides. The poetry discussion groups have spies, and there are spies in churches, too. Eventually, each activist is picked off like ripe fruit from the same stupid tree. They’ll force you to sign a confession. Do you understand?”
Sunja cried out, “Kimchi! Delicious Kimchi! Kimchi! Delicious kimchi! Oishi desu! Oishi kimchi!”
This sound, the sound of her own voice, felt familiar, not because it was her own voice but because it reminded her of all the times she’d gone to the market as a girl—first with her father, later by herself as a young woman, then as a lover yearning for the gaze of her beloved. The chorus of women hawking had always been with her, and now she’d joined them. “Kimchi! Kimchi! Homemade kimchi! The most delicious kimchi in Ikaino! More tasty than your grandmother’s! Oishi desu, oishi!'' She tried to sound cheerful, because back home, she had always frequented the nicest ajummas. When the passersby glanced in her direction, she bowed and smiled at them. ''Oishi! Oishi!”
Did Koreans want Japan to win? Hell no, but what would happen to them if Japan’s enemies won? Could the Koreans save themselves? Apparently not. So save your own ass—this was what Koreans believed privately. Save your family. Feed your belly. Pay attention, and be skeptical of the people in charge. If the Korean nationalists couldn’t get their country back, then let your kids learn Japanese and try to get ahead. Adapt. Wasn’t it as simple as that? For every patriot fighting for a free Korea, or for any unlucky Korean bastard fighting on behalf of Japan, there were ten thousand compatriots on the ground and elsewhere who were just trying to eat. In the end, your belly was your emperor.
“What else can we do but persevere, my child? We’re meant to increase our talents. The thing that would make your appa happy is if you do as well as you’ve been doing. Wherever you go, you represent our family, and you must be an excellent person—at school, in town, and in the world. No matter what anyone says. Or does,” Isak said, then paused to cough. He knew it must be taxing for the child to go to a Japanese school. “You must be a diligent person with a humble heart. Have compassion for everyone. Even your enemies. Do you understand that, Noa? Men may be unfair, but the Lord is fair. You’ll see. You will,” Isak said, his exhausted voice tapering off.
“Yes, appa.” Hoshii-sensei had told him that he had a duty to Koreans, too; one day, he would serve his community and make Koreans good children of the benevolent Emperor.
“How did I know that you needed work? How did I know where Noa goes to school, that his math teacher is a Korean who pretends to be Japanese, that your husband died because he didn’t get out of prison in time, and that you’re alone in this world. How did I know how to keep my family safe? It’s my job to know what others don’t. How did you know to make kimchi and sell it on a street corner to earn money? You knew because you wanted to live. I want to live, too, and if I want to live, I have to know things others don’t. Now, I’m telling you something valuable. I’m telling you something so you can save your sons’ lives. Don’t waste this information. The world can go to hell, but you need to protect your sons.”
“I’m a businessman. And I want you to be a businessman. And whenever you go to these meetings, I want you to think for yourself, and I want you to think about promoting your own interests no matter what. All these people—both the Japanese and the Koreans […] keep thinking about the group. But here’s the truth: There’s no such thing as a benevolent leader. I protect you because you work for me. If you act like a fool and go against my interests, then I can’t protect you. […] You lived with that farmer Tamaguchi who sold sweet potatoes for obscene prices to starving Japanese during a time of war. He violated wartime regulations, and I helped him, because he wanted money and I do, too. He probably thinks he’s a decent, respectable Japanese, or some kind of proud nationalist—don’t they all? He’s a terrible Japanese, but a smart businessman. I’m not a good Korean, and I’m not a Japanese. […] So I’m not going to tell you not to go to any meetings or not to join any group. But know this: Those communists don’t care about you. They don’t care about anybody. You’re crazy if you think they care about Korea.”
Mozasu knew he was becoming one of the bad Koreans. Police officers often arrested Koreans for stealing or home brewing. Every week, someone on his street got in trouble with the police. Noa would say that because some Koreans broke the law, everyone got blamed. On every block in Ikaino, there was a man who beat his wife, and there were girls who worked in bars who were said to take money for favors. Noa said that Koreans had to raise themselves up by working harder and being better. Mozasu just wanted to hit everyone who said mean things.
Mozasu couldn’t imagine being so quiet all the time; he would miss the bustle of the pachinko parlor. He loved all the moving pieces of his large, noisy business. His Presbyterian minister father had believed in a divine design, and Mozasu believed that life was like this game where the player could adjust the dials yet also expect the uncertainty of factors he couldn’t control. He understood why his customers wanted to play something that looked fixed but which also left room for randomness and hope.
Hansu did not believe in nationalism, religion, or even love, but he trusted in education. Above all, he believed that a man must learn constantly. […] It thrilled him that Noa could read and write English so beautifully—a language he knew was essential in the world. Noa had recommended books to him, and Hansu had read them, because he wanted to know the things his son knew.
The young man’s extraordinary scholarship was something Hansu knew he had to nurture. Hansu was not sure what he wanted Noa to do when he graduated; he was careful not to say too much, because it was clear that Noa had some of his own ideas. Hansu wanted to back him, the way he wanted to back good business plans.
He believed that she’d been foolish for refusing to be his wife in Korea. What did it matter that he had a marriage in Japan? He would have taken excellent care of her and Noa. They would have had other children. She would never have had to work in an open market or in a restaurant kitchen. Nevertheless, he had to admire her for not taking his money the way any young girl did these days. In Tokyo, it was possible for a man to buy a girl for a bottle of French perfume or a pair of shoes from Italy.
“It is hopeless. I cannot change his fate. He is Korean. He has to get those papers, and he has to follow all the steps of the law perfectly. Once, at a ward office, a clerk told me that I was a guest in his country.”
“You and Solomon were born here.”
“Yes, my brother, Noa, was born here, too. And now he is dead.” Mozasu covered his face with his hands.
Etsuko sighed.
“Anyway, the clerk was not wrong. And this is something Solomon must understand. We can be deported. We have no motherland. Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt. My boy has to survive.”
Why did her family think pachinko was so terrible? Her father, a traveling salesman, had sold expensive life insurance policies to isolated housewives who couldn’t afford them, and Mozasu created spaces where grown men and women could play pinball for money. Both men had made money from chance and fear and loneliness. Every morning, Mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes—there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? Etsuko had failed in this important way—she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.
“Go-saeng,” Yangjin said out loud. “A woman’s lot is to suffer.”
“Yes, go-saeng.” Kyunghee nodded, repeating the word for suffering.
All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer—suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother, die suffering. Go-saeng—the word made her sick. What else was there besides this? She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she’d drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the conditions of his birth.
[…]
Noa had been a sensitive child who had believed that if he followed all the rules and was the best, then somehow the hostile world would change its mind. His death may have been her fault for having allowed him to believe in such cruel ideals.
