by Min
Lee
This is the story of four generations of Koreans living
either in Korea under Japanese occupation or in Japan as second class
citizens. Hoonie, a Korean boy with a
cleft palate and a limp, the only surviving child of blank and blank is
betrothed to Yangjin the fourth of four girls in a peasant family. She has no money and his family runs a
boarding house with a little garden.
They do not own the boarding house.
They lease it and provide room and board to three Korean fishermen who
work the shores of their island. Yangjin
becomes pregnant four times but only carries her fourth pregnancy to term and
the child survies into adulthood. Sunja,
their child is only 13 when her beloved father Hoonie dies. Though Hoonie has physical defects, he was
literate and quite intelligent. Yangjin
continues to run the boarding house and support her daughter during the
Japanese occupation of Korea. The Koreans
are looked down upon by the Japanese and deprived of many civil rights. Sunja has an affair with a financially
successful Korean named Hansu.
Unbeknownst to her he is married.
Hansu truly loves Sunja, but he cannot offer her marriage when she
becomes pregnant. Isak who was traveling
through their island on the way to Osaka, Japan was referred to the boarding
house by his brother, Yoseb. Isak is ill
with TB, but Yangjin accepts him as a boarder and allows him to stay until he
is well enough to continue his travels.
He is a devout Christian minister and is on his way to work as a
minister in a Christian church in Osaka.
Isak is a kind, ethical person and of a higher class of people than
Yangjin’s typical boarders. He is
learned and literate. When Sunja finds
out she is pregnant and that Hansu is married she breaks with Hansu
immediately. Yangjin arranges for Sunja
to marry Isak to give her child a name and a father. It was not a match made in heaven, but they
marry and become quite fond of each other.
Isak is always sick and the job he has taken comes without any
compensation. Sunja and Isak move in
with Isak’s brother and his wife, Kyunghee.
Yoseb went into debt to pay Isek’s passage to Osaka. He works in a factory for a Japanese business
man and though he is often mistreated and exploited considers himself lucky to
have such a good job. Most Japanese will
not employ Koreans who are considered dirty, conniving, unreliable, and
lazy. It is true they are poor b/c of
the bias against them. So many avenues
of income are foreclosed to Koreans.
Kunghee and Yoseb have no children of their own and look forward to the
birth of Sunja’s child. The two families
live together in a tiny house. Kunghee would
like to take a job, but Yoseb has forbid it.
In their culture it is unseemly for a married woman to work. Still Kunghee makes a marvelous Kimchi. She talks Yoseb into allowing her to prepare
it in their tiny kitchen so that Sunja can sell it in the market. It is successful and later picked up by a
local restaurant. They become suppliers
to the restaurant. Next they try a candy
making business. They prepare the candy
in their kitchen and sell it in a stall in the market place near the train station. This is how Sunja supports her family.
Her first child Noa is born.
He is named after the biblical figure “Noah” and the name is given a
Japanese language treatment. When Noa
is about six, Sunja gives birth to a boy, Mosesu who is biologically the
offspring of both Isak and Sunja. Noa is
never made aware of the fact the Isak is not his biological father. Unbeknownst to Sunja and the reset of the
family, Noa’s biological father, Hansu pops in and out of their lives to assure
them of a decent income. Sunja will not
knowingly accept his help b/c she is still hurt and angry that Hansu had an
affair with her and never told her he was already married and had three
daughters. When debt collectors come to
call on Yoseb, Sunja takes the gold pocket watch Hansu had given her when they
were seeing each other and pawned it. Yoseb is angry, but they are finally out
of debt. Toward the end of the war Yoseb
is employed in Nagasaki, an opportunity Hansu arranged unbeknown to the
family. Yoseb suffers a horrible injury
with burns that won’t heal and he returns to the family. They struggle to pay for his medicine and
treatment. He is in constant terrible
pain. Noa is a very good student and he
aims to attend a highly competitive and expensive Japanese university named
Waseda. Though the family cannot afford
tutors and coaches for the entrance exam, Noa finally succeeds in passing the
test and gaining admission. It is hard
for Koreans to get into the school. Now
the family must find a way to pay for it.
Out of desperation, Sunja turns to Hansu. He promises never to tell Noa where his
tuition money came from, but he pays the tuition and Noa’s living
expenses. Noa has a luxury
apartment. He begins meeting Noa for a
MEAL ONCE A MONTH. He purports to be his
benefactor. Noa does not notice how much
he looks like Hansu. Noa is having an
affair with one of the prettiest Japanese girls at school. She wants to meet the benefactor and begs to
attend one of the dinners. Noa rejects
the idea. Finally, she surprises them
both by following Noa and showing up at the dinner. Noa is angry.
Afterword she shares her observation that he must be Noa’s biological
father b/c they look so much alike. He
is at the end of his 3rd year in school. He returns home suddenly to confirm what his
girlfriend suspected. He realizes his biological father is a Yakuza boss
instead of the mild mannered clergyman, Isak, who he believed was his father.
When Sunja admits as much, in shame Noa leaves school. He takes a job and begins paying back Hansu
all the tuition and living expense money.
He lives as a Japanese man, marries a Japanese woman with whom he has
three children and cuts off all ties to his family. They do not even know where he is. His wife does not know of his background or
that he is Korean.
After more than 10 years Hansu finds Noa and takes Sunja to
his office. Noa has a good job that is not offered to Koreans. Hansu advises Sunja not to try to see him and
to just observe from afar. She doesn’t
listen to him. She goes into his office
and they talk. He is shocked by her
visit. He is cordial and invites her to
spend time with him and meet his family.
The very next day he kills himself.
He was in a terrible quandary. He
would have had to tell his wife that he was Korean and had a family. This was a shame with which he could not
live. Sunja is shattered and moves to
Osaka to help care for her grandson, Solomon, who is Moses child. Moses is a successful Pachinko boss and is
able to send his son to Columbia University in the U.S. There he meets a Korean American girl,
Phoebe. Moses wants his son to work for
one of the big investment banks. He does
not want him working in the Pachinko parlor business which is looked down upon
by the Japanese. The son returns to work for a large Japanese investment bank
with his girlfriend in tow. He has often
heard the phrase that behind every successful Korean family is a Pachinko
business somewhere.
Meanwhile Solomon completes his education at Columbia in
NYC. Wishing to return to Japan, he
takes a job with a British investment bank in Tokyo. Phoebe, accompanies him. His boss Kazu includes Solomon in many
extracurricular activities appearing to like and respect him. Kazu needs to obtain a piece of land owned by
an elderly Korean woman to complete a deal for a client. He has had no luck, because the woman won’t
sell to the Japanese. Goro a family
friend induces her to sell to him and sells it to Kazu for the price he paid
earning no money on the deal. A few days
later the old woman dies. Even though
neither Goro nor Moses are Yakuza, Kazu suspects that they are Yakuza and that
something untoward happened to her as a result.
He owns the property but no longer wants to make the deal. He fires Solomon who returns to his family.
Phoebe realizing that Solomon will not marry her leaves him and returns to the
states. In spite of the fact that
Solomon has a solid gold education, the Japanese still look down on him because
he is Korean. He decides to work instead
in his father’s Pachinko business. While
Moses is disappointed that his son will no longer be in the prestigious field
of investment banking, he is proud that Solomon has respect for him and the
business he built without a formal education beyond the first two years of high
school.
Sunja visits Isak’s grave.
The cemetery master informs her that for years Noa visited the grave
every month in secret. Sunja is
surprised by this.
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