[Lee Jong-gil's Film Reading] The Zainichi Life Without Choices, Seonja Who Endured the Turbulence of History

Keywords to Watch in Apple TV+’s ‘Pachinko’
Deprivation of Rights Including Health Insurance, Life Without Home or Employment
Community United by Nationalism...Ignored Amid Korea-Japan Hostility
Solomon’s Growth Through Understanding and Harmony with Sunja to Escape the Past

The Apple TV+ series Pachinko depicts the turbulent family history spanning four generations, centered around Sunja (Kim Min-ha, Youn Yuh-jung). She is a woman born in Yeongdo, Busan during the Japanese colonial period who moves to Osaka, Japan. Amid the whirlwind of rapidly changing history, she struggles fiercely to protect herself and her family.

The trajectory of suffering essentially represents the life of Zainichi Koreans (Koreans or Joseon people residing in Japan) who have no real choices but fight to overcome their circumstances. This resembles the unpredictable nature of how a pachinko game unfolds. Sunja’s second son, Mozasu (Park So-hee), explains while adjusting the pachinko pins.

"Most people think that if you pull the lever well, the pachinko will hit the jackpot, but actually, customers cannot control the outcome. Neither can we. Adjusting the pins isn’t about manipulating probabilities. It’s just a slight movement. But ‘Don’t be greedy’ was Mr. Goto’s catchphrase. When customers lose, we feel the pain with them, and when they win, we rejoice together."

In reality, few people empathized with the lives of Zainichi Koreans. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Koreans in Japan were stripped of Japanese nationality, and all basic rights were declared to belong only to citizens. Zainichi Koreans could not benefit from national health insurance or pension systems established in 1961. Because they were not Japanese, they could not rent houses, find employment, or become public officials. South Korea’s attitude was no different. Non-fiction writer Lee Beom-jun revealed in his book Japanese Empire VS Zainichi that "South Korea followed Japan’s stance exactly."

"South Korea learned nationalism created by Japan through its colonial experience. While many countries including the U.S. use ‘People’ as the subject of their constitutions, South Korea, like Japan, uses ‘citizens.’ Both Japan and South Korea originally had ‘People’ in their drafts. They changed it to ‘citizens’ to require nationality as a condition for human rights."

The communities of Japanese or Koreans operate strongly but their boundaries are unclear. This is because they are imagined communities educated for political purposes. Scholars call this an ‘imagined community,’ and its mode of operation is called nationalism. In Japan and Joseon, nationalism was formed antagonistically and exclusively through the colonial period. They strengthened by mutual hostility, and Zainichi Koreans were isolated at that boundary. Their number reaches about one million, roughly 1% of Japan’s total population.

A refugee is someone who has no country to protect them or is in a state where they cannot receive protection from any nation. In France, those without documents issued by any country are called ‘Sans Papier.’ This concept opposes that of citizens. Zainichi Koreans are not refugees living in tents in deserts, but in the sense that they were released from the promise of state protection, they are refugees. Suddenly losing nationality meant losing various rights as well. With all kinds of discrimination and abuse, there were few things they could do. This is the background for Mozasu’s entry into the pachinko business. In the original novel by author Min Jin Lee, Sunja’s grandson Solomon (Jin Ha) hears the following from his Japanese boss Kazu.

"Koreans don’t have many opportunities to do ordinary jobs. Your father must have chosen pachinko because he had no other options... Honestly, I doubt if I should even hire you. In many parts of Japan, Koreans still aren’t hired as teachers, police officers, or nurses. Even though you earn a lot, you can’t rent a room in Tokyo. Damn 1989!"

Japan’s bubble economy peaked in 1989. On December 29 of that year, the average stock price reached a historic high of 38,915 yen. In Tokyo, land prices rose sharply due to the revival of commercial districts amid internationalization. With financial easing policies added, financial institutions lowered lending thresholds and competed fiercely. Banks affiliated with old conglomerates, which had many major clients, were in a favorable position. Conversely, other financial institutions faced management difficulties. Facing limits, they sought various breakthroughs and welcomed the bubble and financial easing policies as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This intensified lending competition and increased total money supply, leading to even more bubbles.

Solomon, who worked at Citibank in New York, tries to ride this massive wave to realize his personal ambitions. He comes to Tokyo with the condition that if he succeeds in the struggling hotel business, he will be promoted to vice president. The reason he is desperate for promotion is to escape the past that binds him. Pachinko focuses on his process of communicating with the past and establishing his identity. Returning home after a long time, Solomon unconsciously plays a boat song he learned from his grandmother as a child on the piano. It was a song sung by a man lodging at their boarding house who was taken away by Japanese police. Solomon does not know the background. He only recalls memories of being born a Zainichi Korean and experiencing discrimination and contempt.

Pachinko sets this background around the time of Emperor Showa’s death. Immediately after, many in Japan believed that the postwar era had completely ended. The concept of postwar is not limited to the temporal meaning referring to the period after 1945. It also denotes a kind of value space characterized by democracy, pacifism, and economic growth, distinct from the prewar militarism.

As historian Carol Gluck described as the ‘long postwar,’ Japanese society was long placed under conditions created by defeat and the Cold War order. Within this special value space, Zainichi Koreans fought not only for physical reconstruction but also against discrimination and oppression, establishing a new identity. This process cannot be narrated simply as success or recovery. Pachinko captures and embraces still unhealed wounds and presents new coordinates of spirit through the understanding and reconciliation of Sunja and Solomon...

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.