Pachinko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a story of a Korean family spanning over the 20th century as they grow through different world events, including The Depression Era, Imperial Japan, and the World Wars. This epic follows Sunja as she grows from a toddler into an old woman, focusing on her story and how her life influences that of her family. 

This story begins before the birth of the main character, we meet Sunja’s parents as they begin their family, Sunja is born and we watch her grow up in the early-mid 1900s. We see the impacts of the depression era that followed the First World War on their family-run business. The character Koh Hansu is introduced as an older man who begins to fall for young Sunja, they have a brief affair and she becomes pregnant. Passing minister Baek Isak marries Sunja and brings her to live with him, his brother Yoseb and his wife Kyunghee in Japan. Sunja and Isak eventually come to love one another and have a son of their own following Sunja’s firstborn. During the Second World War, Isak is arrested and eventually dies as a result of torture, Yoseb is injured while working in Nagasaki and is left disabled. The story then follows the different paths that the Baek sons Noa and Mozasu choose to take as they grow up, Noa pursues academics and Mozasu begins to work at a pachinko parlour. Noa dies as a result of his struggles with mental health and identity and the story follows his brother Mozasu as he works to become a millionaire and build his own family. What follows is the story of Mozasu’s family as he becomes a father, seeing the perspectives of his son, Solomon.

Part of what I believe makes a learning environment dynamic is the inclusion of different stories and perspectives. Learning about East Asian civilian perspectives regarding any global conflict is something that I did not see until I was out of high school and I read fiction and biographies on my own time. Hearing and reading these stories healed something in me that I did not know how to fix on my own. Learning histories that my ancestors shared with strangers made me feel more connected with them and my own humanity in general.

This text is valuable as a teaching text due to how it easily lends itself to cross-curricular teaching. Sunja and her family experience many hardships throughout each of their lives. The different characters and generations who readers get to follow add value to understanding perspective and can help to build empathy.

Part of building an empathic world means having an understanding of our history as members of humanity. Pachinko is a story of multiple histories and intertwining stories. There are so many different stories to be studied and examined for different reasons, each generation can be studied to see what they are experiencing and the social dynamics of the time. The oldest generation includes the characters Yangjin and Koh Hansu, they are older than Sunja and her peers, living through the First World War, the Age of the Depression, the Second World War, and Imperial Japanese occupation. 

Sunja is the main character of the book. The others in her generation include Isak, Yoseb, and Kyunghee. Through Sunja, Kyunghee, and Yangjin, readers are able to analyze the ways that womanhood impacts these characters and the experiences that encompass what it can mean to be a woman. From their love and loyalty to what they do for their families, readers can study what it means to be a woman with traditional family values in times of war. 

Noa and Mozasu are the third generation to be featured in the text. Readers can examine how they struggle with their identities as they grow, specifically Noa. Noa’s story is one identity crisis following another until his untimely death. The way that Mozasu finds success is through an alternative route. After Noa’s death, the story focuses mainly on Mozasu, his struggles, and his personal relationships with people. Analyzing some of these barriers and how Mozasu feels about his life can act as a contrast to Noa’s story. Solomon is Mozasu’s son, who grew up with remnants of Imperial Japan as a Korean boy. Readers can analyze the changes as Japan becomes more modern and globalization results in the mobility of those who can afford it.

It is an accessible text, as teaching this text using excerpts rather than a novel study could work quite well, different situations and characters can be read closely and studied within a historical context. Using the Historical Thinking concepts to teach with this text, mixing in outcomes from the English curriculum could result in a well-rounded plan. Using the historical thinking concepts to teach this text could enhance understanding of not only the historical context in which the story takes place but also the characters and text. The concepts that could be taught with this text are establishing historical significance, identifying continuity and change, analyzing cause and consequences, and taking historical perspectives. Students can examine the stories and histories by taking into consideration the rights and responsibilities one has during times of conflict. They can consider the gendered differences between Kyunghee and Yoseb as well as Isak and Sunja. Under this lens, students should also be aware of the lasting impacts of a war. The creation of borders and sovereign countries is one of the lasting impacts of wars that students can connect to any part of the world and at any point in our history.

There is a lot of value to teaching historical fiction texts in an English class. Historical fiction encourages readers to have an understanding of the historical context in which they take place, as well as empathy towards those who lived through historical events. Pachinko highlights the different experiences of a Korean family as they grow through the 20th century in Japan. Teaching this text in an interdisciplinary way makes the most sense, and as an English/History teacher, putting together concepts found in the English curriculum with historical thinking concepts and Global Issues seems to be a perfect fit for this text.