Review of “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee

Mr. Obama highly recommended this book. Many of my friends did so too, and I finally finished reading it. If you read it, you will know where I am from. The main character, Sunja, reminded me of my grandmother who died at the age of 99. I think 97% of the factual descriptions of the book are accurate, which is commendable given that the author is a Korean American born in the US. She has spent 30 years on research until she completes this book.

The book reminded me of many things, for example:

The below are, in my opinion, the typical responses by Korean Japanese to the situation:

I think I belonged to #2 above, but at some point, I realized that I was not free because my mindset was still trapped by the dogma that the winner can oppress losers. I now believe that the best response or retaliation to oppression or discrimination is to forgive the oppressors and live well and fully. Forgiveness is not tolerance toward misconduct. We can fight against injustice while forgiving the oppressors. If I were to write a novel on Korean Japanese, I would like to write about it.

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Founder & CEO, Gojo & Company, Inc.

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