Yumi - Japan and Korea

        In addition to Yumi's quote from page 295 showing how unfortunate she feels for being Korean, all of the Korean characters throughout Pachinko face horrible discrimination from society once Japan has colonized Korea. Yumi describes being Korean as a "horrible encumbrance", which is why she would never live in Korea. She also does not want to live in Japan, which was like a "beloved stepmother who refused to love [her]". Other than showing that she doesn't want to live in either Korea or Japan and wants to move to California, I feel that this quote also shows that the Japanese made Koreans feel ashamed for being Korean. Through discrimination in the colonized society, Koreans began to wish they weren't Korean, making them feel more detached from their homeland, similar to how Yumi feels. This same society idealized the Japanese and the Japanese 'way of life', which is why Yumi describes Japan as a a"beloved stepmother". She continues but describes the stepmother image of Japan as "refus[ing] to love [her]" due to the discrimination Koreans faced in Japanese society. I found it very interesting but saddeneing that the Japanese colonization of Korea led to a declining self image for Koreans, which in addition to increasing tensions between Korea and Japan led to more Koreans being ashamed of their identities at the time.