Immigrants, the clash of poverty & wealth, war effects , adapting to new language, bullying, prejudice towards foreign newcomers, women inequality, struggless, pride, honor, achievements, losses, deep love of mothers, deep suffering..... The book "Pachinko is a great work of words with deep wisdom that could help us avoid the rejection of any kind of immigrant to foreign lands...
I felt their anguished and related to the characters of the story as a Mom, women and immigrant.... I could not help not to. Because to me, a story, becomes real although fiction, when you see yourself in the personality or ideals of characters. When is related to facts in history.
To read the 500 pages long Novel, filled with the history of Korean's daily battles to be accepted by Japanese, could open a door to being more humane.
Suffering, illusions, daily life hardships, and the constant struggle to prove one's humanity could help us all to be empathetic towards all kind of refugees and immigrants.
Anyone who has no idea, of how an immigrant feels in a foreign land, could learn by reading "Pachinko.."
I strongly recommend that we give this book to anyone who ignores the constant struggles of an immigrant. Perhaps their judgment and rejection towards newcomers will change.
I recommend this book to anyone who would like to embrace their multicultural background and has been told over and over that he or she has to honor only one country and forget their ancestry. "PACHINKO" should be read in schools so that children develope empathy and understanding about the feelings of newcomers to any foreign country.
The magnificent work that took the author Min Jin Lee 30 years to research, and eventually being published in 2017, teach us a great deal about the strength of women, the struggles and rejections of immigrants and the suffering and poverty of war.
Pachinko is so intensely humane, detailing the life of four generations of Koreans in Japan their dreams, their sorrows. 80 years of history from 1910 till 1989 that are not narrated in school. I recently talked to a Korean Mom who said till this day many things that happened to Korean are not acknowledge by Japan or the world.
Today I read in the Spanish description of the book online:
" After she followed a man who she knows barely to a hostile country where she has no friends neither a place to call home, Sunja's salvation is only the beginning of her story".
I thought of all of us Immigrants and how well we could relate to this sentence. Although many in America have had a different experience about being embraced. Not all of us experience that inclusion. live Some of us have experienced the constant hostility of prejudice....It is something we have to face when encountering a bully a racist, an ignorant. It does not mean that I have not meet educated, embracing of all Americans because I have. I have met very kind Americans who are capable of acknowledging the pain people endure when they are rejected, bullied, treated as different.
Junot Diaz called "Pachinko" a powerful meditation on what immigrants sacrifice to achieve a home in the world.
I could not agree more with the idea. There are sacrifices that immigrants do to become part of a Nation, some of those huge sacrifices are leaving behind the certain to go to the uncertain, letting go of stability and comfort of knowing well their environment...letting go of their own mother tongue and having to learn a foreign language.
I am not sure why many do not see how hard it is for adults to learn a new anything. With accent and all we should be embracing the efforts that all of us do to communicate. No more " you have an accent" remark, "Where are you from? Questioning, or the command
"Go back to your country" ....Immigrants are constantly threaten to loose their visas or status while working hard, paying taxes, adapting to a new culture, buying homes and building the economy of a Nation.
No one should mistreat immigrants in France, Mexico, Korea, China, the USA or any place in the world.
Humans are just trying to survive in this rat race world. We must develop empathy, we must open our hearts to the struggles of others. Not every one has the same story and if yours is of being welcomed, embraced, accepted for who you are; you are fortunate.
Let's use that fortune to make other humans feel the same comfort and welcoming you feel regardless where in the world you live or were born. We are all humans and want the same for us and our children.
Don't let your hearts ever hardening by an idea of superiority no matter how much you have achieved or how much wealth you have. No matter how of a celebrity you are, No matter what color you are.... We all deserve an equal opportunity to live without constant preoccupations....
Let us all relate to each other... I did relate to Sunja as a mother and women, as an immigrant doing the best she could to raise her children.
The chapter when she finally finds her beloved 1st born after 16 years without seeing him deeply hurted my heart, I could not avoid crying her loss. A boy who was kind and studied hard, a boy who was well behaved and always was told he was " a credit to his country". In spite of the goodness in Noa, he experienced constant bullying in school in spite of learning the Japanese language, Noa always was afraid of not being enough for the japanese. Discovering that his father was not the honest preacher he once knew devastated Noa's. Finding out his Father was a Yakuza, made Noa totally detached from being Korean although his mother gave him the korean culture, japanese society pushed him to deny his identity with so much prrjudice.... Noa was forced to live a double life, such a decision took him to end with his life.
The following a few very touching reflections of Noa:
[ She could not see his humanity, ( her college girlfriend) Noa realized that is what he wanted most of all to be seen as a human]
[ How can you make something clean from something dirty? It would have been better if i was never born, my blood is Korean and now i learn is Yakuza blood..
[It is so terrible to be Korean?
It is terrible to be me.
Rading " Pachinko" you will not comprehend how a child who has worked so hard to " fit in". Who learned the new language of the country perfectly well. A child who did all to be part of his new culture, how could he had been made to feel that he was not worth it.
As an Immigrant mom I don't ever want any parent to endure the loss of a child to prejudice and bullying. I never want a child to have to always try to be accepted while there is constant rejection no matter how much he tries. We must teach our children to embrace everybody and to learn that assimilating to something foreign does not come easy.
I related to Sunja's pain of having lost her son to the hate of a whole Nation towards another Nation. A hate that she was born into, and four generations later was still there. I refuse to accept that kind of hate in our lives and hope you do to....
" History has failed us. But no matter" the book starts with.....I understood as a Mexican- Immigrant that no matter what, we are part of the building of the history of a Nation. No matter what, we still part of humanity, we still did our best, we still adapted, learned a language which many don't dare to do, we have immersed ourselves to a whole new different way of living and for that we deserve the same respect that we give to others..
#loveistheanswer
I felt their anguished and related to the characters of the story as a Mom, women and immigrant.... I could not help not to. Because to me, a story, becomes real although fiction, when you see yourself in the personality or ideals of characters. When is related to facts in history.
To read the 500 pages long Novel, filled with the history of Korean's daily battles to be accepted by Japanese, could open a door to being more humane.
Suffering, illusions, daily life hardships, and the constant struggle to prove one's humanity could help us all to be empathetic towards all kind of refugees and immigrants.
Anyone who has no idea, of how an immigrant feels in a foreign land, could learn by reading "Pachinko.."
I strongly recommend that we give this book to anyone who ignores the constant struggles of an immigrant. Perhaps their judgment and rejection towards newcomers will change.
I recommend this book to anyone who would like to embrace their multicultural background and has been told over and over that he or she has to honor only one country and forget their ancestry. "PACHINKO" should be read in schools so that children develope empathy and understanding about the feelings of newcomers to any foreign country.
The magnificent work that took the author Min Jin Lee 30 years to research, and eventually being published in 2017, teach us a great deal about the strength of women, the struggles and rejections of immigrants and the suffering and poverty of war.
Pachinko is so intensely humane, detailing the life of four generations of Koreans in Japan their dreams, their sorrows. 80 years of history from 1910 till 1989 that are not narrated in school. I recently talked to a Korean Mom who said till this day many things that happened to Korean are not acknowledge by Japan or the world.
Today I read in the Spanish description of the book online:
" After she followed a man who she knows barely to a hostile country where she has no friends neither a place to call home, Sunja's salvation is only the beginning of her story".
I thought of all of us Immigrants and how well we could relate to this sentence. Although many in America have had a different experience about being embraced. Not all of us experience that inclusion. live Some of us have experienced the constant hostility of prejudice....It is something we have to face when encountering a bully a racist, an ignorant. It does not mean that I have not meet educated, embracing of all Americans because I have. I have met very kind Americans who are capable of acknowledging the pain people endure when they are rejected, bullied, treated as different.
Junot Diaz called "Pachinko" a powerful meditation on what immigrants sacrifice to achieve a home in the world.
I could not agree more with the idea. There are sacrifices that immigrants do to become part of a Nation, some of those huge sacrifices are leaving behind the certain to go to the uncertain, letting go of stability and comfort of knowing well their environment...letting go of their own mother tongue and having to learn a foreign language.
I am not sure why many do not see how hard it is for adults to learn a new anything. With accent and all we should be embracing the efforts that all of us do to communicate. No more " you have an accent" remark, "Where are you from? Questioning, or the command
"Go back to your country" ....Immigrants are constantly threaten to loose their visas or status while working hard, paying taxes, adapting to a new culture, buying homes and building the economy of a Nation.
No one should mistreat immigrants in France, Mexico, Korea, China, the USA or any place in the world.
Humans are just trying to survive in this rat race world. We must develop empathy, we must open our hearts to the struggles of others. Not every one has the same story and if yours is of being welcomed, embraced, accepted for who you are; you are fortunate.
Let's use that fortune to make other humans feel the same comfort and welcoming you feel regardless where in the world you live or were born. We are all humans and want the same for us and our children.
Don't let your hearts ever hardening by an idea of superiority no matter how much you have achieved or how much wealth you have. No matter how of a celebrity you are, No matter what color you are.... We all deserve an equal opportunity to live without constant preoccupations....
Let us all relate to each other... I did relate to Sunja as a mother and women, as an immigrant doing the best she could to raise her children.
The chapter when she finally finds her beloved 1st born after 16 years without seeing him deeply hurted my heart, I could not avoid crying her loss. A boy who was kind and studied hard, a boy who was well behaved and always was told he was " a credit to his country". In spite of the goodness in Noa, he experienced constant bullying in school in spite of learning the Japanese language, Noa always was afraid of not being enough for the japanese. Discovering that his father was not the honest preacher he once knew devastated Noa's. Finding out his Father was a Yakuza, made Noa totally detached from being Korean although his mother gave him the korean culture, japanese society pushed him to deny his identity with so much prrjudice.... Noa was forced to live a double life, such a decision took him to end with his life.
The following a few very touching reflections of Noa:
[ She could not see his humanity, ( her college girlfriend) Noa realized that is what he wanted most of all to be seen as a human]
[ How can you make something clean from something dirty? It would have been better if i was never born, my blood is Korean and now i learn is Yakuza blood..
[It is so terrible to be Korean?
It is terrible to be me.
Rading " Pachinko" you will not comprehend how a child who has worked so hard to " fit in". Who learned the new language of the country perfectly well. A child who did all to be part of his new culture, how could he had been made to feel that he was not worth it.
As an Immigrant mom I don't ever want any parent to endure the loss of a child to prejudice and bullying. I never want a child to have to always try to be accepted while there is constant rejection no matter how much he tries. We must teach our children to embrace everybody and to learn that assimilating to something foreign does not come easy.
I related to Sunja's pain of having lost her son to the hate of a whole Nation towards another Nation. A hate that she was born into, and four generations later was still there. I refuse to accept that kind of hate in our lives and hope you do to....
" History has failed us. But no matter" the book starts with.....I understood as a Mexican- Immigrant that no matter what, we are part of the building of the history of a Nation. No matter what, we still part of humanity, we still did our best, we still adapted, learned a language which many don't dare to do, we have immersed ourselves to a whole new different way of living and for that we deserve the same respect that we give to others..
#loveistheanswer
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