Noa and Mozasu

The annotated map highlights locations in which Noa and Mosazu spent their lives.

Noa and Mosazu are second-generation zainichi who grew up with the same customs, but feel differently about their ethnic identity. Noa, an academic, feels pressured to adopt Japanese culture to pursue his dreams and ultimately dreams of having been born Japanese. He excels in Japanese academics and is in pursuit of educating others in Japanese schools, until he discovers he is the son of a Korean gang leader, he feels his heritage is tainted beyond redemption and ends his life. Mosazu faces discrimination in school due to his inability to excel in Japanese academics and eventually withdraws from school. Despite this, he feels pride in his Korean identity and ignores discriminatory acts. He pursues a career in the management of pachinko parlors and lives comfortably despite the discourse around his career, which is viewed in a negative light. 

Noa exemplifies a completely assimilated zainichi. Although he grows up in a Korean household, he attends Japanese school and adopts Japanese customs. Once he stumbles upon an obstacle that seems to have no remedy, he pretends to be Japanese. He creates a fake identity using a variation of his Japanese name “Nobuo Ban” (instead of “Nobuo Bando”). With the pseudonym, he (literally) furthers himself from Korea, successfully gaining the benefits of being Japanese: no discrimination, marriage, lucrative employment, and housing. With the possession of two ethnic names, Noa spent his entire life haunted by almost being Japanese (Tablizo 105). His whole life, he was almost something he wanted: almost the best student and almost employed. Noa says, “I will never be able to wash this dirt from my name” (Lee 311). Lee uses Noa to show the hopelessness some zainichi feel in Japan. They believe that the solution to their hopelessness is to naturalize as Japanese at the cost of their family. Noa represents zainichi that are willing to sacrifice every (Korean) thing they know to obtain the freedom they crave, the freedom to be recognized for their accomplishments or losses for their doing as a person rather than because it was pre-conceived by their heritage.

In contrast, Mosazu accepts being an “other” in Japanese society. He proudly builds up his own pachinko parlor and acquires enough wealth to elevate his family’s standard of living. Although he accepts South Korean nationality–the less burdening option–he does not feel Korean, nor does he feel Japanese. He may have identified with the South for convenience, as the relationship between Japan and North Korea was tense (Htun 7). Mosazu says, “We (Mozasu and Solomon) have no motherland” (Lee 395). Mosazu was born in Japan, making the nation his motherland, but Japanese society shuns him from society for having Korean heritage. His Korean ties are only his mother and aunt, who raised him with Korean customs. As he grows up and raises Solomon, he unintentionally furthers himself away from Korea, having embraced a relationship with a Japanese woman, therefore practicing more Japanese customs. Additionally, he was shunned in Korea for being Japanese. If he is shunned from both places he is supposed to belong to, where does he belong to? As Huang puts it, Mosazu is a “Keroan Japanes,” some outside variant in two mono-ethnic societies (136).