Pachinko

Solomon and Phoebe take the train to visit Solomon’s family. Mozasu, Kyunghee, and Sunja welcome them warmly. They talk about food, and Phoebe tells the women that her mother never cooked, which the women find shocking. Phoebe also describes how multicultural her family is: “I have aunts and uncles by marriage who are white, black, Dutch, Jewish, Filipino, Mexican, Chinese, Puerto Rican, and let’s see, there’s one Korean American uncle and three Korean American aunts. […] Everyone’s mixed” (450). The women are curious as they continue to cook. They then ask the couple when they are getting married, which causes Solomon to leave, joking that he needs to “talk man stuff with Dad” (451).

As they chat, Solomon asks Mozasu if he knows Sonoko Matsuda, the owner of the property who refuses to sell to his company’s client for a golf course. Mozasu promises to ask his former boss, Goro, who is no longer in the pachinko business and is now doing real estate. Solomon then asks his father why he doesn’t retire; Mozasu replies that he’s too young and also that he worries about his older workers and their livelihoods.

Goro talks to Matsuda and finds out that the only reason she didn’t sell is because she didn’t want to sell to the Japanese. But she agrees to sell to Goro, who will then sell it to Kazu’s client. Solomon is excited to tell Kazu, who tells him, “Excellent work, Jedi. I can always spot a winner” (454).

Solomon visits Hana in the hospital. She is infected with AIDS and covered with lesions. She has only a few weeks to live. Solomon urges her to go to the United States for more advanced treatments but Hana tells him that she is ready to die. She tells him how much she loved him but that he was too good for her, saying, “I’m not a good person” (456).

When he returns to the office, Kazu tells Solomon that he must fire him. The client who sold her property to Goro has died, and he implies that Solomon’s father and Goro may have had something to do with her death: “The client is very spooked, dude. The client wanted to develop a country club; they weren’t looking for a run-in with the yaks” (459). Solomon protests that his father and Goro did nothing to the woman; in fact, Goro has always been “doing good things for poor people quietly” (460). This protestation changes nothing, however, and Human Resources arrives to escort Solomon out of the building.

Solomon goes directly to Yokohama to see his father and Goro. He tells them what has happened at work. They are as shocked by the news as Solomon, who tries to reassure them that he can get another job.

Solomon then goes to see Hana and tells her what has happened. She advises him to forget about banking and to take over his father’s business. She tells him that the Japanese will never change; Koreans will never be integrated. She compares his situation to her own: she, too, will never be integrated back into “good” Japanese society: “Japan will never take back people like my mother back into society again; it will never take back people like me” (467). She then tells Solomon that his father, grandmother, and great-aunt visit her at the hospital, praying for her and helping her to be comfortable: “I don’t understand the Jesus stuff, but it’s something holy to have people touch you when you’re sick” (468).

When Solomon tells Phoebe what has happened at work, she tells him that she never liked Kazu and his frat-boy ways. She asks him to move with her to the United States, where he can get a job. He can become a citizen by marrying her. When Solomon doesn’t respond, she begins packing; she is ready to return to the US without him. She leaves the next day.

When Solomon tells his father about Phoebe and his desire to work in the pachinko business, Mozasu protests, telling him that he should try to get back together with Phoebe and live in the United States. He does not support Solomon’s desire to work in pachinko, adding that “[n]o one is going to look down at my son” (474). But Solomon is resolute about his decision, wanting to start learning about the business right away.

On the first of the month, Sunja visits Isak’s grave. She cleans the grave and uses the time to talk to her dead husband, saying, “Solomon lost his job with that foreign bank, and now he wants to work with his father. Imagine that?” (477). She is embarrassed when she thinks the groundskeeper hears her conversation. But when she sees the pictures of her children on her key ring, she starts to cry, and the groundskeeper comes over to offer tea. He then tells her that Noa also used to visit the grave regularly: “He told me to read good books and brought me translations of the great British author Charles Dickens” (479).

After he leaves, Sunja digs a hole and buries the photographs of her children beside the grave.