Language
This Korean word "Eomma" is what Noa and Mozasu call Sunja.
What is mother?
Sunja grows up on a boardinghouse near the coast outside this major Korean city.
What is Busan?
The Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, which officially began colonial rule over Korea, was signed in this year.
What is 1910?
Sunja meets Isak because he falls ill with this condition.
What is tuberculosis?
The Japanese word zainichi, used to describe Koreans living long-term in Japan like the Baek family, translates to this in English.
What is “foreign resident” or “Korean living in Japan”?
After marrying Isak, Sunja’s first home in Japan is in this city famous for its merchants.
What is Osaka?
Under Governor-General Minami Jirō, harsh assimilation policies escalated, especially during this decade.
What is the 1930s?
Kyunghee and Yoseb originally move to Japan for this reason.
What is factory work?
Oyakata is the japanese word for this, which Mozasu later excels in.
What is “pachinko shop owner or manager”?
Noa later moves to this city to start a new job and new life.
What is Tokyo?
The forced name-changing policy called Sōshi-kaimei was implemented in this year.
What is 1939?
Noa stops going to school for a while after this family tragedy.
What is Isak’s imprisonment?
The Korean word hana, meaning this number, appears throughout Korean counting rituals and names.
What is one?
Hansu claims he can help Sunja because he has powerful business connections in this region of Japan.
What is Yokohama?
Under the authority of the National Mobilization Law, Japan began conscripting Koreans for labor starting in this year.
What is 1944?
Mozasu gets his first job at one of these establishments.
What is a pachinko parlor?
The Japanese word gaman, taught to immigrants and workers, means this type of emotional endurance expected during hardship.
What is “to endure patiently” or “to persevere without complaint”?
When the family must temporarily evacuate, they move to this rural area outside Osaka.
What is Ikaino?
After Japan’s surrender, General Douglas MacArthur oversaw the Allied occupation beginning in this year.
What is 1945?
During the wartime evacuation from Osaka, Sunja secretly sells this valuable household item to buy food for the family — an object Kyunghee doesn’t discover is missing until much later.
What is the sewing machine?