Week 8: A Imposed Bigotry

    Relating to lifestyle, the quote I have chosen is “The Japanese think Koreans are filthy, but they have no choice but to live in squalor” (Lee 119). This quote is a frustrating one, in the sense that people are judged for issues imposed onto them by a powerful government. Japan annexed Korea and kept the Koreans into low-income ghettos, with little support from the government and Japanese police that hardly listened to the Korean’s complaints, if they could even understand it due to the language barrier. 

    It is even more frustrating in scenes where certain characters are somewhat ambiguous in terms of race, and the demeanor of the Japanese people interacting with them changes from positive to negative once they realize that they are Korean. Even when they clearly aren’t “dirty,” they are judged as such due to preconceived notions. Lee definitely includes this to showcase the illogical and unfair bigotry at hand, and the way that human psychology can change if the society around them is of a higher standard than another. Despite not knowing their background or sometimes if they are Korean or Japanese from appearance, knowing that they are Korean at heart is enough for someone to look at that person and dehumanize them, mentally categorizing them as “lesser.” When that mindset is spread across the society and to people in power, that leads to bigoted oppression as seen in the novel. 

Comments

  1. Paulos HabtewoldMarch 8, 2023 at 1:53 AM

    Hi Andrew, I agree with your post, The best way to keep bigotry going is to force the oppressed group into a bad position. By forcing Koreans into ghettos, the Japanese provided reasoning, although it's horrible and bigoted, to why Koreans are worse than Japanese and are "dirty" as they live in a dirty environment that they were forced into.

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