Clara answers “What did you make of Koh Hansu versus...”

Phoebe asked this question about Pachinko:

What did you make of Koh Hansu versus Yoseb? For much of the book, I couldn't quite understand why there was such uncomplicated hatred for Hansu. Most likely, he saved everybody's life, multiple times and in multiple ways. It is only toward the end that the author includes a very vivid example of his brutality, which I imagine was deliberate––maybe to shame anyone for feeling tacitly supportive of him?

Clara I also prefer Hansu over Yoseb, and I have to agree that Yoseb annoyed me a lot throughout the novel with his stubbornness and strong conservative, pa…moreI also prefer Hansu over Yoseb, and I have to agree that Yoseb annoyed me a lot throughout the novel with his stubbornness and strong conservative, patriarchal way.
However, I think the hatred towards Hansu is based heavily on the fact that he is related to yakuza (Japanese word for mafia).
The word yakuza follows with a very strong connotation for everything bad - brutal, shameless, dirty, filthy, inhuman, violent group of people who'd do anything for money and power with no moral sense.
Yakuza during the war time heavily exploited Koreans, the weakest minority (and probably Japanese too). There is a strong historically based hatred towards Japanese, and yakuza, but I think the feeling can get even worse towards Korean yakuza - mix of hatred and resentment stemming from feeling betrayed as well (because, despite coming from the same country, they are exploiting their own people).
Sunja's family has a relatively high moral standard, especially considering the fact that they went through such a of brutal time when morality can be easily thrown away for survival.
In contrary, Hansu has built his career and reputation starting from helping his father-in-law's money lending business (brutal to any poor people who needed to borrow money), and moving onto being part of yakuza. As a poor boy from Jeju, with no family support, it is obvious that he probably had to take every possible opportunity and immoral activities to build his wealth and power in Japan.
Despite the fact that Hansu helped out Sunja's family immensely, it would have been hard to accept his support with pure gratitude knowing where his status came from. (less)

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