cunong answers “History has failed us, but no...”

Emily asked this question about Pachinko:

History has failed us, but no matter. What does this first line mean in the context of the book?

cunong During her lecture in Radcliffe Insitute in 2019, Min Jin Lee said this: "I am arguing that history has failed almost everybody. Because in order for …moreDuring her lecture in Radcliffe Insitute in 2019, Min Jin Lee said this: "I am arguing that history has failed almost everybody. Because in order for history to work--in an order for historians to chronicle the lives of people, they need to have primary documents and artifacts. And if they cannot, they cannot record that history. So, it's not that the historians don't care. As a matter of fact, I'm always arguing because I've interviewed so many historians, they're among the most enlightened people that you can find in the field. However, they can only work with what they have, because they have to go based on evidence. That said, most of us in the whole wide world are not important enough to leave documents or to have our lives recorded in real time. And therefore, how is a historian supposed to think about us? Those of us who are illiterate, those of us who are less powerful, those of us who don't have powerful connections or money. So I'm saying that history has failed us. All of us, in that sense."

We know that Min Jin Lee interviews lots of Korean during her stay in Japan as a part of her research for Pachinko. Sunja and her family might be fictional, but the hardships and oppression that they faced is very real for Korean people living in Japan, especially to first generations who migrated there.(less)

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