Review 585: Go

Go by Kazuki Kaneshiro
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This was not an enjoyable book for me. I disliked the main character, Sugihara through much of the book. But I kept reading as I haven’t read many Japanese books, and none where the main character is considered Korean. It’s a different life to explore.

Why I didn’t like Sugihara is mainly due to all the fighting. I’m much more for peace than fistfights. And fighting scenes are not what I want to read. When the book shifted to the girl Sugihara dates it became more pleasant for me, less fighting. But the ending, I did not like.

The book highlights prejudice and assumptions. Sugihara was born and raised in Japan. His father, however, was born in Korea. He left and settled in Japan. Both of Sugihara’s parents retain North Korean passports. There was a choice but his father was somewhat idealistic and chose the north, so his son was raised in the North Korean schools.

When Sugihara was about to enter high school his father wanted to visit Hawaii, which was impossible to do with a North Korean passport so he just switched to South Korean and was able to visit. This was a revelation for Sugihara, as he realized you can just switch your nationality and it means nothing. You are who you are regardless of which passport you hold.

What Sugihara has difficulty in accepting is the harassments for Korean people in Japan. How is he different than a Japanese as he was born and raised there? Why does Japan treat him like a foreigner? Interesting questions.

Since this book became a success in Japan when it came out over 20 years ago, one may hope there has been some changes. Although racism is hard to overcome in any country. Glad I read this despite my somewhat lack of enjoyment, still got something out of the book.