Jini's Puzzle / Choi Sil: What are we making 'invisible'?
Jini is a girl on the verge of being expelled from her high school in Oregon. After meeting Stephanie at her homestay, Jini begins to confess what happened in Tokyo five years ago.
After attending a Japanese elementary school, Jini started attending a Korean school in middle school. As the only one in the school who couldn't speak Korean, she struggled to find her place. What she found particularly unacceptable were the portraits of the Kim family looking down on them in the classroom.
On the last day of summer vacation in 1998, a Taepodong missile was launched. The next day, while walking through town in her chima jeogori, Jini was surrounded by men claiming to be police...
Reading "Jini's Puzzle"
No matter what our nationality is, first and foremost, we are all human beings, we have all lived the same way, and we are all living in Japanese society in the same way—.
Jini uses her own life to teach us about the state of Japanese society—things that are invisible, or that we are trying not to see, and how cruel it can be.
The choice to "become a child"
The sight of Jini choosing to "become a child" while holding a mop was, above all else, cool.
For a child to be "childlike" is unexpectedly, or rather, quite difficult. I look back and think about how much I tried to act like an adult when I was her age.
Jini looked dazzling to me. But the background to that radiance is complex. The things a single girl is trying to resist by being childlike, and the reasons behind them, are far too massive. Is it something that can be changed by the power of one child? It links up with the words thrown at Jini in the novel.
Even so, I felt a sense of beauty in Jini's way of fighting, which could also be taken as violent.
When I was little, for some reason, I was told that what those above (adults) said was correct, and I lived my life without questioning anything.
Even if I had thoughts inside me like, "But isn't that wrong?", they were overwritten by the "correctness" of adults before I could even think about them.
Could I become Jini? Could I have become her?
I couldn't, I probably wouldn't have been able to.
The novel contains descriptions of the inside of a Korean school. Although these are areas rarely depicted in novels, as you can tell from the background that the author, Choi Sil, actually attended a Korean school, the descriptions are strikingly vivid.
The falling sky
How can I accept the "falling sky," which is also a keyword?
Jini tried to save herself by "catching" it.
What exactly is the "falling sky"? Is it just her "dark past"? The sky changes. The sky is always above. For Jini, what is the sky?
My thoughts are not coming together.
Left in limbo
In the end, Jini might have been able to forgive herself through Stephanie's words.
However, the 'great thing' that Jini wanted to fight against remains in limbo.
Including that sense of 'helplessness',
is it implying that she caught the falling sky (the unchanging reality, the unchangeable past)?
Thinking about it that way, Jini choosing to 'catch' it,
surelymeans not running away, not denying itdoesn't it?
It might not be changeable. But she accepts it as her own. She takes on everything—her own past, the absurd reality surrounding her—and lives on.
The division of North and South, Korean schools, organizations...
The environment surrounding Zainichi Koreans is far too complex,
and I wonder how Japanese society can face this issue.
The existence and past that Japanese society is trying to exclude as 'invisible things'.
The work 'Jini's Puzzle' teaches us the cruelty of a society that tries to look away.
At the same time, we must not think that the conflicts and problems depicted here are 'special'. This is not just a problem for Zainichi Koreans. The discriminatory structure universally inherent in Japanese society, the existence and problems that are made invisible—these are vividly brought to the surface through one girl named Jini.
What are we making 'invisible'?
Who are we treating as 'non-existent'?
Isn't Jini's question also a question for each and every one of us?
'Jini's Puzzle' was also a candidate for the Akutagawa Prize.
The review by Amy Yamada, one of my favorite authors, caught my eye.
"The writing is too rough. Especially the metaphors. Why such exaggerated personification?" "There are countless flaws. However, it also has immense power. The author's passion, which had to be written, comes through."
Honestly, I'm such an amateur when it comes to writing techniques that I don't really know, or rather, my impression was just that it was 'easy to read'. (A simple observation)
However, I really resonated with the words, 'However, it also has immense power. The author's passion, which had to be written, comes through,'
and I believe this work was meant to be written.
Next, I'll read'Pray Human' (Choi Sil) | Kodansha'.