Second season of 'Pachinko' explores challenges for ethnic Koreans in Japan

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The second season of “Pachinko,” opening Friday, delicately captures the plight of ethnic Koreans brought to Japan during colonial rule and their descendants, exploring themes of home and identity through several generations.

The award-winning series, based on the New York Times bestselling novel, returns to Apple TV+ with eight episodes that follow four generations of an immigrant Korean family living in Japan since before World War II. The star-studded cast includes Oscar-winning actor Youn Yuh-jung and Korean actor Lee Minho.

Many ethnic Koreans were brought to Japan, often forcibly, to work in mines and factories during the country’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea. They were treated as second-class citizens and faced discrimination, which the series portrays.

Youn, who plays the older version of protagonist Sunja, said she was largely unfamiliar with the situation of ethnic Koreans in Japan — known as Zainichi Koreans — before she spoke with actor Soji Arai, who plays Mozasu, the son of her character. Arai was born into an ethnic Korean family in Japan.

“It broke my heart and I cried inside because I felt so bad after hearing about their stories,” Youn told The Associated Press.

The second season continues Sunja’s story as she struggles to feed her sons Noa and Mozasu during the war.

In the series, ethnic Koreans face discrimination generation after generation. In one episode, a Japanese worker at a wartime Nagasaki factory refers to his Korean colleagues as “roaches” that “keep multiplying.”

Decades later, Sunja's grandson Solomon nearly explodes at a Japanese store clerk whom he thinks is showing discrimination over his grandmother's Korean heritage. He senses that discrimination will follow him even after attaining academic and professional credentials.

The series is in Japanese, Korean and English with subtitles and is based on Korean-American author Min Jin Lee's novel, titled after a Japanese game played in arcades where ethnic Koreans often worked in jobs typically shunned by Japanese.

Youn said she portrayed Sunja as “intimidated, scared and feeling small,” believing discrimination is her fault due to endless exposure to it. Youn added that she has felt similarly in her own life, having an “inferiority complex” over her struggles with the English language.

Around half a million ethnic Koreans sill live in Japan. Although many have become naturalized Japanese citizens, about half a million have not and are officially considered foreigners.

Executive producer and showrunner Soo Hugh said she was “nervous” about how the show would be received among Zainichi Koreans, but that she was happy to learn that it had resonated “really emotionally."

“This is their story,” she told the AP, adding that she had to unlearn previous history education to understand “from the point of view of the people on the ground,” including those in Nagasaki.

When Youn was asked if she was concerned about playing a role in a series touching on sensitive parts of East Asian history, Youn said no. “We are talking about the past,” she said. “I am not a politician, so it doesn’t matter to me.”

Hugh said the series gradually transitions from the family’s day-to-day survival to answering big questions about their shifting identities: “What does it mean to live a good life ... knowing that Japan is now my home?”

These are familiar questions to Hugh, who is Korean American.

“So many Korean immigrants come to America and think, ’We’ll make a better life, but I’m not going to die in America because Korea is my home. ... You know, a year goes by, then a year, another year, and then another year,” Hugh said.

“It must feel really sad to know that you’re not going to die where you want to die. And that’s, I think, something so many of our characters confront in this show," she said.

Youn said that people will always carry their identity with them despite circumstances. “I see many people who try their best to erase (their Korean identity),” she said. “I really don’t like that. There is no need to do that.”

“Pachinko” season two is available on Apple TV+ platforms.

Lee Min-ho, from left, Minha Kim, and Jin Ha participate in the Apple TV+ drama series "Pachinko" season two cast photo call at The Whitby Hotel on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

Michael Ellenberg, from left, Theresa Kang, Soo Hugh, and Lindsey Springer participate in the Apple TV+ drama series "Pachinko" season two cast photo call at The Whitby Hotel on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

This image released by Apple TV+ shows Yuh-Jung Youn in a scene from "Pachinko." (Apple TV+ via AP)

BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.

“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.

The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.

“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”

After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.

Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.

The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.

Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.

“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”

James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”

Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)