The Korean Japanese, or zainichi, in Pachinko struggle with their dual identity of being both Korean and Japanese in a country that, during the timeframe of the book, systematically stigmatized and discriminated against Koreans and Korean culture.

Noa thinks that the answer to this dilemma is to give up one’s dual identity and choose the “good” identity. He has learned that the definition of a good Korean is being a good Japanese, and hiding his stigmatized Korean identity as best he can: “As a child, he dressed like the wealthier Japanese and not like the ghetto children next door. Above all the other secrets that Noa could not speak of, the boy wanted to be Japanese” (176). Since many Japanese and Koreans have few physical differences differentiating them (thus emphasizing the artificiality of racial distinctions), it is not too difficult for Noa to pass as Japanese. When Noa learns that Hansu is his birth father, his monolithic thinking cannot allow him to see how both Isak and Hansu are his father. Rather than grapple with this complexity, Noa forsakes his family and is reborn as Japanese, conforming to the approved lifestyle.