A Gesture Life

Kkutaeh, referred to as K by Hata, is the daughter of a Korean ambassador who, along with her older sister, is sold into sexual slavery for the Japanese army during World War II. Though she is beautiful, she attracts the attention of the camp’s doctor, Captain Ono, and Jiro Kurohata, because of her intellect. Though Hata hopes for them to be married and reunited after the war, K does not believe there is a life for her after the war and is tired of dreaming. She asks for Hata to kill her time and time again to save her from this life that she knows she cannot escape. She does not believe Hata truly loves her and that he is just like the rest, wanting only sex. Hata has non-consensual sex with Hata twice while she is in isolation, after which she cries and sits aloof as though hiding from the place and time. Hata does not realize her lack of consent and instead believes his kindness and love for her make him deserving of physical intimacy. In her last moments, she is gang raped to the death by soldiers in the same clearing where Endo mercy-killed her sister. When given the chance to have her killed and thus save her from a worse death, Hata fails to prove his love to her and must face the handling of her remains, where he also finds a small fetus.

K’s imaginary spirit torments Hata throughout his life, returning to him enrobed in a black flag. She asks Hata to move on from his precious home in Bedley Run, hoping they will one day visit the places he promised they would. It is clear that as long as Hata keeps up the life of gestures and reputation, he will be unable to face the truths of his past and truly experience emotions. His experiences with her serve as the formative event of his life, pushing him to forever be on guard of emotions and come to hate his own passivity and decorum as the cause of her death and his inability to form real relationships.

Sunny Hata is Hata’s adoptive daughter. Hata adopts her at the age of 7 as a means of atonement for being unable to save K, his love from the war. From the very start it seems that Sunny senses Hata’s displeasure in her—she is not from the kind of family that he had desired and is of mixed race. Though he provides Sunny with every luxury she could imagine and pressures her to excel at school, music, and sports, he never expresses true love for her and remains distant and passive. Mary Burns criticizes Hata for acting as though he once hurt Sunny and is indebted to her, rather than being an actual father. Though she plays the piano beautifully, Hata is disappointed in her less than perfect performance, driving a wedge between the two.

As a teenager, Sunny uses her beauty to her advantage and acts overconfidently and rudely with authority figures like Officer Como. She intentionally rebels against Hata’s perfect image. After leaving, Sunny returns home after a year, Hata insists on Sunny having a dangerously late abortion, after which she disappears for good. His insistence reflects his denial of K’s pregnancy. When Hata meets her again, she is a mature, well-rounded 32-year-old woman who manages a large clothing store at the mall and has a six-year-old son named Thomas. Hata is pleased with her management abilities, stating that she has become what any father could only hope for his daughter to be. Though she still does not wish to return to Bedley Run, she slowly allows Hata to enter Thomas’s life. She doesn’t let Hata tell Thomas that he is his grandfather, but she trusts Hata enough to let them spend time together. When Thomas almost drowns while under Hata’s care, she doesn’t accuse Hata and instead displays an affectionate, filial allowance towards her father, suggesting she has some emotional attachment to him. Hata plans to place the title of the store under her name once he sells his house as one last favor from him before he moves away.

Mary Burns is an American neighbor of Hata’s in Bedley run. The widow of a doctor now living alone, she is attracted to Hata and begins a relationship with him while Sunny is a preteen. She makes efforts to be a mother figure to Sunny, who does not accept her and pushes her away. Despite her best efforts, Hata is never able to fully express his love and affection for her, dooming their relationship from the start. Their relationship ends by slowly dying out, as Hata never truly invests in emotions with her. Hata never sees her at the end, but he wishes he could have been by her side during her death. Even after her death, Hata passes by her old house, imagining the daily happenings that would have taken place there 25 years ago and mourning that his house was never blessed with the same liveliness. It is through Hata’s dispassionate, passive relationship with Mary that it is made clear just how much Hata keeps his emotions and those he loves at an arm’s length, forever afraid of losing love as he did K.

Captain Ono is a mercenary doctor of the Imperial Army camp that young Hata is stationed in Burma. He performs grotesque surgeries on captives and is regularly abusive to his soldiers, beating them almost to death. When he expresses a singular interest in K, he asks Hata to isolate her. Captain Ono decides on a black flag as a signal to prepare K for “examination,” a belittling choice in regard to Hata’s adoptive family name. K is afraid of Captain Ono and doesn’t know what he is planning for her—he regularly lays her down and examines her naked body.

Captain Ono sees Hata for what he is—he is unconvinced with Hata’s love for K. He claims his interest in K is due to her high bloodline. He is one of the first to confront Hata for his lack of substance and internal possession, telling him that he relies too much on generous fate and gesture. Captain Ono tells Hata that K was pregnant before even he or the commander could take their pleasure, and she is telling him stories and lying about meeting after the war. He also tells Hata that when she is no longer important to him, he will hand K over to Hata to do whatever he wishes. After beating Hata unconscious, he tells K he will spare Hata if she gives her life for his, which she knew he already has. K kills Captain Ono and asks Hata to tell the others what she did, wanting to face a quicker death than the terrible fate she would be faced with otherwise.

Hata sells Sunny Medical Supply to Mr. and Mrs. Hickey. Even after selling the property, he stops by on a daily basis to help them run the store until Mr. Hickey expresses his displeasure in his presence and asks to be allowed to run the store themselves. Years later, Hata sees the store falling into ruin, the display unchanged and the store seemingly deserted. The Hickeys are in debt, and the property is about to go into foreclosure. Their son, Patrick, is in the PICU in need of a heart to survive. Though he never gets to know them too personally, Hata seems drawn to them time and time again over the years.

Mrs. Hickey dies one night in a car accident, after which Mr. Hickey fractures his leg during her burial. Though Hata tries to avoid being seen, Mr. Hickey mockingly demands that no one but Hata touch him or treat him. After selling his house at the end of the story, Hata plans to buy out Mr. Hickey’s mortgage, place the store in Sunny’s name, and set up a line of funds for Patrick’s treatment. Though Hata’s interaction with the Hickeys is formal and unattached, it seems that they are some of the few people to recognize the façade of doctor Hata’s reputation. 

Corporal Endo is a young soldier in the Imperial Army alongside Hata. He becomes dangerously obsessed with pornographic pictures and seems overly interested when the comfort women arrive at the camp. However, he immediately decides he will not visit the comfort women, offering Hata his token for safekeeping. After witnessing the Commander forcing himself on one of the comfort girls, K’s sister, Endo mercy-kills her the next morning. Endo is charged not with murder, but for treasonous actions against the corps. K is thankful for what Endo did, believing that her sister is in a better place than this forced sexual slavery. The novel hints that Endo was mentally disturbed, as other soldiers tease Hata that he is Endo’s psychiatrist. 

Officer Como is a police officer in Bedley Run who lost her husband when her daughter, Veronica, was an infant. Hata vouches for her when she applies to become an officer, after which she becomes indebted to him. She returns the favor by parking her cruiser in front of Sunny Medical Supply over the years to keep away racist petty vandals. Officer Como also confronts Sunny for her inappropriate behavior and bad company in front of the store, in the moments before Sunny first leaves home. During Hata’s stay at the hospital, her daughter Veronica works as a candy striper and gives Hata company. He is pleased to see the kind, lively young woman Veronica grew up into even without a father.

Sunny tells Hata that Officer Como is bound to Hata because of the favor he did for her. His burdening kindness and gesture for Officer Como is just one example of the way Hata uses his life of gestures for favors in return and to build his reputation. Over the years, it is only Officer Como who knew that Sunny left home and kept an eye on her for Hata’s sake. She tells Hata when she sees Sunny at Ebbington mall and a picture her son, Thomas, 13 years after she left home for good.

Olivia Crawford is the overeager real estate agent who desires to sell Hata’s well-kept and in demand house. Liv is an industrious worker who pays attention to detail. She acknowledges that his house is the best in town and tries continuously to have Hata meet potential buyers. Olivia is showing a couple Hata’s home from the outside when his living room catches on fire. She then saves him from the fire and helps to restore the house to immaculate, pristine, and classic condition. As Hata recovers, she sends meals over to him, caring for him as if she has adopted him.

Olivia was in an on and off relationship with Hata’s Indian friend, Renny Banerjee. After Hata is hospitalized, Renny is reunited with Olivia and they are soon engaged. The two ask Hata for his blessings and consider him their only elder, having lost their parents.