Who Is Hata Colonize In A Gesture Life

In A Gesture Life, the protagonist, Hata, seems to have good reputation in a small town called Bedley Run. He owns a beautiful house, is well respected in the community and is wealthy. However, he had experienced during war is hidden behind his seemingly peaceful present and that he has still remained in the aftermath of the traumatic experience around the war and the comfort woman, K. Also, Hata’s lifelong struggle to be part of the center turns out to be failure. In other words, he has kept denied his true identity as Korean, and tried to be center of the colonizer, Japan, and powerful country, America. With the memory of K’s death, has viewed himself as the colonized. According to Dobie text, there is an aspect of basic assumption of post-colonial theory, “colonizers not only physically conquer territories but also practice
However, Hata loses his new perspective of the national identity when Captain Ono points out his fragility that he depends too much on “generous fate and gesture” and has “no internal possession, no embodiment” (Lee 266). He chooses to remain loyal to his adoptive nation; nevertheless, he is transformed by K’s death. Hata mourns the death of K, a girl victimized under colonialism, in which he also was complicit. Since he has associated K with Korea, his native country, he feels that his national self is lost. He also cannot construct his national identity in Japan, which makes him an instrument of the colonial power. He makes a decision of immigrating to the United States. After he moves to America, he realizes that he is rooted to K and to his colonized home country. As he could not save K from death, not overcome his colonized experience, he feels guilty about his past and views himself in the position of K: the colonized, passive, and feminized. This unequal relationship with K prevents him from assimilating into mainstream American