Behaviour of a Pro-Japanese Korean in YMCA Baseball Team

In the film, Ryu Kwang-tae’s father was a pro-Japanese official and for his political affiliation to the imperialist invaders, he was attacked by the anti-Eulsa 50. In the scene where the Japanese general, Nomura, talked of his plan on arresting Min Jeong-rim (the baseball coach) and Oh Dae-Hyeon (Jeong-rim’s love interest) for their opposition to the empire, we see Kwang-tae’s father doing his best to be in the favour of the Japanese general such as commenting on how Japanese tea tastes better than Korean tea. He and Ryu Kwang-tae consented to help the general in arresting the two conspirators even though Oh Dae-Hyeon was on the same baseball team as Ryu Kwang-tae. Kwang-tae, out of guilt, confessed this to the baseball team after he was able to lure Dae-Hyeon to the site of his arrest with an “I’m sorry”. Because of Kwang-tae’s father’s attachment to Japanese officers, he has been alienated by the Korean majority as we’ve seen in the funeral vignette, where Kwang-tae’s father was unwelcomed by the mourning Koreans as he accompanied General Nomura.

Kwang-tae’s father may been spurred on to assist the Japanese out of selfish desires as it appeared he enjoyed the privileges he got from helping the Japanese in developing the nation to how they wanted it. As Seo mentioned “high officials of the state, newly-promoted officials, middle-ranking professionals and secondary sons of yangban officials were mainly concerned with the maintenance of power and privileges and were primarily motivated by selfish considerations” (Seo, 96). YMCA baseball meant a lot to Kwang-tae, and when Hideo and his soldiers took away the baseball field, the father did nothing to have the field returned to the baseball team. Also when Kwang-tae called out “father” at the funeral, Kwang-tae’s father did not acknowledge the presence of his son in front of the Japanese, mainly because his son was standing among Koreans who were opposed to Japanese imperialist goals.