Richard E. Kim is a young Korean boy growing up in a town near the Manchurian border under Japanese colonial rule. Despite his youth, he possesses a strong sense of justice and feels the suffering of his people intensely. He serves as a natural leader among his peers at school and frequently attempts to reconcile his family's relatively privileged status with the severe hardships faced by his classmates.

Mr. Kim is Richard's father and a prominent, relatively wealthy landowner who operates a vast apple orchard. Having previously been imprisoned for anti-Japanese resistance during his college years, he is widely respected as a quiet hero among the local Korean townspeople. He is patient and pragmatic, heavily burdened by his generation's inability to halt the Japanese occupation but determined to prepare his son for the future.

Mrs. Kim is Richard's mother, hailing from an artistic and deeply religious family. She is a nurturing, steady presence in the Kim household who provides emotional stability during times of intense political turmoil and frequent police harassment. She is fiercely protective of her children and possesses a quiet strength that carries the family through moments of intense fear and uncertainty.

Richard's paternal grandfather is the respected patriarch of the Kim family. He is a traditional man who observes patrilineal customs and openly mourns the cultural erasure forced upon his lineage by the occupying government. He deeply respects his son's community standing and helps initiate Richard into the male circle of the family.

Richard's paternal grandmother is a traditional woman who equates access to food directly with safety and survival. Having lived through leaner times, she insists on packing Richard white rice for lunch to ensure his physical strength, inadvertently causing him deep social shame among his poorer, starving classmates.

Richard's six-year-old younger sister. She is a playful presence in the household who occasionally uses her brother's social embarrassments, like his daily white rice lunches, as leverage in standard sibling teasing.

A young Korean man working within the Japanese public school system. He is caught in the painful middle ground of colonial occupation, forced to instruct his students in Japanese while secretly maintaining loyalty to his Korean heritage. He is physically brave, possessing a black belt in Yoodo, but feels emotionally tormented by the political compromises he must make to keep his job.

A thin, poetic Japanese teacher who oversees Richard's class. Unlike many of his colleagues, he possesses a degree of historical self-awareness and empathy, recognizing the sheer cruelty of the Japanese cultural erasure. He occasionally steps outside of strict imperial doctrine to treat his Korean students with a measure of humanity.

A large, initially rude boy in Richard's class who quickly transforms from an antagonist into a friend. After witnessing Richard's singing and the subsequent teacher fight, he organizes a group of boys to visit Richard at home, showing a capacity for rapid childhood bonding.

A local bookstore owner and an educated peer of Mr. Kim. He is fiercely proud of his Korean culture and openly critical of Koreans who compromise with the Japanese authorities, viewing them as traitors to their language and shared heritage.

A brutal and authoritarian Japanese gym teacher. He embodies the physical cruelty of the colonial regime, demanding absolute obedience and reacting with severe, disproportionate violence when Richard questions his contradictory orders.

A Japanese police inspector who intervenes to stop the brutal physical abuse of Richard at the school. He reveals himself to be an acquaintance of Mr. Kim and Richard's uncle, acting as a mitigating influence against the more extreme elements of the local Japanese authorities.

Mr. Kim's brother, who serves as an army officer in Manchuria. Though largely off-screen early in the narrative, his military position provides the family with a mix of anxiety and valuable political leverage, as his high status is known to both the Korean community and the Japanese police.