In every respect of the word, Kichijiro should not be a likeable character. After all, he's an alcoholic and a coward. However, it is precisely because of these qualities that make me like him so much. After all, these characteristics make him more human, as opposed to your typical traitorous, backstabbing character. Everything that he does is reasonable, and any other person in his shoes would likely do the same.
Let's start with his alcoholism. It's clear that he drinks to forget something, and obviously it's to wash away the feeling of guilt that he has after he betrayed his whole village. He is wracked with a case of survivor's guilt, and he clearly resents the fact that he alone escaped execution.
His cowardice is also understandable. In a world of martyrs, Kichijiro is not ready to die, and is therefore more willing to renounce his faith in order to save his own skin. In fact, the very line that made me like Kichijiro in the first place was this one in the first chapter: "When the eyes of the Chinese overseer were upon him he made a show of working with all his might, but when the overseer went away he immediately began to idle." I have also experienced this in my life, such as when I was doing workouts for football in high school. We all didn't like working out so we would just go through the motions of working out until a coach started watching us, which is when we started to take it seriously; at least until the coach left. Because of this, I find Kichijiro to be really relatable and is the reason why I find him to be such a great character.
In the end, it's just my own opinion but I really like Kichijiro as a character.
Edit: Commented on AnnaKate's and Abbie Hedden's posts
Let's start with his alcoholism. It's clear that he drinks to forget something, and obviously it's to wash away the feeling of guilt that he has after he betrayed his whole village. He is wracked with a case of survivor's guilt, and he clearly resents the fact that he alone escaped execution.
His cowardice is also understandable. In a world of martyrs, Kichijiro is not ready to die, and is therefore more willing to renounce his faith in order to save his own skin. In fact, the very line that made me like Kichijiro in the first place was this one in the first chapter: "When the eyes of the Chinese overseer were upon him he made a show of working with all his might, but when the overseer went away he immediately began to idle." I have also experienced this in my life, such as when I was doing workouts for football in high school. We all didn't like working out so we would just go through the motions of working out until a coach started watching us, which is when we started to take it seriously; at least until the coach left. Because of this, I find Kichijiro to be really relatable and is the reason why I find him to be such a great character.
In the end, it's just my own opinion but I really like Kichijiro as a character.
Edit: Commented on AnnaKate's and Abbie Hedden's posts
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