Jiro Kurohata, later known as Franklin Hata, is the protagonist and first-person narrator of A Gesture Life. Born a Korean to the Oh family, he is adopted at a young age by the prominent Japanese family, the Kurohatas. Due to the Japanese colonization of Korea, Hata is ashamed of being an inferior Korean and never reveals his real name. He conscripts for the Imperial Army during World War II, and his traumatic experiences of his time as a soldier form his nature and lifestyle in the years to come. Hata frequently falls into flashbacks when triggered by a familiar sight from the war—depicting a case of post-traumatic stress disorder unrelated to actual combat.

After the war, Hata changes his name to Franklin Hata and settles in Bedley Run to run Sunny Medical Supply. After adopting Sunny, he fails to provide Sunny with the love and affection of a real father, he shows disappointment in her interactions with people he disapproves of, a reflection in his belief that he himself had failed his adoptive parents. When given the opportunity at a relationship with the widow Mary Burns, he fails to wholeheartedly invest himself in any passionate emotion beyond cordial passivity, ending up alone.