I just began reading the book "Pachinko," and it starts with its first line

> "History failed us, but no matter."

I know it might be hard to guess only with this short sentence. So let me share more of the first part.

>   History failed us, but no matter.

>   At the turn of the century, an
> aging fisherman and his wife decided to take in lodgers for extra
> money. Both were born and raised in the fishing village of Yeongdo--a
> five-mile-wide islet beside the port city of Busan. In there long
> marriage, the wife gave birth to three sons, but only Hoonie, the
> eldest and the weakest one, survived. ....

For more information, let me share part from the recommendation remark for this book.


>   Pachinko represents a breakthrough portrayal of an invisible society
> within a society--Koreans in Japan. The book begins with the sentence,
> "History has failed us, but no matter." That is one of the most
> succinct summaries of the twentieth century's legacy of colonialism
> and war that still fuels tensions in North East Asia, including the
> current crisis with North Korea.

"Fail" is always a difficult word to me when it is used in the forms like 
"failed me" or "failed us". Please explain what the whole sentence "History failed us, but no matter" means.