Week 13: All I Asking for is My Body by Milton Murayama (University of Hawai’i Press, 1975, paperback)
I came across this book as I was looking for Asian-American novels to use in my Multicultural American literature course. I discovered, through this book and the one for next week, the overlooked (at least on the mainland) of the Japanese living in Hawaii. Through Murayama’s book, I learned of the cultural and economic restrictions placed on the Japanese-Hawaiians by the local population (and whites).
Murayama’s book takes place in the 1930s, just before the start of WWII. Kiyoshi Oyama is a narrator, leading us through his family’s economic struggles and his own cultural struggles with the cultural expectations placed on him. He, as his older brother, are expected to work until they have paid off the debts incurred by their father. This filial piety, owed by the Nisei (children of Japanese immigrants) to the Issei (original Japanese immigrants) does not sit well with Kiyoshi and his brother, who struggle with the idea that the majority of their youth would be lost in hard labor. Tosh, the older brother, takes up boxing to try to escape; Kiyoshi follows in this pursuit.
This novel provides a glimpse into this world—I feel like a got pieces of the experience, but not a full in-depth presentation. But even a glimpse is worthwhile to understand the cultural and generational conflicts at work in this Hawaiian world. It’s fascinating to see the cultural expectations of another ethnic group; and to see that these expectations do provoke conflict because the people involved are real and not cultural stereotypes.
Next week . . . Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers by Lois-Ann Yamanaka.