All I Asking for is My Body Flashcards
1
Q
Setting
A
- plantation in HI
- part of Japanese workers
- Tosh and Kiyo are the nisei
- 2 lenses: generational conflict between born US citizens and naturalized US citizens (Japanese parents vs. US-born kids)
- also criticism of subjugation under colonial rule and the difficulty of freeing oneself from a debt that was structured in a way to be impossible to pay
- even Kiyo only manages to pay it off once he structures the odds in his favor; he learns from the system he was raised in and seizes power in the ways that he can in order to gain agency and free himself and his family
2
Q
Pidgin English
A
- intermediary between languages for diverse group of laborers to communicate
- oral more than written; inflection-heavy
- simple grammatical structure; English reduced to basic
- form of Creole English
- Kiyo speaks 4 languages: Pidgin English, Pidgin Japanese, and standard of both (tho he is less comfortable with the standard, formal forms of these languages)
- formal Japanese and formal English look the same on paper to these protagonists
- they are neither completely American nor completely Japanese; both worlds are denied to them, so they think in languages that represent their blended situation
3
Q
Japanese Culture
A
- all about status and honoring one’s elders/betters
- emphasis on respecting the parents and being filial children
- also about saving face (why parents are concerned about eating at Makoto’s house and appearing to be beggars)
- this family discipline also helped control the workers and maintain interethnic boundaries/suspicions
4
Q
Makoto
A
- Makoto doesn’t live in Japanese camp; lives in Filipino camp
- dirty, dark, mostly male – not savory, safe place that Kiyo’s parents want him going to
- implication that his mom is a prostitute who is servicing Filipino male laborers
- very shameful in Japanese culture to associate with people of that background
- Makot = Makod in Tagalog
- Makoto could be product of union between Filipino labor and Japanese mother –> mixed children never accepted
- his muddled background reflects back on Kiyo and Tosh’s muddled/conflicted/divided loyalties to American and Japan, to themselves and to their parents
5
Q
Freedom
A
- Milton Muryama criticizes anything that suppresses freedom
- freedom is freedom of mind, freedom from other people’s shit
- equal critique of Japanese family system and plantation system because both are linked and support the other
- ethnic conflicts are kept up by these traditional hierarchies
- need to think beyond the shit and see the world for what it truly is, and what you can be in it, despite what everyone around you says
6
Q
Yamato Damashi
A
- special spirit of the Japanese/quality unique to the Japanese and their culture/value system
- patience, perseverance, filial piety, duty, etc.
- honors purity of Japanese race: why associating w/ Makoto (of mixed ancestry) would bring shame
7
Q
Rigid Japanese Norms
A
- just as foreign and dominating as the rules of the plantation to the protagonists
- just like the plantation system; is about knowing your place, being obedient, submissive, holding back, etc.
- the Japanese family system and plantation system are complicit with each other; both are shit
8
Q
American World
A
- protagonists don’t want to be American; they aren’t Americanized, despite the fact that their parents think they are, and the fact that the Americans want them to be
- when people their age speak formal English, they make fun of them as trying to be something they’re not
- nisei are seen as outside American world, so they’re not Americanized
9
Q
Why Kiyo and Tosh are Still Working on Plantation
A
- ostensibly, they should’ve paid off their debt by now
- however, their parents are still paying off the $6000 debt accrued by their grandfather
- contract they’re under stops them from getting out of debt by charging for edu, medicine, etc.
- family system keeps them in debt by taking on others’ debt as part of filial duty
- both systems keep Tosh and Kiyo down in debt
10
Q
Tosh’s Complaints About Family System
A
- his arguments parallel arguments that can be made about plantation system
- holding back, having patience, waiting your turn –> all keep you down
- family system becomes system of control and discipline over laborers just like plantation system
- Tosh is angry at his father for keeping them in debt, just as the workers should be angry at the plantation owners for keeping them in debt –> paternalism
11
Q
Plantation System
A
- placed Japanese camp above Filipino camp
- encourages separation and focus on Japanese cultural practices in order to promote ethnic divisions
- divide and conquer the workers
12
Q
First-Son Filial Piety
A
- not a critique of Japanese culture, but acknowledgment that first-son filial piety is a two-way street
- in return for being filial, Tosh should get some sort of inheritance, but his dad can’t give him that
13
Q
Tosh and the Plantation System
A
- Tosh doesn’t want to die on plantation paying off debt that wasn’t his to begin with, but he stays, feeling obligated to his parents
13
Q
Debt = Death
A
- in pidgin, there are no “th” sounds, so debt and death sound the same
- they are trapped in this continuous cycle of accruing debt, paying off like $2 per day, then getting more debt, etc.
- they’ll die on the plantation paying off debt
- both Japanese and plantation systems are killing them
14
Q
Gambling Symbolism
A
- they get out of debt by gambling
- Kiyo works outside of the plantation in order to get out of debt
- gambling is illegal according to plantation codes
- symbolically, gambling is a pleasure activity
- hard work gets you nowhere; keeps you in plantation system
- Kiyo then goes to the army and gives up his body to fight for another institution: America
