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All I Asking for Is My Body (Kolowalu Book)
Paperback, 110 pages
Published
September 1st 1988
by University of Hawaii Press
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This is a re-read for me. I was first introduced to this book when I took an ethnic studies class. The subject was the Japanese in Hawaii.
All I can say is that this book is fabulous. I had to re-read it again because the first time around was for class. This second go was strictly for pleasure.
This book has so many facets to it. At first I wasn't sure of the point. And then I realized that the author, Murayama, was simply trying to tell the story of what life in Hawaii was like for immigrant pla...more
All I can say is that this book is fabulous. I had to re-read it again because the first time around was for class. This second go was strictly for pleasure.
This book has so many facets to it. At first I wasn't sure of the point. And then I realized that the author, Murayama, was simply trying to tell the story of what life in Hawaii was like for immigrant pla...more
I picked this up in a Kailua bookstore-- a place with several shelves of Hawaiiana including one with many older, out of print titles. The staff member helping me navigate called anything over $6 "expensive" and failed to share my archivist-daughter appreciation for the early 20th C titles that seemed reasonably priced to me.
Since I am not in the habit of collecting old Hawaiian books, I stuck with some beginner $6 titles, but I stil haven't gotten over how different the scale of EVERYTHING is i...more
Since I am not in the habit of collecting old Hawaiian books, I stuck with some beginner $6 titles, but I stil haven't gotten over how different the scale of EVERYTHING is i...more
This was a random read for me. The title caught my eye in a pile of black literature books my roommate had brought home. I started reading with no knowledge of what type of literature it was or what it was about, and was surprised to find a narrative of the Japanese struggle against racism, economic disparities, and social classes in Hawaii. Truth is: I couldn't put the book down.
The writing style is enchanting and revealing. The depictions are precise and detailed. He superbly uses variations...more
The writing style is enchanting and revealing. The depictions are precise and detailed. He superbly uses variations...more
First and foremost, I must state up front that this work is a novella length work, clocking in at approximately 100 pages. But don't let that dissuade you as Milton Murayama packs more into those 100 pages than most novels manage to do in 300+ pages.
This is an outstanding work, capturing so many varied aspects of the nisei (second generation Japanese Americans) experience in Hawai'i during the years leading up to (and including) the bombing at Pearl Harbor. I understand completely why it is con...more
This is an outstanding work, capturing so many varied aspects of the nisei (second generation Japanese Americans) experience in Hawai'i during the years leading up to (and including) the bombing at Pearl Harbor. I understand completely why it is con...more
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A short, but satisfying book about two brothers growing up on a sugar came plantation in early 1930s/40s Hawaii. These two struggle with how they feel about their Japanese roots and what that means for their future. With filial piety hanging over their heads, it seems they'll never get off of the plantation. In such a bleak present and an uncertain future, all they really want is the freedom to have their own bodies.
This book illustrates a side of Hawaii we don't usually hear about. The Japanes...more
This book illustrates a side of Hawaii we don't usually hear about. The Japanes...more
Murayama explores the challenges of family dynamics, clashing cultural values, wartime racism, and the crippling nature of poverty through the changing perceptions of Kiyoshi, the main character, growing from adolescence to adulthood; this means that the book is more questioning the world around than answering, which I loved. Kiyoshi's brother Toshio grapples with wanting to assimilate into white America and his struggle to define his connection with his parents, while Kiyoshi is largely defined...more
This book is set during Hawaii’s plantation days leading up to World War II. The protagonist, Kiyo Oyama, is a second-generation Japanese American. Hawaii has a rich history and diverse population. Murayama’s stories shares the Hawaiian side of the American experience. It’s a realistic depiction of Hawaiian plantation life. There are haole (white) owners, Portuguese lunas (bosses/middle management) and the Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and Japanese worker bees. The story is only 103 pages, but re...more
Interesting look inside a little known corner of American history: the Hawaiian plantation system. No, this was not pre-Civil War, but actually a reality well throughout the 1900s (the book ends at the outbreak of World War II). The book follows the maturation of a Japanese American, Kiyo, caught between the opposing forces of his familial Japanese heritage and individualized American upbringing. The book throws serious doubt on the American Dream for those who are not born into the right socioe...more
This book is such and easy/quick read. The continual change in dialect from English to Japanese to Pidgin Japanese/English was amazing. The book also tells much about the plantation system in Hawaii at the time. Though he focuses more on the Japanese in Hawaii, Murayama reveals various bits and pieces of other Asian immigrants, particularly the Filipinos.
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to have a more in-depth knowledge of early Asian American history in Hawaii and for those who ju...more
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to have a more in-depth knowledge of early Asian American history in Hawaii and for those who ju...more
The plantation days are always either romanticized or vilified. People who grew up then reminisce about swapping laulau for musubi, speaking Hawaiian and pidgin with the other kids, swimming and fishing in the clean open ocean every day, and playing music late into the night at the knees of wise folksy old-timers. Plantation bosses kept everybody fed and clothed and entertained and educated with sports teams and movies and fall festivals-- a little zion on earth.
And then there's the other view:...more
And then there's the other view:...more
Amazing book about Japanese boys growing up on a Hawaiian sugar plantation just before World War II. An account of traditional Japanese filial piety, where the need to pay of the debts of your parents is a constant weight on the choices of young boys even as opportunities in the modern world would otherwise be within reach. A great window into a world at a key point in time you may never hear of otherwise. It's a fairly short book with great dialog throughout between the two brothers.
A little book about growing up in a Japanese camp in Hawaii right before Pearl Harbor. I am so thankful when people write the lesser-known histories they've lived through. This should've been required reading for high school history classes.
A good, fast read that is an interesting slice of perspective on Hawaiian history.
A good, fast read that is an interesting slice of perspective on Hawaiian history.
This was an interesting book to read as someone who was born and raised in Hawaii. Though brief, it is a great picture of plantation life and the background for modern day Hawaii. However, I don't think it would have very much appeal to anyone uninterested in Hawaii.
a quick read, but interesting folklore-type story about the Japanese workcamps in Hawaii, prior to WWII
I had to read this for my college English class. it helped me to understand the first generation of Japanese Americans living in hawaii during WWII. it wasn't my favorite read, but I appreciated its sentiments and length
Amazing.
A very interesting view of life in Hawaii in the early 1900's. A Japanese immigrant family coming to terms with changing generations. The questions of how much loyalty the children owe their parents, how to follow the old traditions in a new country and in the end how to respond to the attack on pearl harbor. Very interesting read. Liked the incorporation of pidgin and the other languages. It was a window into an other time.
By far my favorite of the Hawaii-based fiction I have been reading lately. It's a story about the second son in a poor, indebted Japanese family living and working on a sugar plantation just before World War II. What I liked: that the story was more about family, loyalty, aspiration, and fairness vs. random chance than a fantasy of island life.
For some reason I assumed this book was about growing up in an internment camp, but it's actually about living on a plantation in Hawaii--which it turns out is not dissimilar. I would have much rather read this in high school than Huckleberry Finn.
A fascinating literary treatment of plantation life from a nisei perspective. This book really helped me understand my family a little better (I think). The battle between "old country" values and America. Poverty, debt, plantation hierarchy (i.e. feudalism), and freedom. Gender roles. "Filial piety". Teen pregnancies. Boxing. Pig shit. It's got it all.
The short and punchy dialogue suits the teenage boy protagonist, his pidgin English, and his anger at how he and the rest of the Japanese workers on the Hawaiian sugar plantation are treated at the start of World War II. It's not a long book, and it's short on plot, but it's very raw on emotion.
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I have thought about this book quite a bit since finishing it, which indicates it is significant to me.
best at sibling tensions, inter-generational tensions in hawaiian nikkei community, and resentment of nationalisms. some talk of syndicalism. ultimately, gambles and cheats his way out.
May 25, 2008
Madeleine
marked it as to-read
From SPL People's choice 06.
Apr 30, 2013
Evelyn
is currently reading it
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