“All I Asking for Is My Body” by Milton Murayama

The first thing that I’ve noticed about this reading was its similarity to the “Nisei Daughter”. Especially the part in chapter 16, where Oyama’s family finds out about the bombarding of Pearl Harbor and Tosh asks his father to destroy the Japanese flag and hide all of the Japanese books. I remembered that Monica’s family did exactly the same thing in order to disguise their ties to Japan and protect themselves from being viewed as Japanese allies. Another thing that I found to be very similar was the initial reaction of both families when they found out about the Japanese attack. At first none of them wanted to believe in what was happening and they couldn’t understand how Japan could do such a horrible and foolish thing. They felt ashamed and betrayed by a country that some of them once called “home”. I cannot even imagine how difficult it had to be for them, especially for the young Nisei, who didn’t understand Japan’s politics. I remember how confused and torn apart Kiyoshi was about the whole situation. He didn’t know on whose side he was supposed to be on. He even asked his teacher if the Nisei should fight for America in the war. I’ve also noticed how mad he was on Japan and for being Japanese: “…don’t do anything that’d bring shame to Japanese race, don’t be a rotten apple and spoil the whole barrel. What chance have I got, me, a single apple getting slammed by a barrelful of rottenness? Even if I tried deliberately, every day of my life, I wouldn’t be able to produce one-thousandth of the massive shame of Pearl Harbor.” Then again when he talks to his teacher: “ You know, you’ve always said, ‘Be proud you’re Japanese. Never bring shame to the Japanese race.’ What if they, all of them bring shame to me? What about me? I feel ashamed I’m Japanese. I feel a shame I can never erase, and here I haven’t done a single bad thing”   

5 comments March 9,2008