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"FIVE YEARS ON A ROCK" & "ALL I ASKING FOR IS MY BODY" (MILTON MURAYAMA).
Term Paper ID:23025
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Essay Subject:
Analyzes two quotes from books on cultural sensibility of Japanese working on Hawaiian sugar plantations & compares with Japanese & Chinese on mainland.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Analyzes two quotes from books on cultural sensibility of Japanese working on Hawaiian sugar plantations & compares with Japanese & Chinese on mainland.
Paper Introduction:
Milton Murayama, in Five Years On A Rock and All I Asking For Is My Body explores the cultural sensibility of Japanese in Hawaii working on sugar plantations. Two quotes from these books will be used in this report to examine this sensibility in comparison with the Japanese on the mainland and with the Chinese. The information provided by Sucheng Chan, in Asian Americans: An Interpretive History, will be used to support the positions taken in this report.
The first quote, from All I Asking For Is My Body, brings up a point which shows how the Japanese in Hawaii were similar to the Japanese on the mainland. The quote refers to the narrator's mother and her determination to maintain her family's identity and unity. An argument is taking place between the mother and her son Tosh as the son expresses his individualism and his
Text of the Paper:
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Honolulu: University OfHawaii Press, 1988.---. Whereas the Chinese men who came to Hawaii before the Japanese wereless burdened by consideration of caring for females, and therefore fledHawaii after their first contract had expired[6], the Japanese were moreobligated to stick out the unpleasant living and working conditions inHawaii in order to care for the entire family and keep it together. [5]Ibid. This was a particular burden in Hawaii, whereopportunities lagged behind those on the mainland. This also explains the obsession in both of Murayama's books withmoney, with basic needs, with debt, with struggling to stay up withsupplying Japanese families with those basic requirements. The narrator says that hismother's "only worry . The plantation owners, beginning with thecontracts arranged in Japan, established a network which made it difficultfor the Japanese to break free from that plantation system. The mother and her generation wanted their children tobe more Americanized, in order that those children might take advantage ofthe opportunities available in the United States, but this Americanizationresulted in an independence that in turn threatened the cohesion of theJapanese family. The Chinese, onthe other hand, because of immigration restrictions and cultural beliefsand practices with respect to gender, were able to leave Hawaii andestablish more expansive living and working situations on the mainland. The children of thefirst-generation Japanese in Hawaii had less socioeconomic opportunities,and therefore were even more rebellious, potentially or actually, than theywould have been had life been easier and more promising. But I have to get up, I kept telling myself. Thereafter, . .. An argument is taking placebetween the mother and her son Tosh as the son expresses his individualismand his disrespect for his thieving grandfather. . Forexample, as Chan writes, Among the Chinese, just because the number of female emigrants was small did not mean that the majority of male emigrants were single: many men married shortly before they went abroad. The first quote, from All I Asking For Is My Body, brings up a pointwhich shows how the Japanese in Hawaii were similar to the Japanese on themainland. Had only the Japanese men beeninvolved, as had been the case with the Chinese men earlier, then it wouldhave been more likely that the Japanese would have left Hawaii for greatermainland opportunities after their first contracts were expired. It is no wonder, then, that the mother in Murayama's books were moreheavily burdened than their counterparts on the mainland, despite the factthat the Japanese both in Hawaii and on the mainland displayed greaterfamily unity than did the Chinese in either environment. I'm throwing off Koso-san and embracing Isao-san and Hawaii."[8] The Japanese in cultural terms, according to Chan, put much moreemphasis than other Asian groups on family and inter-generationalrelationships and in helping determine the future of their offspring: More self-consciously than did any other Asian immigrant group, Japanese immigrants drew a clear distinction between themselves, the Issei (first generation), and their children, the Nisei (second generation). Thisresulted in two related cultural sensibilities with respect to theJapanese, especially in Hawaii. The family bond of Japanese on the mainlandwas strong, stronger than the Chinese, but in Hawaii it produced a uniquesituation because of the restricted career choices in that plantation-dominated culture. New York: Twayne, 1991.Murayama, Milton. Clearly, the socioeconomic contexts in which Japanese and Chinesefamilies in Hawaii and on the mainland lived and worked played a major partin the creation of the cultural sensibilities of these immigrants. [2]Milton Murayama, Five Years On A Rock (Honolulu: University ofHawaii Press, 1994), 137. At the same time, as the context of the first quote shows, theindividualism of the children of the mother was an obstacle to keeping thefamily bond intact. Most Issei saw themselves as sojourners, but they considered the Nisei to be Americans.[9] These facts help explain the cultural sensibility revealed in the twoquotes from Murayama. . they would return [to China] to spend a few months with their families, with the hope of fathering additional children during their visits. While in Hawaii littlewas available to Japanese and their families aside from plantation work, onthe mainland greater expectations and opportunities led to advancement:"The fact that Japanese immigrants were able to benefit from the rapidgrowth of the production of specialty crops in the western United States isreflected in the immigration statistics." Those statistics show, a steadyincrease in Japanese immigration to the mainland, and an accompanyingdramatic drop in immigration to Hawaii.[1 ] Japanese families on themainland were able to save money, pool their resources, and advancesocioeconomically, as opposed to Japanese families in Hawaii. In the first place, the Japanese and the Chinese were treated quitedifferently by immigration laws, as Chan writes, with the Chinese being farmore discriminated against than the Japanese.[3] Second, the Japanese menand Chinese men adopted different approaches to their wives and familieswith respect to forming families in either Hawaii or the mainland. . The first quote shows the determination of the motherof the family to keep her family together, to have its members work inproud cooperation with one another, even if it meant being in competitionwith other Japanese families struggling to survive in Hawaii. Whereas the Japanese on themainland were able to take advantage of opportunities far beyond thelimited plantation world of Hawaii, the Japanese in Hawaii were caught in avicious cycle which they could not escape. Except now my body was twelve years older and my teeth ached and stank. Again, in this context, the socioeconomic situation profoundlyaffects the cultural sensibility of the Japanese. [4]Ibid., 1 4. I'd get up to sew and the sky would darken and I'd crawl back to the futon in the bedroom. BibliographyChan, Sucheng. Two quotes from these books will be used in this reportto examine this sensibility in comparison with the Japanese on the mainlandand with the Chinese. However,burdened with their entire families, they could not afford to leave theplantation, even as the plantation wore them and their families down withmuch work and decreasing hope for a better life, at least for the majority. Thesocioeconomic burdens on the Japanese in Hawaii were greater than those onthe Japanese and Chinese on the mainland, because of the restrictive natureof the plantation environment. A different sensibility guided the Japanese: Relatively fewer of the Japanese male emigrants were married, but a good number of those who were likewise left their wives and children behind. Five Years On A Rock. In the quote, Sawa shows the reader her dedication to her familyand her determination to make a life for them, however difficult that lifemight be: I felt as rundown as I did in 1921. All I Asking For Is My Body. Parents of emigrant sons believed that keeping the latter's wives in China ensured that they would faithfully remit money home to support their extended families.[4] Sons and other male relatives would join the original Chineseemigrant, leaving females behind in China and reducing the family bond inHawaii or the mainland. The quote refers to the narrator's mother and her determinationto maintain her family's identity and unity. The secondquote shows that the mother is willing to sacrifice everything she has tokeep her children alive and maintain at least the bare necessities. This struggle inHawaii stands in stark contrast with the possibilities and opportunitiesfor socioeconomic advance which is described by Chan with respect toJapanese families on the mainland, as well as with the same opportunitiesand advantages for Chinese on the mainland in Chan. The fact that the mother in these two books finds it so difficult tokeep her family together, and is willing to do everything she can to do so,also reveals much about the trap-like circumstances of life for theJapanese in the plantation realm of Hawaii. It might be said, from the portrayals of Japanese families in Hawaiiand on the mainland in both Murayama and Chan, that all the Japanese hadwas their family unity in terms of maintaining their cultural integrity.This helps explain the significance of the selected quotes and thedetermination of the mother to keep her family together and to sacrificeeverything she had, to the point of utter physical, emotional and spiritualexhaustion, to supply them with at least the minimum of life'srequirements, down to a good pair of shoes. Once they found a settled occupation, however, many sent for their families.[5] We find both in Hawaii and on the mainland, then, that Japanesefamilies had a greater sense of family unity than did the Chinese. . Asian Americans. Inaddition, the Hawaiians themselves---both the general populace and powerfulofficials capable of affecting immigration procedures---were morehospitable to the Japanese whom they saw as more like the Hawaiiansculturally than the Chinese.[7] These facts from Chan are generally supported by Murayama. was keeping the family together."[1] The second quote, from Five Years On A Rock, shows how the Japanesein Hawaii were dissimilar to the Chinese in terms of family connections.This quote shows how the Japanese in Hawaii had close family unity, a factwhich will be compared to the relative lack of such connections among theChinese, at least at a particular period of Chinese immigration, in orderto show the different responses of the Japanese and Chinese to life inHawaii. The information provided by Sucheng Chan, in AsianAmericans: An Interpretive History, will be used to support the positionstaken in this report. [8]Murayama, Five Years, 11. . Toshio needed street shoes for high school.[2] This family connection will be shown to stand in stark contrast tothe Chinese situation. It wouldseem unlikely, for example, considering the sociological context suppliedby Chan, that a Chinese woman would have had the same independent decision-making power that Sawa displays when she declares "I've made up my mind. Most waited until they were sure their wives were pregnant before departing. [7]Ibid. [1 ]Chan, 38.----------------------- 8 [3]Sucheng Chan, Asian Americans (New York: Twayne, 1991), 1 6. [9]Chan, 111. Milton Murayama, in Five Years On A Rock and All I Asking For Is MyBody explores the cultural sensibility of Japanese in Hawaii working onsugar plantations. The difference is also crucial in understanding whythe Japanese remained on the plantations in Hawaii, while the Chineseflourished on the mainland. [6]Ibid., 27. They also left a fuller written record than did any other Asian immigrant group of how they perceived their children's place in the world. TheJapanese on the mainland were also able to expand their socioeconomicsituations on the mainland in a way that was not possible for Japanesefamilies in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.----------------------- [1]Milton Murayama, All I Asking For Is My Body (Honolulu: Universityof Hawaii Press, 1988), 57.
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