Rough Draft Essay 4 "Should Toshio and Kiyoshi be responsible for their family's debt?"

     I look at my own daughter who is seven months old and try to imagine telling her that when she turns 16 she will have to get a job so she can help pay our house off. Worse yet, so she can pay for my car which I won't let her drive. That still doesn't compare to the circumstances that surrounded Kyodhi and Toshio in the story "All I Asking For Is My body" by Milton Murayama. Those poor boys were forced to pay off their grandfather's debt through a distorted version of filial piety that lets the parents actually indenture their children and grandchildren like slaves. Its one thing to help your family, but its a whole other story to expect your children and their children to pay off your debts. Kyoshi and Toshio'd parents should be ashamed for forcing their children to work off their grandfather's debt, and even though they try to use the word "honor" to describe why they must pay, the parents should wake up and take a hard look around them and the culture that they are supporting and perpetuating.

    I realize that the Japanese culture at that time was very rigid and inclusive. Honor, could be rooted in the traditions of that culture, but on the islands there was not as rigid and sophisticated a society. Even though there were seperate races on the island they were not seperated by national boundaries or dialects. As the generations unfold on the island, it seems they will not only drift farther from the traditions of their original countries but also the values that were taught by there parents and grandparents. Effectivley, Toshio understood very well that he was locked into a virtual slavery for the benefit of his grandfather. Societies like the English, French, and Dutch went through drastic changes when they colonized the North American Continent. Many traditions were lost including religious, in the form of the way they celebrate holidays and ceremonies, and governmental in the way the common people had more control of the decisions being made at the top levels of their states. Throughout the migration of civilations there is evidence of the mixing and mashing of traditions and values. The language of pidgin is a great example of the blending of languages, and how people will go through a natural transformation when isolated on an island together, and how they evolve together.

      Even after the debt was paid by Kyoshi's lucky rolls, I could see that there would probably be a state of shock. What? No more debt? what would the family do? How would they live out the rest of their lives? Kyoshi will see the world through the actions of the military, but will his parents wake up and get out of the sewage ditch they live in? Would the boys father still try to hang a guilt trip on them through filial control? It would be interesting to see how the boys and their parents react to their new debt free life. Maybe the grandfather will try to further his fortunes by asking the family for more, whats to stop him? After all if the generations remain loyal and honorable then of course they would grant their grandfather's wishes.

     Toshio came off ten times more rebellious than Kyoshi. While you knew that Kyoshi was often deep in thought about his surroundings, Toshio would shout stuff like "If we were in Japan, you'd probably sell the girls into prostitution to pay up grandfather's debt."(48) and the line that namesakes the book "Shit, All I asking for is my body, I doan wanna die on the plantation like these other dum dodos."(48) These statements show the anger and frustration at the parents for forcing their children to pay debts not accrued by them. Incredibly, they kept working everyday, using up their youth, and lives to eke out what little they can to survive while they have this 6000$ debt  hanging over them.

    I think the question for this essay should ask "Why would Toshio and Kyoshi ever want to be responsible for their families debt?" That would be the more challenging question to answer. There is no honor, tradition, or pride in breaking your back in a cane field all day only to come home to a sewage ditch, sleep in your filthy clothes, all to pay someone elses debt you hardly know. I can't imagine putting that life on someone I knew or even hated. That sounds like hell to me. Not the work, but the goal of repaying a debt you cannot afford to someone you hardly know, and through the process of doing that you've blown 20 years of your life. When I look at my child that is the last thing I want for her. The answer to this essay question is NO.