All I Asking for Is My Body

In 1936, Kiyo’s mother gives birth to another baby girl. Father decides to quit fishing and moves the family back inland to Kahana. Tosh’s parents expect him, as the first son, to quit high school and work in the cane fields, just as his father had done for his parents. Tosh is a good student, and he is resentful. His mother calls Tosh ungrateful, and tells him, “Don’t worry, we won’t depend on you. There’s Kiyoshi to help us” (30). Nevertheless, Tosh continues to work for his parents, and they accept his money.

Life on the plantation is a big adjustment for Kiyo. While Pepelau had been relatively cosmopolitan, in Kahana everything is “country bumpkin” (28). The house they move into is the closest to the outhouses and the pigpen, so their house often smells like a combination of the two. Their financial difficulties aren’t much better: “Worse yet, the family debt was now $6,000, and the average plantation pay for forty-eight hours a week was $25 a month for adults” (29). 

In March 1937, the Filipino workers from the Frontier Mill Plantation go on strike. Instead of supporting their fellow laborers, the Japanese workers take their jobs, as they are offered higher wages during the strike.