All I Asking for Is My Body

Referred to mostly as “Kiyo” or “Kyo” by his family, the narrator is the number two son of the Oyamas. Throughout the three sections of the story, the quiet, thoughtful observer, Kiyo, undergoes a transformation into a bold, Americanized soldier who makes his own luck. 

We first meet Kiyo in “I’ll Crack Your Head Kotsun,” in which fourth-grader Kiyo tries to understand why his parents forbid him from spending time with an older boy, Makot, whose parents have questionable reputations. After nagging from his parents, Kiyo gives in and tells Makot he can’t spend time with him anymore. Kiyo’s efforts to please his parents appear again in “The Substitute,” when Kiyo brings his Great Aunt Obaban to see his dying mother. Obaban later dies, and Kiyo believes she has sacrificed herself so that his mother may live, evening out the “bachi,” or “retribution” of his family’s debt. His reactions in both sections prove him to be a superstitious, loyal, and filial, product of a Japanese culture. 

In the last section, “All I Asking for Is My Body,” however, Kiyo increasingly questions his parents’ worldview. A year after they move to the plantation, Kiyo’s teacher, Snooky, tells him about freedom from the plantation life.