Five Years on a Rock

By Milton Murayama

Book Overview

Milton Murayama returns to the places and people of his earlier fiction - to the sugar plantation company towns and sleepy villages of Maui, and to the resilient Oyama family. Five Years on a Rock is the story of Sawa Oyama, the mother who plays a major role in All I Asking for Is My Body. In a spirited voice full of courage and wit, Sawa tells of her arrival in Hawaii in 1915 as a seventeen-year-old picture bride. But her hope of returning to Japan after "five years on a rock" wanes as the five years stretch to twenty, during which six children are born, her husband's fishing business succeeds then fails, and the family debt grows. Overworked and sick with worry, Sawa loses all her teeth and falls deathly ill, the victim, she believes, of someone else's bachi (divine retribution). She recovers, however, when an aunt dies in her stead, and she returns to her family with renewed vigor and a new set of teeth.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824816773
• ISBN13: 9780824816773
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Voice of Issei Experience?

Compromising the second part of Murayama's proposed tetralogy, this intimate portrayal of Sawa Oyama's journey from Hiroshima, Japan, to a fictionalized plantation in Hawai'i is poignant and unique. Murayama has the uncanny ability to evoke various aspects of the issei (first-generation) experience: the laborious demands made on the plantation females and males, the hegemonic power structure of the white plantation owners and the dedication of the issei to their children (no matter what the cost). Why do I really enjoy this novel? Well, as a fifth generation Japanese-American, I cannot help but have an interest in the way my ancestors made sacrifices on my behalf. There are few novels out there that explore the themes of issei dislocation, disappointment (many thought they could return to Japan after only a few years), and gradual acceptance and appreciation for Hawai'i. This being said, I feel that Murayama does a good job of incorporating these themes, keeping the hopes and dreams of his ancestors lovingly preserved in the pages of his work. Mahalo.