What is the significance of the body in "All I Asking for is My Body"

Before the Oyama boys were born their fate had been cast, as had their parents and grandparents before them. The tradition of working and taking care of the previous generations debt kept young people born into this culture prisoners so to speak not able to get an education that would guarantee them a future from a system of filial piety, a duty to parents and ancestors.
The segregation by debt and the intentional system of the plantation and exploitation of a single ruling power keeps the Oyamas ensnared with large debt and extremely low wages make the boys feel hopeless and not empowered over their own fate. Tosh seeks out a rebellious form of expressing this suffocating life, while Kiyoshi goes more inward with his feelings doing what is necessary but has thoughts of what it would be like not to be so bound by the traditions of the past or his immediate circumstances. Soon we will see the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the internment camps the Japanese will have to live. All of these scenarios will see these boys from birth to adulthood governed by fate and circumstances to which they have no control.
“All I Asking For is My Body” is a poignant story of how the characters in this story have no jurisdiction over their own destiny as individuals. They were continuously being defeated and imprisoned by tradition of generational family ties, tradition, duty and respect and a class system of power that was deliberate in their intent to keep the poor, poor. Certainly the Oyama boys would not be empowered over their own bodies in this situation; however they did have power over their minds.