Snow Falling On Cedars

“Snow Falling on Cedars” is a Contemporary Fiction book written by David Guterson. David Guterson was inspired to write this book based on his experience living in the Northwest. The novel is based on Japanese-Americans and how they were victims of prejudice due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In the Novel, there is a Japanese family known as the Miyamoto family that experience what most Japanese-Americans went through while getting taken to the Internment Camps and how they lost everything including their homes when they were released. The setting of the book is placed in a small island in Puget Sound named San Piedro where the time period was 1954. I chose this book because I wanted to learn more about the experience Japanese-Americans
Carl’s dad owned a strawberry farm where Kabuo and his parents used to work as sharecroppers; that’s where Carl and Kabuo became really good friends. Kabuo’s dad really embodied the traditional Japanese values, so he started teaching Kabuo “Kendo” (stick fighting) where he ended up becoming a master of that Martial Art. Ishmael and Hatsue had a deep friendship as children where Ishmael ended up falling in love with her. Hatsue had grown up with traditional Japanese parents as well where she was torn between demands of two sets of values. One of them was the belief to live unrestrained of society’s demands (The American lifestyle). The other was the traditional Japanese value which was that life is full of suffering and misfortune, therefore, individuals must accept the limitations of their life and try their utmost to fulfill their duty to family and community (as in the Japanese community). Eventually, she decided to follow her traditional Japanese values which was the reason for Ishmael’s rejection and her marriage with Kabuo. This left Ishmael devastated. But then, something greater happened; The bombing of Pearl Harbor. This eventually led up to World War 2 where Ishmael, Carl, and Kabuo felt they were obliged to serve for their country. However, Kabuo’s main excuse to go to war was to prove his loyalty to the United States. By the time they
The proof is in a lighthouse located around San Piedro where you can find a logbook that recorded a large freighter boat getting lost on the island. The ship had been advised by a radioman in the lighthouse to go directly through the channel Carl was fishing in. The logbook also mentioned the freighter passing through Carl’s area around the same time Carl had approximately died which most likely knocked Carl’s boat over and was the cause for his head wounds. But since the courtroom didn’t know about this information, they assumed the head wounds were those related to the wounds caused in Japanese Kendo. The novel ends with the Judge making the decision of proving Kabuo guilty until Ishmael decides to give the information right before the case is closed. Kabuo is then released where he is reunited with his family. Honestly, at first, when I was reading the book, I was so confused and bored out of my mind. But then, you get closer and closer to the ending where you want to keep reading to figure out what happens next and all the pieces just seem to add up together. Therefore, once again, I fully recommend