Alice Mojica
English 101
Dr. Prothero
April 30 2013
Snow Falling On Cedars Everyone see the world different, as our eyes aren’t alike. During the course of our existence they can alter as our eye experiences new things that perhaps one day they can finally see what the other is seeing. But not everyone accepts this because there are others that resist from seeing what you’re seeing. There are eyes that fear the different, allowing that to grow to despise. Yet sometimes when we actually do have eyes they can sometimes be blind, blinder then the actual ones with no sight. There are those who can think differently if they’re able to see with their eyes close. Hatred along with discrimination still lingers in people as they can’t forget what happen in the past even though the past is gone no one seems to overlook it. Fictional story or not, David Guterson’s book Snow Falling on Cedars capture every aspect of real-life prejudices and how World War II created conflict to the lives of the Japanese-American families and American citizens on the small island of San Piedro. Guterson’s story takes place in a fictional island, San Piedro as a murder trial is being held in postwar World War II, December 1954, and Kubuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American, is the accused man of murdering the fisherman, Carl Heine. During this trial there are obviously prejudices remark thrown at him. Kabuo Miyamoto was blamed for committing the murder of Carl Heine because of his race rather than facts. The white people were eager and willing to point their fingers at the Japanese because it was easy for them to do so during this time period. It also made perfectly sense why to blame him since there was conflicts going on with Kabuo and the Heine family about owning acres of land. Before the war years, Zenhichi, Kabuo's father, made an illegal agreement with Carl Heine Senior, the victim’s father, to buy seven acres of his land however his wife Etta never agree to this. When the attack on Pearl Harbor happen and the military came to take every Japanese, Zenhichi pled to Carl to take care of his farm and he agree to this but after Carl senior death, Etta stubbornly sold their seven acres of strawberry land to another farmer, because of lack of the last payment during their removal. This disgraceful action she took was caused by her racist thoughts that she had toward Japanese. When Kabuo came back to San Pierdo he came to find the acres of land had been sold. He was furious calling out to Mrs. Heine that it was wrong to do so. Japanese faced many problems with inequality, not being allowed to own land, and being deported during the war without being treated like an American citizen. During the trial, the Japanese sat at the back of the seats because
