English Journal 2 – Snow Falling on Cedar

As the book progresses you begin to be able to link things together. Of the Miyamoto family history with the Heine family. How Ishmael Chamber and Hatsue Imada’s forbidden relationship had eventually turned out. Through the flashback story formatting, we learn through the memories of the characters. There was always tension between the residents of San Piedro and the Japanese who had settled there. Such could be seen from the Strawberry Festival and how the Strawberry Princess was basically “a human sacrifice who allowed the festivities to go forward with no uttered ill will” (pg78) No uttered ill will did not mean that there was no ill will at all. Over the years unspoken laws had set the people of different ethnicity apart from each other. “No law compelled them to take only these rear seats. They had done so instead because San Piedro required it of them without calling it a law” (pg75). Just because something is not discussed in the open it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Much like how the world is today, even if we were to try and deceive ourselves by never mention the horrors such as poverty, abuse, violence and war it doesn’t mean that it will magically have never existed.


It was simply that simple racial difference that tore apart the budding romance of Ishmael and Hatsue. Mrs.Shigemura had always told Hatsue that she was going to marry a nice Japanese man. Also the reason why Hatsue was sent to Mrs.Shigemura “Her parents had sent Hatsue to Mrs.Shigemura with the intent that the girl would not forget that she was first and foremost Japanese.” (pg84). That all slowly pushed Hatsue into a spiral of confusion and guilt about her secret love. Even when they were just friends, you could still see how they would not behave closely around other people. “At school they were strangers for reasons unclear to him, though at the same time he understood it had to be that way because she was Japanese and he wasn’t” (pg98). Much like the world around us, we are not rid of racial barriers, there are still people out there that would much rather their children be friends with those of the same race rather than those not.


The story seems to have a focus around not violence or evil but rather the pain of separation and hidden tensions. Due to that there hasn’t been much for the group to discuss since the topics are often not related to our story. Adding the fact that the story has a slow start, there is even less for the group to discuss that are based on actual facts rather than speculations. Since the story is an alternation of flashback and courtroom scenes, much of what we have read up till now have yet to completely link to each other. Slowly we are learning about the island, its people and how the war had affected them.