English Journal

                Snow Falling on Cedars is not a story that one would typically relate themselves with. Sure they are plenty movies and stories out there in the world that share similar plotlines. Of two kids torn apart by something may it be fate, destiny or race. You could find dozens of books with inter-race relationships that had to struggle through to the end. However what made the relationship between Ishmael and Hatsue different was simply because it ended as an unrequited love. Hatsue had fallen out of love; she pushed it off as a memory of her childhood. However Ishmael is still so very tangled by her and of the war that he fought not long after his heart break.

                Through the countless flashbacks we learn of the history and the ever hidden tensions between the two. They had not ended amiably; the two had ended through a letter, one that Ishmael would constantly look back to in pain.

                Their relationship was forever condemned by Hatsue’s family who saw the ‘hakujin’ as a whole different type of people. Racial prejudices have been prominent through the history after the war and even before then. The war only caused deeper racial hatred, what would have originally been kept in the hidden was then prominently shown. Hatsue’s mother had dispised Hatsuo for tricking her to this foreign land where they both had to start all over. She had been persuaded by her own wishes to see the unknown but she grew bitter, however she still continues to care for her children. Her words stay true to what she believes and her age shows, her wisdom is in fact quite relatable.

“You should learn to say nothing that will cause you regret. You should not say what is not in your heart

Or what is only in your heart for a moment. But tou know this – silence is better.” Pg 201

Her upbringing shines through her words, much like how Hatsue was being brought up, Fujiko went through the same if not more rigorous. Like many of the women living in Japan at that time, they were taught to be the perfect wife. A wife that would take care of all the housework and welcome their husbands and children home. However perhaps much too much alike, they both share the same streak of superiority – the belief that their race would be better.

Many of the advice that Fujiko gives to Hatsue is very relatable, much like how we should never say things that we don’t mean simply because we are overwhelmed by our emotions. Much like how Hastue turned down Ishmael when he had asked for her hand in marriage.

“The whites, you see, are tempted by their egos and have no means to exist. We Japanese, on the other hand, know our egos are nothing. We bend our egos, all of the time, and that is where we differ. That is the fundamental difference Hatsue. We bend out heads, we bow and are silent, because we understand that by ourselves, alone, we are nothing at all, dust in a strong wind, while the hakujin believes his aloneness is everything,, his separateness is the foundation of his existence. He seeks and grasps, seeks and grasps for his separateness, while we seek union with the Greater Life – you must see that these are distinct paths we are traveling, Hatsue, the hakujin and we Japanese.” Pg 201

                Race had always been a problem; they were Japanese living in a white world. Far away from home and spoke little English, they were entirely dependant on hard physical labor alone. They share many similiarities to the Asian immigrants of the past and even of the present. As our society moves more and more towards globalization we slowly find that barriers like race that used to exist are slowly dissolving. That is because we, as a 1^st and 2^nd world country have gotten used to the multiculturalism. However should you go to a 3^rd world country it would be like a step back in time, there is a difference, one that cannot be masked. People will treat you differently may it be because you are of a different race or simply because they know that you are different.

                Although the story is supposed to be about Kabuo Miyamoto and his trial in the killing of Carl Heine. We do not see him much within the story other than how he would face his trial with honor and the few flashbacks of other people that included him. As the book progresses you slowly find that it is a tangled web of characters, they all interwine at some point. They all provide a view of the small island of San Piedro during that winter trial and the years preceeding it.

               
The discussions in the group is inproving we are discussing more about the characters and how the flashbacks are relating to the storyline and how the past motivates their decisions.