PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 6 Teacher Support Programme Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson operating against Kabuo. But it also becomes evident that the Japanese fisherman may have had a motive for murdering Carl. Then Ishmael Chambers, a bitter San Piedro journalist who was Hatsue’s childhood sweetheart, finds he has the power to save Kabuo. But Ishmael still loves Hatsue and hopes to win her back. Chapters 1–3: Ishmael Chambers, a local reporter, is at the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto who is charged with the death of Carl Heine, a fisherman. Ishmael knows the accused and his wife, Hatsue. He tries to talk to Hatsue but she turns him away. In court, County Sheriff Art Moran recalls going on Carl’s abandoned fishing boat, pulling in the fishing line About the author and finding Carl’s body. Nels Gudmundsson, Kabuo’s Born in 1956 on the west coast of the United States, lawyer, confirms with Art that Carl’s boat (which used D8 David Guterson is the son of a criminal defence lawyer. batteries) had a D6 battery that had been pounded into Guterson studied at Washington University under the holder. Kabuo’s boat (which used D6 batteries) was the writer Charles Johnson. He moved to Bainbridge missing its spare battery. Island, an island off the west coast of the United States, Chapters 4–5: We learn about Ishmael. He left San and taught English at a local high school. In interviews Piedro, attended college in Seattle, and eventually returned Guterson has readily admitted that the island described to San Piedro to take over the local newspaper his father in Snow Falling on Cedars is the island he lives on (but had owned. As a young man, Ishmael had lost an arm with a fictional name). Guterson says that his evocative while fighting in the Second World War and had returned descriptions of the island come from his deep love of the to San Piedro with a lack of trust in the world. place. Meanwhile in court, the coroner, Horace Whaley, speaks Guterson has written a short story collection, The Country of Carl’s injuries. The wound to Carl’s head reminded him Ahead of Us, the Country Behind, as well as two novels, of injuries he’d seen in the war by Japanese soldiers who East of the Mountains and Our Lady of the Forest. Guterson were trained in the art of kendo (stick fighting). However, has also worked as a journalist and is a contributing editor the coroner confirms there was no proof that Carl had to Harper’s magazine. been attacked. First published in 1994, Snow Falling on Cedars reached Chapters 6–7: We learn about Hatsue. Her parents came the top of bestseller lists in both the United States and from Japan. Her father was a strawberry farmer. Hatsue England. had been sent to a camp in California where Japanese Summary Americans were held during the war and she had married Kabuo there. Kabuo wanted to demonstrate his loyalty to The novel is set in the year 1954 on San Piedro, a lonely the United States and so joined the army. (fictional) island off the northwest coast of the United States. Kabuo Miyamoto, a fisherman of Japanese origin, Hatsue also recalled Ishmael, her childhood boyfriend. is accused of murdering Carl Heine, another fisherman, Ever since they were children, they had kept their while the two men were out at sea. Throughout the story, friendship secret because of their different backgrounds. we follow Kabuo’s trial, as the prosecution seeks to prove Chapters 8–9: Carl Heine’s mother, Etta, spoke at the that Kabuo boarded Carl’s boat during the night and trial. She said Kabuo’s father had made an agreement with murdered him, dropping his body overboard. her husband in 1934. He had planned to make payment In a series of flashbacks we learn the story of Kabuo’s towards seven acres of land through deposits over the life and that of his wife, Hatsue. It becomes evident as next eight years. However, the Miyamoto family was sent the trial progresses that there is powerful racial prejudice to a camp in 1942 and missed the last two payments. Then Etta’s husband died and Etta sold the land to Ole c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Snow Falling on Cedars - Teacher’s notes 1 of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 6 Teacher Support Programme Snow Falling on Cedars Jurgensen, a neighbour. She returned the money from Carl’s widow, Susan Marie, also appears before the jury. the previous payments to the Miyamotos. When Kabuo She recalls Kabuo asking Carl about buying back the land returned from the war, he accused Etta of stealing his one week before her husband’s death. Carl had told Kabuo family’s land. Then Ole got ill and sold the land back to that he would consider his request. Carl Heine (Etta’s son). Chapters 18–19: While the trial is taking place, a storm Chapters 10–11: We learn about Kabuo. At camp, is raging. Ishmael goes to the coast guard station to check Hatsue and Kabuo realised they shared the same dream to on the weather reports for the newspaper. Hatsue’s parents’ have a strawberry farm on San Piedro. When Kabuo told car has slid off the road and Ishmael offers to drive them Hatsue he was joining the army, she asked him to marry home. Hatsue tells Ishmael that the trial is unfair and that her before leaving. the newspaper should report that. Kabuo had extensive kendo training. At sixteen, he was At the coast guard station, Ishmael checks the files back to able to defeat all the men on the island. Kabuo recognised the time of Carl’s death, Ishmael reads about a large ship the dark side in himself after he killed several men in battle. coming through the fog into the area where Carl had been Meanwhile, Ishmael was reminded of the relationship he fishing. Ishmael realises the wake from such a ship could and Hatsue had as teenagers. From an early age, Hatsue knock a man off a small fishing boat. Ishmael takes copies had told him she’d been instructed to marry a Japanese of the report with him. boy from a good family. Ishmael thinks about writing the type of article Hatsue Chapters 12–13: In 1941, with the bombing of Pearl wants, so that when the trial is over, Hatsue will listen to Harbor by the Japanese army, San Piedro prepared to him and know he took her side. He sets the reports from defend itself. Hatsue’s father and many other men of the coast guard aside. Japanese descent were arrested and sent to a prison. Chapters 20–22: In court, Hatsue says that on the Meanwhile, the rest of the Japanese community was taken morning that Carl’s body was discovered, Kabuo had to camps in California. The night before she left, Hatsue told her that he had gone on Carl’s boat to help him met Ishmael. Ishmael asked Hatsue to marry him but and had made an agreement with Carl to buy back the Hatsue realised that they could not be together. land. However, when they heard that Carl had died, they At camp, a love letter sent from Ishmael to Hatsue was decided to keep quiet about Kabuo’s meeting with Carl. read by Hatsue’s mother. Hatsue told her mother the Kabuo talks about coming to Carl’s rescue by boarding relationship was wrong and she would put an end to it. his boat with his spare battery. Carl had used Kabuo’s gaff Chapter 14: Ishmael recalls going to war and feeling to make the smaller battery fit and had cut himself. Then distant from everyone. Many from his troop were killed they had made the deal about the land. fighting the Japanese in the Philippines. Ishmael survived In his final words to the jury, the prosecutor speaks of but lost his arm. Kabuo as a cold-blooded murderer who had the motive Chapters 15–17: In court, the sheriff tells how he and to kill Carl. The defence lawyer says that the argument his deputy had searched Kabuo’s boat and found a large against Kabuo was based on the hatred of another’s race. wooden gaff (a type of stick) that had blood on it. Chapters 23–25: That night, Ishmael re-reads the Then Dr Sterling Whitman, a specialist in blood analysis, letter that Hatsue sent him years before to end their reports that the blood on the handle of the gaff matched relationship. He realises that Hatsue had admired a part Carl’s blood type, not Kabuo’s. However, no bone or hair of him that was now gone. He talks with Hatsue and her was found with the blood (as might be expected if the parents about the coast guard reports. stick had been used to strike Carl’s head). Ishmael and Hatsue take the information to the sheriff. Also at the trial, Sergeant Victor Maples says he They find further evidence on the boat to back up the remembered Kabuo for his expert stick fighting during theory that the wake of the other large ship hit Carl’s boat army training and felt he was willing to use violence and caused Carl to fall, hit his head and fall off the boat. against another. The charges against Kabuo are dropped. c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Snow Falling on Cedars - Teacher’s notes 2 of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 6 Teacher Support Programme Snow Falling on Cedars Background and themes Discussion activities In 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a naval base Before reading on the American island state of Hawaii.