Kabuo’s trial, in a sense, is a continuation of the white community’s quarrel with its Asian neighbors.īut the Japanese-and particularly Kabuo and his wife, Hatsue-have their own grounds for resentment, stemming from years of bigotry that culminated during World War II, when thousands of Japanese Americans were interned in government relocation camps and Kabuo was effectively robbed of land that his father had worked and paid for.

And among San Piedro’s Anglos hostility against Japanese still runs high, even if, like Kabuo, those Japanese were born and raised on the island and fought for the United States during the war. To the local coroner, Heine’s injuries suggested that the sheriff look for “a Jap with a bloody gun butt”. The fact that the accused, Kabuo Miyamoto, is a first-generation Japanese American is not mere coincidence. Now one of those survivors-a gill-netter named Carl Heine-has drowned under mysterious circumstances and another fisherman is on trial for his murder. The time is 1954, nine years after the end of World War II, in which some of San Piedro’s young men lost their lives and many others were irreparably injured, physically as well as emotionally. The place is the fictional island of San Piedro off the coast of Washington, a community of “five thousand damp souls” who support themselves through salmon fishing and berry farming. We hope that they will aid class discussion and inspire independent reflection and writing about a novel that has been widely praised for its eloquent dramatization of themes of love, justice, racism, community, and conscience. The discussion topics, author biography, historical material, and bibliography that follow are meant to guide your students in their approach to David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars.

Novel snow falling on