Summary: Chapter 11
He would have to . . . accept that the
mountain of his violent sins was too large to climb in this lifetime.
See Important Quotations Explained
Kabuo is in his cell during the court recess, staring
at the lunch he has not touched. He looks at his reflection in a
hand mirror, realizing that he looks cold and hateful. He thinks
about all he has missed since he was put in jail: autumn’s changing
leaves, the squash harvest, and the fall rains. He remembers taking
his family to a nearby island for a day of picnicking in August.
His mind wanders further into the past, remembering Hatsue as a
teenager, picking strawberries on a San Piedro farm.
Kabuo also remembers his argument with Hatsue about his
decision to volunteer for the army. Kabuo felt he had to prove something,
whereas Hatsue feared he would die or return as a war-hardened monster.
Kabuo also recalls his childhood, when at age eight his father began
training him in kendo. By the time Kabuo was sixteen, no one on
the island could defeat him in kendo. While the older Japanese men
still regarded his father as the superior martial artist, they all
sensed a warrior’s dark ferocity in Kabuo. In light of his war murders,
Kabuo now agrees with them. He concludes that the trial is simply
one more bit of suffering that he must undergo to pay for the lives
he took while fighting for America in World War II.
Summary: Chapter 12
When they looked out into the whiteness
of the world the wind flung it sharply at their narrowed eyes and foreshortened
their view of everything.
See Important Quotations Explained
As the snowstorm grows in ferocity and envelops the island,
Ishmael remembers the hollow cedar tree where he and Hatsue often
met. In public and at school, they pretended to be only casual acquaintances.
Hatsue’s emotional reserve often upset Ishmael, but she always justified
it by claiming that her parents had trained her to avoid emotional
displays. Though she cared about Ishmael, Hatsue was deeply bothered
that her relationship with him required her to deceive her parents
constantly.
In the fall of 1941, Ishmael and
Hatsue began to worry about the war. They were seniors in high school
and Hatsue was named the strawberry princess in that year’s festival.
Though life seemed full, Hatsue and Ishmael were afraid of the future
and the changes the war might bring in their lives. From inside
the cedar tree, however, the war and its concerns still seemed far
away.
Summary: Chapter 13
The narrative flashes back to December 1941.
The Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor. The Imadas and the rest
of the Japanese community in San Piedro anxiously crouch around
their radios to hear the news. Arthur Chambers publishes a special
war edition of the San Piedro Review, including
information about San Piedro’s air-raid safety measures along with
an article reporting that San Piedro’s Japanese residents have pledged
their loyalty to the United States. Arthur points out that while
some Japanese Americans’ bank accounts have been frozen, no one
has even thought to treat the islanders of German descent as possible
traitors.
Arthur’s supportive stance toward the Japanese-American
community earns him threats and angry letters from customers canceling
their subscriptions but also letters of support from other people who
condemn racism. Arthur publishes all the letters, whether they are
supportive or reproachful. Ishmael objects to his father’s statements
of support for the Japanese, saying the paper should publish only
facts, not opinions. Arthur responds, “But which facts? Which facts
do we print, Ishmael?”
