52 pages • 1 hour read
David GutersonSnow Falling on Cedars
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This guide references violence, combat, and anti-Japanese racial prejudices.
Kabuo Miyamoto—the defendant in the murder trial of Carl Heine—watches the snow fall outside the courtroom. He has been in custody for 77 days; it is now December. Several reporters from surrounding towns are present, including local reporter Ishmael Chambers. Ishmael knows both Kabuo and his wife, Hatsue. He tried to speak with Hatsue earlier, but she refused.
Chapter 2 Summary
County Sherrif Art Moran testifies as to the circumstances of Heine’s death. Moran had been notified by deputy Abel Martinson that Heine’s fishing boat was floating along shore. Moran and Martinson searched the boat, finding no sign of Heine. The boat’s lights were on despite it being after nine o’clock, and the engine was working. They checked pulled up the gill net and found Carl Heine’s body caught in the net. Moran and Martinson raised him out of the water, discovering a gash on his head.
Chapter 3 Summary
Defense attorney Nels Gudmundsson cross-examines Art Moran. He asks about the boat’s lights, which Moran confirms were on when he arrived. Moran states that there was fog the night before, but it was not quite as thick at five o’clock when he awoke. Moran admits that it is odd that the boat’s engine started despite the lights drawing power from the battery. The boat inventory listed three batteries: a dead one, a working one, and a working one that did not fit the boat without some reworking. When the defendant’s boat was inventoried, no spare battery was found. Gudmundsson inquires about the raising of Heine’s body out of the water, which Moran acknowledges was difficult, both because of the placement of Heine’s legs and the weight of his body. Gudmundsson suggests it is possible that this is when the injury to Heine’s head occurred.
Chapter 4 Summary
A recess is called, and Ishmael recalls learning of Heine’s death. They had known one another in high school before going to war. There, Ishmael lost his left arm. Upon returning home, he began writing for the weekly San Piedro Review—established by his father, Arthur.
Ishmael had sought Moran after learning of Heine’s death, finding him on the docks with the local fishermen. Moran was in the process of questioning them, attempting to discern Heine’s location throughout the pre-dawn hours. A fisherman named Dale Middleton admits to following Heine, hoping to discover where he was netting his salmon. Heine was also seen near Ship Channel bank, but no one saw him after eight o’clock that morning.
Moran and Ishmael leave the others to talk in private. Off the record, Moran reveals that Heine’s death will be investigated but asks Ishmael not to reveal this in the paper.
Chapter 5 Summary
The coroner, Horace Whaley, is the next to testify. Like Heine, he served in Okinawa. Whaley examined Heine’s body, noting that it was nearly frozen due to the time spent in the water. This is the fourth drowning Whaley has attended in five years. He tries not to think of the body as “Carl,” but as “the deceased.” Only a few days earlier, Heine had brought his young son in for sutures. Whaley recalls pressing on Heine’s chest and a foam emitting from his mouth—evidence that he was alive when he entered the water. Whaley debates opening the chest cavity to examine the lungs when he spots the gash on Heine’s head. The wound reminds Whaley of the kind he saw in combat, made by Japanese soldiers who were trained in kendo—a technique of killing with a stick. Whaley shows the wound to Moran and Martinson, explaining that he cannot be certain when the laceration occurred.
Chapter 6 Summary
On cross-examination of Whaley, Gudmundsson asks him to clarify the process that produced the foam in Heine’s lungs. Gudmundsson stresses that this, coupled with the autopsy report, indicates that Heine’s cause of death was drowning. They discuss a cut on Heine’s hand also noted in the report; Whaley says this cut would have had to have been made within four hours of Heine’s death. Gudmundsson asks about the wound on Heine’s head, and Whaley admits it would be possible for Heine to have received it by hitting his head against the boat gunnel. He admits, too, that he cannot determine medically whether this took place postmortem.
Listening to the testimony, Moran recalls visiting Heine’s wife, Susan Marie, to inform her of his death. He debated what to say as he drove, deciding he would deliver the news outside. He was greeted by three of the children and found Susan Marie inside. She did not believe the news at first, but she later admits she had known “this would happen one day” (56).
Chapter 7 Summary
Twenty-four locals of Japanese descent attend the trial. Records indicate that more than 300 Japanese arrived on the island by the turn of the century. Unable to own land, they took mill jobs, and then worked in the strawberry fields. On March 29, 1942, all 843 Japanese residents were removed from the island to be interred.
Kabuo’s wife, Hatsue, receives permission to speak with him during the trial’s morning recess. Hatsue is the daughter of immigrants—initially based in Seattle, her father moved to the island to pick strawberries before marrying Hatsue’s mother in an arranged marriage. Hatsue has four younger sisters; they all worked alongside their parents in the strawberry fields. In adolescence, Hatsue was educated in the customs of Japanese women by Mrs. Shigemura. Though she was kissed by Ishmael Chambers as an adolescent, she never tells her husband this. She and Kabuo marry in the concentration camp, hoping to continue working on strawberry farms after the war. Just a week after they are married, Kabuo leaves for war.
Chapter 8 Summary
Across the courtroom, Ishmael watches Hatsue. He recalls gathering geoduck clams with her at age 14, aware that Hatsue was maturing physically. Though they spent much time together, Ishmael always felt unsure of how to talk to her. Hatsue is Japanese, so they did not associate with one another at school. One day, while hunting for geoducks, he kissed her. Hatsue ran off afterward, but Ishmael was certain his feelings were reciprocated.
Over the next 10 days following the kiss, Ishmael performed odd jobs around town. One night, he lingered at the edge of the strawberry field that Hatsue’s family farmed. He laid down in the dark and soon caught sight of Hatsue taking in the family laundry. Ishmael returned each night for the next five nights, watching Hatsue.
Days passed, and strawberry season began. Early in the morning, Ishmael and Hatsue arrived at the Nitta farm to pick alongside many of their peers. Ishmael set to work three rows away from Hatsue, watching her as they both worked.
At the end of the day, it began to rain. Ishmael followed Hatsue from a distance as she walked home. Along the way, however, she ducked inside a cedar tree where the two used to congregate. Having spotted Ishmael, she beckoned him to join her. Ishmael apologized for following her and for the kiss weeks earlier. Hatsue said she was not sorry the kiss occurred, and Ishmael admitted the same. They discussed how Hatsue’s family would disapprove of their being alone together before kissing once again.
Chapter 9 Summary
In the present, the recess ends, and the trial resumes as Heine’s mother, Etta, takes the stand. Born in Bavaria, she came to the island by way of North Dakota and, never truly caring for the strawberry farming life, sold her husband’s farm when he passed away of a heart attack in 1944. On the stand, she answers questions about her finances and acknowledges she knows the defendant, whose family worked on the Heine’s strawberry farm. In 1934, despite Etta’s objection, her husband, Carl senior, sold seven acres of his strawberry farm to Zenhichi Miyamoto—Kabuo’s father. There is some discussion on the part of the prosecutor about the legalities of the exchange, since, at that time, it was illegal for Japanese people to own land. The judge, however, dismisses this issue as irrelevant to the murder charge before them. Etta explains that, had the debt been paid in full, Zenhichi’s children would own the seven acres outright. However, the final two payments were missed when the family was interred during the war.
Etta remembers when the Miyamoto family received notice that they must leave for the camps. Zenhichi had tried to pay her husband part of the remaining amount owed, but Heine refused. Etta is certain that the land ownership is the motive for Kabuo to have murdered her son.
Chapters 1-9 Analysis
The opening section immediately introduces the central conflict and defining plot event—the death of Carl Heine—which launches the theme of Justice and Truth Seeking at the onset of the novel. While the book dips into the past to add richness to the present, the most essential plot element is the slow uncovering of the truth and restoration of justice in the present following years of racism and discrimination toward Japanese Americans. Carl Heine was discovered caught in his fishing net, and there is reason to believe his death is accidental. The early chapters, however, provide evidence that points to a possible murder. Much of this evidence is situated in motive rather than hard evidence: Kabuo Miyamoto spoke to Carl Heine about the land purchase on the night of the murder, and because of Kabuo’s connection to that land, there is a tense air of suspicion. Moreover, the setting of the novel is important in several respects, as it enhances a sense of tension and slow, gut-wrenching waiting. Amity Harbor is a small, isolated island. As such, the townspeople know one another very well—few residents are strangers, and locals know not only their fellow residents but one another’s parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. In this way, it is difficult for many of the residents to view Carl Heine’s death in an objective manner. This is evidenced by coroner Horace Whaley’s difficulty in proceeding with the autopsy without regarding the body before him as “Carl”—a man whose son, Whaley, he treated just a day earlier. It becomes apparent, too, that the close-knit nature of the town is not entirely utopian: Several fishermen admit to being rivals of Heine, as the stakes of bringing in as many fish as possible are high for financial stability. While this alone signals to possible motives for Carl’s murder, the added element of a family slight and land that was mostly paid off before being taken away casts Kabuo as a likely murderer in the eyes of the townspeople.
The courtroom itself serves as the nerve center for the town as the trial begins: It is filled with numerous locals as well as reporters from several towns on the mainland. This suggests a fascination among outsiders with this insular community. The atmosphere of the courtroom is uncomfortable and stifling due to the heat, furthering a tone of tension. Outside, snow falls, immediately referencing the novel’s title. The snow and the pristine beauty of the cedar trees outside serve to contrast the oppressive, dull prison Kabuo finds himself in, while also emphasizing the sense of freezing time when locked in a trial. Indeed, the falling snow speaks to the stillness of winter and lack of movement during this season, and Kabuo himself is unable to move freely during the trial.
The structure of the novel alternates between the present trial and the flashback scenes presented from several points of view. These flashback scenes function in a logical sense, as they allow readers to understand how Carl Heine’s death may have occurred, but they also provide the inner thoughts of key characters and the dynamics between these characters. Ishmael Chambers initially appears to be in attendance solely due to his role as the local press. However, it is quickly revealed that he had an intimate adolescent relationship with the defendant’s wife. This complicates his character, as it is difficult to regard Ishmael as an objective reporter who is merely concerned with facts. While Ishmael’s feelings toward Hatsue Miyamoto are not entirely discernable, it is apparent that his attention is on her and their past. That she refuses to speak with him conveys an additional layer of tension and foreshadows a more significant shared past than that which has already been revealed.
Kabuo Miyamoto’s heritage as a Japanese American is greatly significant to the novel and presents the theme of Racism and Enemies in this small, isolated island community. As the events of the novel unfold in 1954, World War II is still fresh in the minds of residents of San Piedro Island. The opening section hints at a supportive community among the Japanese residents, as those community members are in attendance at the trial. A significant number of Japanese people reside on the island, contributing to its economy by farming its strawberry fields and, in the case of Kabuo, participating in the fishing industry. Flashbacks of Ishmael’s childhood friendship with Hatsue, however, hint at the racism that mounts as World War II unfolds, and the trial itself demonstrates the legacies of war and echoes of racism even a decade later in a tight-knit community. In Ishmael’s flashback, Hatsue was certain that their relationship would be discouraged, as her family believed in the importance of her dating someone with shared heritage. However, the outward racism shown toward the Japanese Americans by Carl Heine’s mother, Etta, is most notable, as she is of a slightly older generation and was an adult at the time of World War II. Though the flashbacks indicate that her husband held no prejudices against the Miyamoto family, Etta disapproves of their owning the seven acres. While her husband insists on allowing Miyamoto some financial leeway in the final two payments on the acreage, Etta stands in conflict with this decision, fully capturing the theme of Racism and Enemies, as her clinging to the letter of the law offers a way for her to justify her ill feelings for the Miyamoto family while processing the death of her son. Her certainty that Kabuo is to blame for Carl’s death further reveals her subjectivity and bias while demonstrating the dangers of lingering racism and animosity following the war.
