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Snow Falling On Cedars Book Report

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Many books showcase the effects of war and discrimination. One that I know of is Snow Falling on Cedars. In this novel, a Japanese man named Kabuo, is repeatedly discriminated against – whether it be in his personal life or in the courtroom. Even his childhood friend, Carl, begins to look badly at him because of his race after he is finished fighting in World War Two. WWII created discrimination against the Japanese with vandalism and nicknames, denied rights, and anti-Japanese organizations. The novel “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson takes place in the 1950’s, December 1954, to be exact on the island of San Piedro off the coast of Washington, USA (SparkNotes). The island is a fishing community where most people fish or farm for …show more content…

Civil rights movements were just beginning in 1954. The Brown v. Board of Education case was going on in 1954. The case sparked several protests against the different points of views (“Brown v. Board”). Some physical conflicts taking place near the time of this book are the Korean War and the Cold War. The Korean War began in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea and was resolved in 1953 when an armistice was signed and the 38th parallel was marked as the boundary between North and South Korea (“World Events”). The Cold War didn’t include any fighting, but there were constant threats being shoved between the United States and the Soviet Union. Eventually, the United States joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in 1949 and the Soviet Union created an alliance of communist governments called the Warsaw Pact that was formalized in 1955 (“The Cold War”).
David Guterson, the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, was born on the fourth of May in 1956. He was born in Seattle, Washington. David’s father, Murray Guterson, was a criminal defense lawyer and taught David to pick an occupation he would love. He decided to become a writer while attending the University of Washington. David Guterson later became an English teacher so he would have time to write and could be surrounded by books. After a decade of morning research and writing, Guterson released his first book, Snow Falling on Cedars, in 1995

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African Americans on the battle front are put into segregated divisions, whereas Native Americans dealt with compliment racism or unintentional racism. Chinese Americans were concerned with being accused of being Japanese, while the Japanese Americans tried to prove they were American too. Throughout his book, Takaki demonstrates the varying levels of racism experienced, and how hard work and perseverance helped these groups prove themselves to some degree. Takaki claims, all of these minorities groups, gained some form of freedom and equality either through the military or through job opportunities and improvements.

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In the case of Japanese Americans, they were able to receive some levels of equality among whites. In the article, “No Jap Crow’: Japanese Americans Encounter the World War II South”, author Jason Morgan Ward looks at how Japanese Americans were treated during the Second World War in the American South, and how they were allowed to be considered semi-white. In his thesis Ward said, “This episode revealed the increasing inability of southern white leaders to defend the segregated status quo, even as it exposed their segregated society to comparisons with fascism. At the same time, in trying to make Japanese Americans behave according to the Jim Crow script, white leaders foreshadowed the ways they would later react to the protests of the civil

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After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the United states went into World War II, many people think that the Japanese living near the West Coast aid Japan even though they have no evidence of them doing any wrong. If the person race is Japanese or if their face look Japanese they had to move to an internment camp. The nonfiction story “Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston had to face discrimination through her time at Japanese internment camp. Another nonfiction, memoir called “The Bracelet” by Yoshiko Uchida. The story explain that the narrator were having similar experience even though they both live in different area.

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In addition, it was not only their neighbors that Japanese-Americans received unjust treatment from. The government discriminated against them, too. With a war going on overseas and potentially spreading to the home front, the government used this “clear and present danger” as an excuse to pass some policies that would otherwise be viewed as blatantly racist. Chifley, Executive Order #9066 left the most impact.

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There were three main conflicts in the segregation days, the 1960’s. I will be getting into those topics. The first one is the Brown vs. Board of education, which was putting all races in one school. Another was that so many people started standing up in their beliefs, which was white people and colored people could be together. The last one was the Civil Rights Act that made it so all nationalities could use the same water fountain, restroom, theater, schools, and white and blacks could sit together on buses.

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The Cold War Era started in 1946 and lasted until 1989 when the Berlin war fell signifying its end. Many events happened through this time period that shaped American culture and brought us to where we are today. It all started in march 1947, which reflected the combativeness of president Harry Truman. Secretary George c Marshall told Europe that that policy of the United States was not directed “ against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.” in 1947 the brutish announced that they could no longer support the pro western governments of the Mediterranean in their fight against communism. If the US could not take up the burden the whole region was in danger of falling under communist roll.

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Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson highlights cultures and lifestyles in multiple ways. One culture that is heavily displayed in this novel is that of the Japanese culture. The Japanese culture is prominent on this island due to the heavy influx of immigrants from Japan at the time. Many families on the island are from this area, and most of them belong to the lower class. Families like the Miyamoto 's make their living off of farm work and odd jobs.

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While there was many problems occurring in WWII, there were also issues at home that were over looked. African Americans who helped fight in the war were still being treated poorly. Discrimination was still high. The African Americans were not getting the treatment they deserved. Along with the poor treatment of the African American, the treatment of Japanese Americans was even worse.

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Abstract Imagine not being able to walk outside at night or having to sell your possessions and abandon your home to spend years behind barbed wire—even though you’d done nothing wrong. For Japanese Americans during World War II, this scenario was reality. The freedom they once had is now gone, as they are put into concentration camps no longer in their home. Now having to line up for meals and to do laundry, thing you did before on a normal basis, while being hovered over. The internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. was the act of forcing those of Japanese decent to relocation and incarcerating them during World War II.

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David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard explains the devastating force of an intense blizzard, which caught several people unprepared, and it tells the tragic stories of these people. On January 12, 1888 a massive blizzard struck the center of North America, killing between 250 to 500 people and affecting thousands. There were many factors that made this blizzard exceptionally deadly. Many farmers and children who were outside were unprepared to deal with any cold conditions, “a day when children had raced to school with no coats or gloves and farmers were far from home doing chores they had put off during the long siege of cold” (Laskin 2).

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War is based on fear and threats. The Cold War and The Butter Battle Book have many similarities in people and events and should be exposed to children through children literature books. The Cold War was a period of economic, political, and military tension between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991. The Berlin Wall was a major key point in the Cold War.

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World War II was fought due to the persecution and execution of multiple minorities such as Jewish people. gypsies, the disabled, and homosexuals. However, the irony of this event is that while America was fighting for the rights of others overseas, there was an immense amount of discrimination happening right here in the United States. African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and other underrepresented minorities were all put at a large disadvantage in terms of economic and social opportunity. While the United States army needed more soldiers to fight in the war, African Americans who were fighting for their country in the military faced immense discrimination from Caucasian soldiers.

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Works Cited Hata, Donald Teruo, and Nadine Ishitani Hata. Japanese Americans and World War II: Mass Removal, Imprisonment, and Redress. Wheeling: Harland Davidson, 2011. Print.

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As a result, all Japanese were discriminated in the U.S.A. as biased perceptions were already set in their minds. They were judging the Japanese as the whole, just because the attack of a small part of the

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Even before the Pearl Harbor bombing the Japanese were not without discrimination, rather it just fueled the fire and increased the amount of Anti-Japanese groups. After the Pearl Harbor bombing the Executive Order 9066 was passed, causing the Japanese to be removed from their houses and placed in internment camps. The Executive Order 9066 uprooted Japanese from their studies and profession. Executive Order 9066 forced them to stop everything in their life as if what they thought did not matter as citizens of the United States and it “was one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history”(“Japanese- American Relocation”) .The Japanese were told that they were being moved for their own safety and protection(Uchida 52), which was not true.

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