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The first European settlement in the Puget Sound area in the west of present-day Washington State came in 1833 at the British Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Nisqually. (nps.gov) “Settlers arrived, mostly wayward souls and eccentrics who had meandered off the Oregon Trail” (Guterson 5). -
were also known as Puget Salish and southern Coast Salish. Their evolved complex cultural, social, and economic structures, which the invasion of non-Native settlers in the mid-1800s almost erased. “Settlers arrived--mostly wayward souls and eccentrics who had meandered off the Oregon Trail. Canadian Englishmen up in arms about the border--but San Piedro Island generally lay clear of violence after that." (5) Guterson describes the town and the non violent nature. -
Alien land laws are most often associated with western states' attempts to limit the presence and permanence of Japanese immigrants from 1913 through the end of World War II. The book states, “The law said they could not own land unless they became citizens; it also said they could not become citizens so long as they were Japanese” (76). Gutterson uses this dialogue to explains how the alien land law was unfair. -
The use of the Uncle Sam image by James Montgomery Flagg created a strong and appealing poster soliciting recruits for the army. (si.edu) “It was all propaganda,” added Ishmael. “They wanted us to be able to kill them with no remorse, to make them less than people. They could of used his face for one of their propaganda films” (Guterson 344-345) Guterson is using a metaphor as he is connecting the trial to the war, as both of these events are biased towards Japanese people. -
The surprise military raid by the Japanese Navy Air Service on the United States at the naval facility at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu was known as the Pearl Harbor attack (britannica.com). “A bomb raiding. The Japanese Air Force has bombed everything. It is bad for us, terribly bad. Everything is Pearl Harbor” (Guterson 177).Guterson uses emotion in this quote to show the true raw emotions of sadness and grief as Japan declared war on the United States. -
policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps” (History.com). “An army truck took Fujimori and her five daughters to the Amity Harbor ferry dock at seven o’clock on Monday morning, where a soldier gave them tags for their suitcase and coats” (216). Gutterson gives imagery in this quote to make it seem that you are in the shoes of the Japanese American feeling the struggle of going to the internment camp. -
One of the worst things to happen to so many young soldiers which is rarely spoken of were the 'Dear John' letters which girlfriends and wives sometimes sent in order to break off a relationship." (bbc.co.uk) "I don't love you, Ishmael..... When we met that last time in the cedar tree... I knew we could never be right together. (Guterson 442) Guterson uses dialogue in order to show Hatsue's true feelings about her relationship with Ishmael. -
In the Battle of Tarawa, during World War II the U.S. began its Central Pacific Campaign against Japan by seizing Betio in the Gilbert Islands. (history.com)“He became aware of two medical corpsmen kneeling beside the man next to him. The man had been hit in the head, it seemed and his brains were leaking out around his helmet” (Guterson 249-250).In this quote,Guterson used imagery to paint a picture in the readers mind of the blood and terror that happens on the battle field -
it had secured its place as the bloodiest clash in the Central and Western Pacific fronts... more than 98,000 Japanese people had been killed. The book says, "who, like Horace himself, had survived Okinawa-- only to die, it now appeared, in a gill-netting boat accident." (Guterson 46) Guterson shows irony to show how ironic it was that Carl survived a ocean battle like Okinawa, in order to die in a boating accident. -
The Pearl Harbor National Memorial was constructed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island in Hawaii. (nationalspark.org)“The counsel for the state has proceeded on the assumption that you will be open, ladies and gentlemen, to an argument based on prejudice. He is counting on you to act on passions best left to a war of ten years ago” (Guterson 424). In this quote, Guterson uses dialogue to show that the past should not control your present beliefs.