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Major groups or tribes of local Native Americans include the Suquamish, Duwamish, Nisqually, Snoqualmie, and Muckleshoot tribes. All tribes originally spoke a dialect of the Puget Sound Salish language. In the mid-1800s large numbers of them were killed by diseases brought by Europeans. (photo: historylink.org) “Don’t treat the Indians like dirt, neither, Carl said.” (Guterson 120)
Guterson uses dialogue to show that Indians are just as human as other people. -
Puget Sound, named by Cpt. Vancouver in 1792, was settled by Europeans in 1873 when the Washington Territory was created. Many Europeans came to Washington for fishing and fur trade. (u-s-history.com) “Carl came from old-time island stock; his grandfather, Bavarian born, had established thirty acres of strawberry fields on prime growing land in Center Valley.” (Guterson 14) Guterson is setting up German immigrants as those who had been on the island the longest. photo: olympiawa.gov
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On May 3, 1913, California enacted the Alien Land Law, barring Asian immigrants from owning land. This type of law was found in many states. In 1923 the US Supreme Court upheld all alien land laws. ( photo: calendar.eji.org) “Let it be known that this court is not concerned with any perpetrators of violations against our state’s now -- blessedly so -- defunct Alien Land Law.” (Guterson 123) Guterson makes the reader realize that these laws were unfair by the judge’s dialogue.
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The Japanese air force attacked the US Pacific Fleet that was in Pearl Harbor, destroying most of it. This attack brought the US into WWII. (photo: britannica.com) “ The Japanese air force has bombed everything. It is bad for us, terribly bad. There is nothing else on the radio. Everything is Pearl Harbor.” (Guterson 177) Guterson uses dialogue to show how the bombing of Pearl Harbor was what all of America focused on.
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The US Military made the Japanese seem dangerous and inhuman so that it would be easier for soldiers to fight against them. (photo: pbs.org) “It was all propaganda, added Ishmael. They wanted us to be able to kill them with no remorse, to make them less than people.” (Guterson 345) As the character Ishmael explains to his mother what he was taught to believe, the dialogue shows that he knew better than to believe it.
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After the bombing of Pearl Harbor the US Government forced Japanese Americans to move to away from the coasts and into internment camps so that they would not help the Japanese in the war. (history.com) “That was jail too, said Hatsue. There were good things, but that was jail” (Guterson 87) Guterson uses the metaphor of jail to show how the Manzanar Internment Camp punished the Japanese Americans for nothing. photo: Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection
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A Dear John letter was one where an enlisted man’s sweetheart broke up with him through the mail. “I don’t love you, Ishmael. I can think of no more honest way to say it.” (Guterson 353) Guterson uses dialogue to show how hurtful the Dear John letters were to the men getting them.
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Beginning of the Central Pacific Campaign. It was the start of atoll warfare. “Ishmael saw men go down, saw the machine-gun fire whipping the water’s surface, and lowered himself even farther. ... another man he didn’t know made a run for it and was shot dead in the surf.” (Guterson 245) Guterson uses imagery of the event to show how pointless running to the beach was. The soldiers who did got killed.
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Last major, and bloodiest, battle of WWII. Japan knew that it was necessary to keep Okinawa to protect Japan, while USA realized that they needed Okinawa if they were going win. “Carl Heine, a man who had endured the sinking of the Canton and who ... had survived Okinawa -- only to die in a gill-netting boat accident” (Guterson 47) Guterson uses irony to show that Heine, who had survived horrible battles, can’t survive a simple accident on the water. (photo: connectingvets.radio.com)
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1177 sailors and marines died on the USS Arizona during the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The memorial was created in 1962 above the wreckage of the USS Arizona. It is visited by about 1.8 million visitors per year. “ there was nothing but the radio. Two thousand men had been killed. The voices that spoke were cheerless and sober and suggested a barely suppressed urgency.” (Guterson 180) Guterson uses the tone of the radio announcers to show the seriousness of the event.
nps.gov
