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1845 European Settlers of Puget Sound
"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, but this is ironic as they would be at the front of war. -
1855 European Settlers of Puget Sound
“Main Street presented to the populace Peterson's Grocery, a post office, Fisk's Hardware Center, Larsen's Pharmacy, a dime-store-with-fountain owned by a woman in Seattle, a Puget Power office” (7). David Guterson in this quote explains how the settlers took the land of the Native Americans and used the land to build buildings on it. -
1913 Alien Land Law
“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. -
1941 Pearl Harbor
“It’s true,’ she said. ‘Find a radio. Just this morning. They bombed Hawaii” (177). Gutterson uses emotion in this quote to show that Japanese’s had declared war in the U.S. which will then affect the Japanese Americans living in the U.S. -
1941 Military Recruitment and Propaganda during World War 2
"It was all propaganda...They wanted us to be able to kill them with no remorse, to make them less than people...They could have used his face for one of their propaganda films."(Guterson 345). Conneting wartime bias to the trial bias shows how unfair the trial is. -
1942 Japanese American Internment
“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. -
1944 Dear John Letter
"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. -
1944 Battle of Tarawa
"On the other side was a boy with buckteeth who'd been shot
squarely in the thighs and groin the blood had soaked his khaki pants... every few seconds he groaned mechanically between forced, shallow breaths." (Guterson 250) Guterson used imagery to describe the gore and terror of the battles. -
1945 Battle of Okinawa
"who, like Horace himself, had survived Okinawa-- only to die, it now appeared, in a gill-netting boat accident." (Guterson 46) Guterson uses irony to show how ironic it was that Carl survived a ocean battle like Okinawa, in order to die in a boating accident. -
1962 Pearl Harbor Memorial
"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) Guterson uses dialogue to show that things in the past must be remembered, but shouldnt control your decisions that really matter.