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Native Americans of Puget Sound
"The Native Americans of Puget Sound have been known as Puget Salish and Southern Coast Salish, and by various spellings of tribes and reservations such as Duwamish, Nisqually, Skagit, and Snoqualmie." The Lushootseed Peoples of Puget Sound Country. content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/thrush.html.
"Its members were murdered almost immediately upon setting foot on the beach by a party of Nootka slave raiders" (Guterson 1).
Guterson uses imagery to show what happened when trying to visit the island. -
European Settlers of Puget Sound
"Beginning in the 1850s, American settlers poured into Puget Sound country and put new pressures on Lushootseed communities" The Lushootseed Peoples of Puget Sound Country. content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/thrush.html.
"Settlers arrived – mostly wayward souls and eccentrics who had meandered off the Oregon Trail. [...] San Piedro Island generally lay clear of violence after that" (Guterson 1).
Guterson uses irony because later in the novel, the war happens and there is intense violence. -
Alien Land Laws
"Alien land laws were a series of legislative attempts to discourage Asian and other "non-desirable" immigrants from settling permanently in U.S. states and territories by limiting their ability to own land and property" Wikipedia
"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" (Guterson 7).
Guterson alludes to the situation of Japanese Americans during WWII caused by the Alien Land Law. -
Pearl Harbor
"surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II" https://www.britannica.com/event/Pearl-Harbor-attack
"‘It can’t be true,’ he said.
‘It’s true,’ he said.
‘It’s true,’ she said. ‘Find a radio. Just this morning. They bombed Hawaii.’" (Guterson 13)
Guterson uses the characters' dialogue to show their shock at the situation to bring out emotions in the reader. -
Military recruitment and propaganda during World War II
"propaganda was used to increase support for the war and commitment to an Allied victory" (Wikipedia).
"'It was all propaganda,' added Ishmael. 'They wanted us to be able to kill them with no remorse, to make them less than people. None of it is fair or true, but at the same time I find myself thinking about it whenever I look at Miyamoto sitting there staring straight ahead'" (Ch 24).
Guterson uses metaphor and imagery to show how Ishmael knows there is propaganda, yet it still bothers him. -
Japanese American internment
"the forced relocation by the U.S. government of thousands of Japanese Americans to detention camps during World War II" (Britannica)
"They were loaded onto a ship while their white neighbors looked on, people who had risen early to stand in the cold and watch this exorcising of the Japanese from their midst" (Guterson 7).
Guterson uses imagery and the word exorcism to make us feel the emotions of the characters and for us to understand the situation. -
Battle of Tarawa
"The Battle for Tarawa was part of a larger U.S. invasion [...] to capture Japanese-held territory within the Gilbert Islands" (Defense.gov).
"On Tarawa he had seen the bodies of men who had died facedown in shallow water. The warm tides had washed over them for days, and the skin had loosened from their limbs. He remembered one soldier in particular from
whose hands the skin had peeled like fine transparent gloves" (Ch 5).
Guterson uses imagery and metaphor to describe the Battle of Tarawa. -
Dear John Letter
"A Dear John letter is a letter written to a man by his wife or romantic partner to inform him that their relationship is over, usually because she has found another lover" (Wikipedia)
"Dear Ishmael,[...] I don’t love you, Ishmael. I can think of no more honest way to say it. From the very beginning, when we were little children, it seemed to me something was wrong" (Ch 24).
Guterson gives us Hatsue's Dear John letter to Ishmael, maybe alluding to the many soldiers who received these letters. -
Battle of Okinawa
"The Battle of Okinawa [...] was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest" (History.com).
"That's right, said Horace, you'd better believe it. Carl Heine was dead. Terrible thing, wasn't it? The man had survived Okinawa. Carl Heine, it was unbelievable. He'd hit his head on something" (Ch 4).
Guterson uses irony for Carl Heine's death since he survived such a bloody war, yet was killed by hitting his head on something on his boat.
Image (Britannica) -
Pearl Harbor Memorial
"The USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor" (Wikipedia). Image
"He is counting on you to act on passions best left to a war of ten years ago. He is counting on you to remember this war and to see Kabuo Miyamoto as somehow connected with it" (Ch 29).
Guterson uses this quote to tell us that when we remember Pearl Harbor, we don't use it as prejudice.