Individual judgments of Kabuo Miyamoto are profoundly affected by racial stereotypes in David Guterson's novel Snow Falling on Cedars. In the first place, Miyamoto was placed in an internment camp, along with other Japanese-Americans, on the basis of racism and nothing else. Miyamoto and the others were seen as dangerous enemies of the United States on the basis of their racial heritage, their skin color, their facial features, their names, and nothing else. There was absolutely no evidence that Miyamoto had committed any crime against the United States or posed any danger to the United States, but he was placed in an internment camp nevertheless.
While it is true that there is evidence which suggests his involvement in the murder of the other fisherman, Carl Heine, that evidence seems, to the reader, at least, if not the other characters, highly questionable. In any case, even if the evidence were to hold up before the inquiry of a trial, the book is full of examples, both in the trial and in the life of the town, of judgments of Miyamoto which are wholly or partly based in racial prejudice and stereotyping.
On the first page the reader finds racial stereotyping in the townspeoples' perceptions of Miyamoto. Some of the townspeople "would later say that his stillness suggested a disdain for the proceedings; others felt certain it veiled a fear of the verdict that was to come" (3). In fact, Miyamoto is, at least "with one segment of his consciousness," observing the snowfall which "struck him as infinitely beautiful" (5). The townspeople would be stunned to discover that the man whom they see as cold and/or frightened is at that moment, despite his predicament or because of it, deeply appreciative of the falling snow. He is neither a machine or an animal, as they see him, but a deeply moved human being who maintains his connection with nature and the beauty of the world.
Racial stereotyping is based on seeing the victim of ...