Japanese American History and the Movie Snow Falling on Cedars :: Film Snow Falling Cedars Essays

Japanese American History and the Movie Snow Falling on Cedars The author of Snow Falling on Cedars did a good job with his research into the first to middle half of the 20th century experiences of Japanese immigrants. Unfortunately, like most movies based on extensive books, I believe this movie may underachieve in representing the author’s intentions. This movie seems almost as an outline to what it should be. The major problem area is with portraying the emotions between characters. For example, the bond between Ishmael Chambers and Hatsue Miyamoto seems significant at first, but does not seem to be as painstakingly hard to break as they try to represent towards the end. Also, hints of prejudice are revealed in various places through out the movie, but they fail to represent the attitudes that were more prevalent during the era. The first trace of good research for the movie is realized with the fact that it takes place on a fictional island near Puget Sound, Washington. This is an acceptable setting because Japanese immigration into the U.S. was focused mainly on the West Coast. Also, depicting the Japanese as grape farmers represents the fact that most of the immigrants moved to rural areas and 40% of them were farmers by 1940 (213).* Japanese immigration rose in 1882 after the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was in part to fill the gaps in the labor supply. These Japanese in turn were discriminated against. Much of the American prejudice against the Japanese was carried over from feelings about the Chinese. The ideas were that the Japanese were racially inferior, cruel, crafty, and threatening (222). It is also apparent by social distance scales that extreme prejudice existed at the time against the Japanese. In 1946 they ranked at the very bottom of the list, even under the more traditionally stigmatized groups such as the Mexican Americans, African Americans, and other racially identifiable groups (38). The movie does a good job of representing the social distance between the Japanese and White Americans. It makes it apparent that there is not much interaction between the two segments of the adult population. This most likely stems from the fact that during the time most Japanese immigrants functioned in the rural economic enclaves based on agriculture. This limited secondary structural assimilation, and thus primary structural assimilation.