Snow Falling on Cedars Theme of Death

Snow Falling on Cedars is kind of a murder mystery (or at least starts out that way), so you probably guessed that death was going to be a theme. Beyond the Carl Heine murder trial, the characters are totally preoccupied with death because they've still got World War II (in which many of them had fought) on the brain. Kabuo views Carl's death and his murder trial as somehow karmically linked to the deaths he caused as a soldier; in his view, he can now be punished for those earlier "murders."

War memories might have something to do with the way San Piedro's residents react to Carl Heine's death; they seem remarkably disinclined to just see it as a freak accident, instead scrambling to assign motive and meaning to it. Of course, prejudice has a lot to do with what goes down in the investigation and arrest of Kabuo Miyamoto, but it also seems like the war might have also just made them a bit more eager (or even desperate) to find meaning in death and randomness.

1. How do the characters' memories of World War II affect or contribute to the islanders' eagerness to see Carl's death as a murder, rather than an accident? Is it just prejudice, pure and simple, or is there something else going on here?
2. How have Ishmael's "beyond the pale" experiences with death shaped his worldview?
3. Kabuo has also been irrevocably changed by the war and feels like a murderer because he killed in combat. Do you think he's worked through some of these feelings of guilt by the end of the novel?

Compared to its treatment of Ishmael's thoughts and feelings about the war, the novel's characterization of Kabuo's feelings on that front is woefully lacking and superficial. Though we see Ishmael make progress in working through his demons and guilt, Kabuo's are raised only to be abandoned. This is one huge example of how the novel gives more nuance and depth to its non-Japanese characters.

The hollowness and lack of nuance in the novel's characterization of Kabuo directly mirrors the emptiness he feels inside in the wake of the war, which he is ultimately never able to shake.