Snow Falling on Cedars: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

It’s Alvin Hooks’s turn to cross-examine Hatsue. He finds Hatsue’s “story” about Kabuo’s excitement towards the news that Carl had decided to sell him the seven acres “terribly interesting.” Hooks tries to paint Kabuo’s emotional state that morning as “agitated” but Hatsue insists that Kabuo was “excited, […] not agitated.”

Hooks asks Hatsue to reaffirm that the “story” she told to Nels was true, which she does. Hooks then asks Hatsue whether the couple had called any friends or family to share the exciting news of the returned land. Hatsue says they didn’t, because it seemed in poor taste to tell people so soon after they’d learned of Carl’s death; what’s more, the accident changed things. She explains that their circumstances were no longer so certain.

Hooks twists Hatsue’s words, suggesting that Carl’s death had been what prevented the couple from sharing the news. Hatsue asserts that it wasn’t the death that had prevented them from sharing their news, but, rather, the fact that things were still somewhat up in the air. Hooks continues to twist Hatsue’s words, saying: “Worse than up in the air […]. On top of your husband’s real estate deal going sour, a man, we might note, had died.”

Hooks asks Hatsue why the couple hadn’t gone to the police when they learned of Carl’s death—did they think it might be useful for authorities to know about Carl’s battery dying, and about Kabuo helping him? Hatsue says they’d considered coming forward, but ultimately decided not to, because the coincidence of Carl dying immediately after Kabuo had been aboard Carl’s ship “looked very bad.” Hooks twists these words, too. What did the Miyamotos have to be afraid of, he reasons, if Kabuo had truly done nothing wrong? Hatsue stands her ground: “Silence seemed better.” Hooks maintains it was “deceitful” of them to withhold information.

Hooks continues to tell Hatsue that withholding information has made the Miyamotos appear suspect. She argues that there wasn’t time to come forward before Sheriff Moran arrested Kabuo. Hooks continues to act flabbergasted at the Miyamotos’ actions in an effort to get Hatsue to appear angry—and it works. “Wait a minute,” she tries to interject, upset. But Judge Fielding gives her a stern look, urging her to keep her emotions in check. Hatsue looks at her husband. He nods at her, and she immediately composes herself once more.

Gudmundsson’s next witness is Josiah Gillanders, president of the San Piedro Gill-Netters Association. Gillanders has been president of the association for 11 years, and has been fishing for 30. Nels asks Gillanders if he’d ever tied his boat to and boarded another fisherman’s boat. Gillanders explains that it would be very rare for this to happen—he’s only experienced it about half a dozen times over the past few decades. Nels asks Gillanders what had precipitated these few rare occasions in which a man tied up to another man’s boat. Gillanders says that in an emergency, no gill-netter would hesitate to help out another man. Nels asks Gillanders if he’d ever board a man’s boat for a reason other than an emergency. Gillanders replies with a resounding no, never—it’s an “unwritten rule of the sea” for fishermen to keep to themselves.

Nels explores another area. He asks Gillanders if it’s difficult to tie up to another man’s boat on the open sea. Gillanders says that it can be difficult to tie up at sea, yes. Nels then asks if it would be possible to board another man’s ship, at sea, against his will—as a manner of attack. Gillanders says he’s “never heard of it.” It would be difficult to board another man’s ship on open water without his consent. Josiah insists that this would an unfeasible—if not impossible—method of attacking or killing another man. Carl’s large size, in particular, would make this method of attack extremely unlikely.

Nels shifts focus to Carl’s battery troubles. Gillanders says it would be unlikely for a gill-netter to carry a spare battery on their boat. Nels says that there were a D-6 and a D-8 battery on Carl’s boat at the time of his death, as well as a spare D-8 on the floor of the boat by his cabin. Gillanders says this spare battery is strange—especially because it was dead. Typically, a boat runs off two batteries; when one battery dies, the gill-netter can use the second one as back up until they can get back onshore to replace the dead one.

Gillanders thinks that Hatsue’s story—that Carl’s batteries had died, and that Kabuo had given him his spare—must be true. If Carl’s batteries were both dead, he wouldn’t even have access to a radio on which to call for help. He’d have to rely on the odd chance that someone happened by his boat in time to help him.

Gillanders adds that the dangerous location of Carl’s boat—in the middle of the Ship Channel Bank—would have made it especially critical that Carl seek out whatever help he could get: “big freighters” barrel through the channel regularly, and Carl’s boat could easily have been destroyed. Gillanders thinks it’s most likely that Carl would have blown his boat’s horn in an attempt to capture the attention of a nearby boat; a horn, after all, would require no battery. Finally, Nels expresses how unlikely it would be for Kabuo to be able to premeditate running into Carl, in such a compromised position, under such compromised, foggy weather conditions; in other words, so many odd circumstances would have to line up exactly in order for Kabuo’s supposed plan to murder Carl to be executed successfully. Gillanders agrees wholeheartedly with this speculation.

It’s Alvin Hooks’s turn to cross-examine Gillanders. He plays off of the “hypothetical” situation Nels had proposed for Gillanders and that Gillanders had accepted as possible (that Kabuo had successfully boarded Carl’s ship on the open sea and loaned him a battery) by posing a different hypothetical scenario.

“Hooks tells Gillanders to consider another possibility: that Kabuo wants to murder Carl; that Kabuo follows Carl out to sea, so as to know where Carl’s boat is, despite the thick fog; that Kabuo then shuts off his boat’s power, pretending that his own batteries have died; that he then signals to Carl for help. Because Gillanders had previously asserted that a gill-netter will always help another gill-netter in an emergency—even if there was bad blood between them—Carl would have had no choice but to board Kabuo’s boat to help him with his supposedly dead batteries. Once Carl was onboard Kabuo’s ship, Hooks hypothesizes, Kabuo would have been able to murder Carl.

Gillanders admits that this scenario “could have happened,” though he doesn’t think it did. Hooks says that what Gillanders “thinks” doesn’t matter. What matters is that Gillanders has admitted that such a hypothetical situation is entirely within the realm of possibility—or, it’s at least as possible as the hypothetical situation Nels had entertained in his own examination of Gillanders.