How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"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. Whenever we were together I knew it. I felt it inside of me. I loved you and I didn't love you at the very same moment, and I felt troubled and confused." (24.70)
In her letter to Ishmael from Manzanar, Hatsue breaks the bad news that she not only doesn't love him now, but also that she may never have loved him (yikes). Naturally, Ishmael is devastated by the revelation.
Quote #8
What was it Nels Gudmundsson had said in closing? "The counsel for the state has proceeded on the assumption that you will be open, ladies and gentlemen, to an argument based on prejudice [...] He is counting on you to act on passions best left to a war ten years ago." But ten years was not really such a long time at all, and how was he to leave his passion behind when it went on living its own independent life, as tangible as the phantom limb he'd refused for so long to have denervated? (30.6)
In an interesting mirror of his fellow islanders' inability to let the past go, Ishmael claims he hasn't had enough time to "leave his passion" for Hatsue behind. For both Ishmael and the islanders, the inability to move on is harmful and even dangerous. Because of their prejudices, Kabuo's jury is unable to view evidence in the trial fairly (which means Kabuo could easily get executed for a crime he didn't commit). Meanwhile, Ishmael is totally stunted and paralyzed by his inability to let go of his love for Hatsue. The fact that Ishmael turns Gudmundsson's closing statements—with their desperate plea for Kabuo's life—into yet another opportunity to mope about his love life is strikingly sad (and, to less sympathetic eyes, pretty pathetic and self-involved).
Quote #9
He read her letter another time and understood that she had once admired him, there was something in him she was grateful for even if she could not love him. That was a part of himself he'd lost over the years, that was the part that was gone. (31.20)
This is the moment in which Ishmael finally comes to terms with the fact that Hatsue is gone from his life (in a romantic sense) forever. Since he follows up these reflections by bringing the evidence exonerating Kabuo to Hatsue, perhaps Ishmael is going to stop living in the past and start working on getting that missing part of himself back.