Word: piedro
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...quick note in a spiral pad. He peers down at the Japanese-American defendant and then gazes at the defendant's pretty young wife - his look carrying something more than ordinary interest. This man, Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke), is the sole reporter, photographer and editor of the San Piedro Island newspaper. And he has information in his trouser pocket that could set the defendant free...
...information in Ishmael's pocket: what is it, how does it prove the defendant's innocence, etc. But these questions are dispensed with well before the film's midpoint. Instead, the trial of Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) is used to introduce us to the world of San Piedro Island and the chain of misunderstanding that has led to the alleged murder...
Within this framework, director/screenwriter Scott Hicks (working from the prize-winning novel by David Guterson) creates a fascinating meditation on cultural misunderstanding. We watch as the Japanese and Caucasian children of San Piedro Island are taught the lessons demanded by their respective cultures--lessons which are well-intended, but which ensure that the schism between their peoples will endure. In the days immediately following Pearl Harbor, the island becomes a hotbed of racism. Local authorities haul the Japanese residents off to internment camps--an act which serves to justify the anti-white attitudes held by Hatsue's mother...