Until now, readers have experienced Kabuo only as the jurors and courtroom observers have seen him — silent and stoic. What readers know of Kabuo has been revealed from Hatsue's point of view. In Chapter 11, for the first time, events are told from Kabuo's point of view, but they're not the events surrounding Carl's death. Instead, Kabuo remembers the war.
The war — not this trial — is the defining event of Kabuo's life. He, like many other men at Manzanar, had a need to fight for the country that had turned its back on him. Kabuo saw enlisting in the military as a matter of honor. Kabuo views himself as a man who had "forever sacrificed his tranquility in order that they [inhabitants of San Piedro] might have theirs." Islanders don't view him that way, for most see his composure as a sign of defiance. This composure, however, is really Kabuo's cover for raging emotions — anger and guilt — that Kabuo keeps hidden inside.
Kabuo feels guilty because he killed four Germans during the war, with the first one haunting his memories. After the war, Kabuo returned to San Piedro as scarred as every other veteran. Serving in the military was the honorable thing to do, but nonetheless, Kabuo came home considering himself a murderer. He felt the need to atone for his actions and thus longed for punishment and suffering.
Sitting in the courtroom, Kabuo was trying to follow his father's teaching, "the greater the composure, the more revealed was one." Although he was trying to project this demeanor, the people in the courtroom saw something different. Islanders, especially the jurors, didn't trust composure. This misinterpretation of a person's behavior is another example of a cultural conflict.
